Undated, cut signature. On lined paper in ink, 3” x 1.75. Featuring a bright bold, flamboyant “Benj. F. Butler”  tucked between “Very Respectfully Your” above, and “Maj. Gen Comdg.” below.

Ben Butler was easily the most colorful and controversial military/political figure of the Civil War and Reconstructions era. A chameleon on the make, Butler shifted from being a pre-war, pro-slavery Democrat to become a war-time ally of the Radical wing of the Republican party who afterward would vociferously join House Republicans in their push to impeach President Andrew Johnson. Shifting back to the Democratic party in the 1870s, by the early ‘80s he had become Greenbacks party convert, attempting to use his one term as Governor of Massachusetts to lever himself to the 1884 Democratic nomination, ignominiously losing to Grover Cleveland. On his military side...as the ranking Union volunteer Major General, Ben made waves and left a something of a stench where ever went. Especially in  New Orleans, where, in 1862 he illegally made a fortune in buying and selling confiscated Confederate cotton. Near the end of the war, after bungling Grant’s plans at Bermuda Hundred, he was dismissed from the army after botching the initial assault of Ft. Fisher. A character and a half was Ben Butler.

Here is a military autograph to place alongside his later civilian Massachusetts state seal signature, to round him out.  [jp][ph:L]

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