Posted on 07/15/2003 6:06:12 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
Edited on 07/12/2004 4:05:14 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
He was, at the war's end, the senior lieutenant general in the Confederate Army, Lee's trusted friend and second-in-command of the Army of Northern Virginia --- yet it was not until 1998 that a statue was erected anywhere to honor James Longstreet. This slight can be traced to his membership in the Republican Party during Reconstruction, but even more damaging to his reputation was the image created by his postwar enemies: He became a villain in Southern eyes, a scapegoat for the Confederate defeat, and one of the South's most controversial figures.
(Excerpt) Read more at dynamic.washtimes.com ...
Let's look at Butler's "excellent job". Here is an excerpt from the Confederate proclamation branding Butler an outlaw for his actions in New Orleans:
And whereas the hostilities waged against this Confederacy by the forces of the United States under the command of said Benjamin F. Butler have borne no resemblance to such warfare as is alone permissible by the rules of international law or the usages of civilization, but have been characterized by repeated atrocities and outrages, among the large number of which the following may be cited as examples:Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and non-combatants, have been confined at hard labor, with balls and chains attached to their limbs, and are still so held, in dungeons and fortresses. Others have been subjected to a like degrading punishment for selling medicines to the sick soldiers of the Confederacy.
The soldiers of the United States have been invited and encouraged by general orders to insult and outrage the wives, the mothers, and the sisters of our citizens.
Helpless women have been torn from their homes and subjected to solitary confinement, some in fortresses and prisons and one especially on an island of barren sand under a tropical sun, have been fed with loathsome rations that had been condemned as unfit for soldiers, and have been exposed to the vilest insults.
Prisoners of war who surrendered to the naval forces of the United States on agreement that they should be released on parole have been seized and kept in close confinement.
Repeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering the inhabitants of the captured city by fines, levied and exacted under threat of imprisoning recusants at hard labor with ball and chain.
The entire population of the city of New Orleans have been forced to elect between starvation, by the confiscation of all their property, and taking an oath against conscience to bear allegiance to the invaders of their country.
Egress from the city has been refused to those whose fortitude withstood the test, even to lone and aged women and to helpless children; and after being ejected from their homes and robbed of their property they have been left to starve in the streets or subsist on charity.
The slaves have been driven from the plantations in the neighborhood of New Orleans till their owners would consent to share the crops with the commanding general, his brother, Andrew J. Butler, and other officers; and when such consent had been extorted the slaves have been restored to the plantations, and there compelled to work under the bayonets of guards of United States soldiers. Where this partnership was refused armed expeditions have been sent to the plantations to rob them of every thing that was susceptible of removal, and even slaves too aged or infirm for work have, in spite of their entreaties, been forced from the homes provided by the owners and driven to wander helpless on the highway.
By a recent general order (No. 91) the entire property in that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River has been sequestrated for confiscation, and officers have been assigned to duty, with orders to gather up and collect the personal property and turn over to the proper officers upon their receipts such of said property as may be required for the use of the United States Army; to collect together all the other personal property and bring the same to New Orleans and cause it to be sold at public auction to the highest bidders"-- an order which, if executed, condemns to punishment by starvation at least a quarter of a million of human beings of all ages, sexes, and conditions; and of which the execution, although forbidden to military officers by the orders of President Lincoln, is in accordance with the confiscation law of our enemies, which he has directed to be enforced through the agency of civil officials.
This doesn't even mention that Butler hanged a New Orleans civilian for taking down a Union flag before Federal troops controlled the city.
Butler, who later became a Radical Republican, was a one-man crime wave in New Orleans. Add to that Butler's use of troops in the North to prevent people from voting for Democrats. And Lincoln offered Butler the vice presidency? That says loads about Lincoln.
Of course, if Butler had been vice president, no one would have assassinated Lincoln.
Perhaps you trust personal accounts more than proclamations. Here is a long diary excerpt from a woman who lived in New Orleans during Butler's reign. Scroll to the back of it to find the New Orleans section. Diary from New Orleans
Now get back to the original Iraqi/Confederate comparison that you were so eager to defend. Lay it down.
Nonsense. Timothy Pickering was a close political ally of Hamilton, a leader of the Hamiltonian wing of the Federalist Party, and an avowed adherent to what we now know as Hamiltonian Federalism. There is nothing wrong with noting those simple facts.
Why else mention Hamilton in the context of something he detested?
Cause Timothy Pickering was a leading member of the Hamiltonian wing of the Federalist party. I'm sorry if you don't like that fact, but it is still a fact. So tough.
The issue is of relevance because I'm calling you on the carpet. You generously stepped in to support Partisan's claim and it must not go unchallenged.
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