Three-quarter standing view of Butler in dress uniform. He wears a double-breasted coat with shoulder straps and fancy embroidering on the collar and cuffs. Image is clear with very good contrast. Good mount with small period ink signature under photo. Photographer’s backmark, E. & H.T. Anthony, New York, from a Brady negative.

Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was a major general of the Union Army, politician, lawyer and businessman from Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Butler is best known as a political major general of the Union Army during the American Civil War, and for his leadership role in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was a colorful and often controversial figure on the national stage and in the Massachusetts political scene and ran several campaigns for Governor before his election to that office in 1882.

Butler, a successful trial lawyer, served in the Massachusetts legislature as an antiwar Democrat and as an officer in the state militia. Early in the Civil War he joined the Union Army, where he was noted for his lack of military skill, and his controversial command of New Orleans, which brought him wide dislike in the South and the "Beast" epithet. He helped create the legal idea of effectively freeing fugitive slaves by designating them as contraband of war in service of military objectives, which led to a political groundswell in the North which included general emancipation and the end of slavery as official war goals. His commands were marred by financial and logistical dealings across enemy lines, some of which probably took place with his knowledge and to his financial benefit.

Butler was dismissed from the Union Army after his failures in the First Battle of Fort Fisher, but soon won election to the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. As a Radical Republican he opposed President Johnson's Reconstruction agenda, and was the House's lead manager in the Johnson impeachment proceedings.

In Massachusetts, Butler was often at odds with more conservative members of the political establishment over matters of both style and substance. Feuds with Republican politicians led to his being denied several nominations for the governorship between 1858 and 1880. Returning to the Democratic fold, he won the governorship in the 1882 election with Democratic and Greenback Party support. He ran for president on the Greenback ticket in 1884.

In his later years Butler reduced his activity level, working on his memoir, Butler's Book, which was published in 1892, and serving from 1866 to 1879 as president of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.

Butler died on January 11, 1893 of complications from a bronchial infection a day after arguing a case before the Supreme Court. He is buried in his wife's family cemetery, behind the main Hildreth Cemetery in Lowell.

This image was part of the Ray Richey collection. [jet] [ph:L]

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