Sunday clerihew: Benjamin Butler

Count your silverware and vote Republican, or else

Has anyone ever seen General Butler and Dennis Franz in the same room?

This week in historical and literary light verse, we meet Union major general, military governor of conquered New Orleans, Radical Republican congressman, and the subject of very specific rumors in the occupied South:

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Benjamin Butler,
in hock to the sutler,
repaid him in spoons
transferred in his pantaloons.

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In addition to the comical nickname alluded to here, Butler became known as “Beast Butler” for his military rule over occupied Louisiana. The most notorious incident in his occupation was his issuing of a general order giving his troops permission to treat any Southern woman who disrespected them as a prostitute, a move that even provoked an official protest from British PM Lord Palmerston. After the war he was among the most punitive of the Radical Republicans in Congress, was involved in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and helped draft the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.

You can learn more about Butler in this good short article from American Battlefield Trust or this more detailed one at 64 Parishes.

Thanks for reading!