Bushwhackers

During the Civil War, the term bushwhacker was applied to Southerners or Confederate supporters who carried on guerrilla warfare. While the targets of bushwhackers were usually Union soldiers, property, and interests, the name also implied a tendency to plunder private citizens and property.

The violence that plagued Kansas and Missouri in the 1850s spilled over into the 1860s and gave rise to some of the most notorious bushwhackers. One example is William Clarke Quantrill, an Ohio native who led a band of bushwhackers into Kansas and sacked the town of Aubry in March 1862. A year and a half later the band raided and burned the city of Lawrence, killing about 150 civilians.

Quantrill attracted men such as Coleman and Robert Younger, Jesse and Frank James, Dave Poole, Arch Clements, “Bloody Bill” Anderson, and George Todd. Anderson and Todd later formed their own bushwhacker bands. Anderson led a bloody attack at Centralia, Missouri, in 1864 in which his guerrillas robbed a train, murdered a number of unarmed Union soldiers, and then scalped and mutilated Union militia casualties in an ensuing fight.

Some Confederate bushwhackers carried on more legitimate warfare, such as John Singleton Mosby, who led guerrilla operations in Union-held northern Virginia. He was commissioned a captain by the Confederate government and organized his small band of guerrillas into the 43rd Virginia Partisan Ranger Battalion. Mosby led many successful guerrilla attacks against Union railroads, supply and communication lines, and bridges. Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan carried on similar operations behind Union lines in Kentucky and Ohio.

Bushwhackers forced the Union to increase troop numbers in vulnerable rear areas and caused several minor logistical problems. In many areas their brutality and disregard for accepted methods of warfare led to bitterness that extended well beyond the end of the Civil War.

See also Bleeding Kansas.

Further reading: Michael Fellman, Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri during the American Civil

War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989); James A. Ramage, Gray Gho. st: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999).

—Richard J. Roder

Butler, Benjamin Franklin (1818-1893) Union general, politician

Lawyer, Democratic politician, and businessman, Union general Benjamin Butler was born in New Hampshire but lived most of his life in Massachusetts. Educated at Water-ville College in Maine, Butler joined the Massachusetts bar in 1840. Although he practiced criminal law, Butler’s real passion was politics, and in 1853 he won a seat in the Massachusetts State House. By 1859 he had worked his way up to the state senate as a Democrat. To support himself, Butler also operated a mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, producing wool cloth.

Although Butler was a Northerner, he hoped a moderate Southern president could avoid sectional strife. Disappointed when war erupted, he stoutly declared himself 100 percent behind the Union. Butler was appointed brigadier general in the Massachusetts Volunteers. For his service in helping to stop the Baltimore, Maryland, riots in the spring of 1861, he was promoted to major general. Overall, Butler was valued far more for his political skills than his military talents. In command and in battle, Butler proved to be one of the worst of the so-called political generals, those men whose high army appointments were owed entirely to their ability to marshal support and votes for the government.

Stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, Butler first came to the nation’s attention when he declared fleeing slaves “contraband of war.” This circumvented federal authority and antagonized slaveholders in both rebel states and border states like Maryland. Butler’s unpopularity with Southern civilians grew during his administration of Louisiana as military governor in 1862. During this time, Butler issued his infamous order that forced Confederate women to treat Union soldiers with respect or to suffer severe penalties.

Although Butler’s supporters considered his administration able, he was accused of corruption and even theft

By locals, who said that “Spoons” Butler had stolen silverware from the confiscated home in which he lived. Many generals were dismissed or demoted for displaying such breathtaking incompetence. Butler, however, was a wily and popular figure from an important state. Lincoln could not afford to offend him, especially since Butler switched his allegiance to the Republican Party in 1862.

Butler emerged as a champion of the use of African-American soldiers and, while in New Orleans, raised the Louisiana Native Guard, one of the first two black units to fight in the Union army. Removed from the Crescent City in early 1863, Butler was placed in charge of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. In 1864 he led the newly formed Army of the James in the campaign to take Richmond, where his battlefield fiascos led to his retirement, courtesy of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Butler resigned his commission on November 30, 1865.

During Reconstruction, Congressman Butler joined the Radical Republicans and worked for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. He also worked to guarantee the political rights and personal safety of African Americans, including lending his strong support to the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

Butler served as Massachusetts governor from 1882 until 1884. Always a champion of the working masses, he was nominated for president by the People’s Party on an antimonopoly platform. However, Butler’s personal and political tactics remained controversial, and he was widely despised for his documented corrupt practices. Nevertheless, in spite of his incompetence on the battlefield and his vain and arrogant demeanor, he was a devoted public servant. He helped to secure a number of important reforms, including many of the progressive race laws of Reconstruction. Benjamin Butler died on January 11, 1893, in Washington, D. C.

See also New Orleans, Battle of.

Further reading: Hans Trefousse, Ben Butler: The South Called Him Beast! (New York: Twayne, 1957); Richard S. West, Lincoln’s Scapegoat General: A Life of Benjamin F. Butler, 1818-1893 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965).