BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin, American lawyer and soldier: b. Deerfield, N. H., 5 Nov. 1818; d. Washington, D. C., 11 Jan. 1893. He was graduated at Waterville College (now Colby University); studied law,. was admitted to the bar in 1841, and beginning practice at Lowell, Mass., became distinguished as a crim inal lawyer and politician. He was a member of the State legislature in 1853, of the State senate in 1859-60, and a delegate to the Demo cratic National Convention of 1860, which met at Charleston and adjourned to Baltimore. He supported the nomination of John C. Brecken ridge, which rendered him so unpopular in the North that he was defeated for governor of Massachusetts in that year. Butler had risen to the rank of brigadier-general of militia; and at the outbreak of the Civil War, he marched with the 8th Massachusetts Regiment, and, after a check at Big Bethel, was appointed to the command of Baltimore and of eastern Virginia, with his headquarters at Fort Mon roe. In February 1862 he commanded the mil itary forces sent from Boston to Ship Island, near the mouth of the Mississippi; and, after New Orleans had surrendered to the naval forces under Farragut, he held military posses sion of the city. His administration was vigor ous and while mostly just was severely criti cized. Especial notoriety attached to his order directing that women who should publicly insult United States officers be regarded as women of the street. The order was bitterly resented in
the South and caused Jefferson Davis to order that Butler be considered a felon and if cap tured, that he be hanged. Relieved of his com mand, he acted under General Grant in his operations against Petersburg and Richmond in 1864. Returning to Massachusetts at the end of the war, he took an active part in politics as an extreme radical, advocated the impeachment of President Johnson, and in 1866-75 was a member of Congress. In 1877 and 1879 he was defeated as candidate for governor of Massachusetts, but in 1882 was elected by a large majority. In 1884 he ran for the Pres idency as the candidate of the Greenback and Anti-Monopolist parties, but was defeated, car rying no State. He published 'The Auto biography and Personal Reminiscences of Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler'. (1892). Consult Parton, 'Butler in New Orleans) (New York 1863) ; Bland,