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COMMENTS-ORDER NO. 98.

"mont Volunteers at the battle of Baton Rouge, learns that "he was led into a mistake by the official reports of that "action, as to the loss by that regiment of its colors, it prov"ing to have been the Camp colors left in camp, and not the Regimental colors that were brought off the field by the "Massachusetts Battery (sic). He therefore, has pleasure "in ordering the regimental colors to be restored to the regiment, not doubting that it will, in the next action, earn for itself a position and name which will be a credit "to itself, its State and country.

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This was a singular order for a General to make pretending to the slightest degree of uprightness or fairness, Gen. Butler's own court had virtually found that he had grossly traduced the regiment, yet to his mind the only effect of its findings seems to have been to enlighten him as to the fact that "Camp Colors" when so designated, in express terms, as in Capt. Manning's report they were, could not be taken to mean regimental colors, a blunder, it is needless to say, which the veriest tyro in military affairs, if honestly disposed, would not have made. But the order was in full keeping with the vindictive and malicious spirit evinced towards the Seventh by Gen. Butler in his dealings with it, and hence it is not strange that he should have refused to acknowledge, or attempt to repair the injustice he had so deliberately done to the regiment and State. I doubt if the annals of the war

CONDUCT UNDER DEFAMATION.

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furnish another such instance of premeditated iniquity as was this monstrous attack upon our regiment.

Although such harsh and unfair treatment was well calculated to cool the ardor and utterly disgust any body of soldiers, yet the men of the Seventh bore up under it right nobly. Conscious, as they were, that they had been most grievously wronged and defamed, they nevertheless performed their full duty under the temporary cloud of ignominy which encompassed them, their courage and fidelity in the glorious cause for which they were daily risking their lives never for a moment flagging.

66 Fear to do base, unworthy things, is valor;

If they be done to us, to suffer them is valor, too—" Most manfully did they bear their part in the long conflict which followed this event, as I can personally testify, and as the record of their subsequent career will fully attest.

Shortly before the expiration of their term of enlistment all the surviving and undischarged enlisted men, who were original menbers of the regiment, except fifty-nine, re-enlisted for three years further service, or for the war, and long after Gen. Butler had been retired to deserved obscurity, as a military commander, the officers and men of the Seventh were actively employed, and bravely performing duty on "flood and field," trusted and respected by their "Commanding Generals," and, because of their "discipline" and efficiency, ever given the posts of greatest danger and responsibility.

There is very much that could be said by way of criticism concerning Gen. Butler's unjust treatment of the Seventh. But I must here limit myself to but a few reflections, and

first I would say that, in considering the charges brought against it even upon the assumption of their truth-there was much in the state of health and physical condition of the officers and men which entitled their conduct to lenient scrutiny. The regiment had just returned from a trying and disastrous expedition, in which it had experienced great hardships and been exposed to an unusual amount of sickness. A large number of the men had perished by disease, and so many of the surviving members of the regiment were impregnated with, and suffering from malarial poison, that out of about 900 men not over 225 could be brought into line of battle on the morning of the engagement. Of this small number but about 100-the men who but a few days before had joined us from Fort Pike-were fresh and strong, the residue being largely convalescents, and hardly fit for any more severe service than light camp duty. Indeed, such was the state and condition of the regiment, that even Gen. Butler's Court of Inquiry was constrained to find that it was "much reduced in numbers, and doubtless in morale, by the "severities of the campaign at Vicksburg, and long confine"ment on transports." That this was so is not strange, when the experience to which we had been subjected is taken · into account. The Seventh left Vermont in the preceding month of March, and reached Ship Island early in April following. Within less than two months thereafter the regiment was ordered to take part in the river campaign, and with no opportunity to become acclimated, or even accustomed to the duties of a life entirely different from that which they had led from boyhood, the men were immediately

assigned to the most arduous field service, in performing which they were constantly exposed to an atmosphere charged with the elements of disease, with no adequate protection from the scorching rays of the sun by day, or shelter against the mephitic gases and dews of the night. An experienced soldier would surely have taken these circumstances into consideration in reviewing charges of misconduct in action on the part of a regiment so conditioned. Not so, however, was it with Gen. Butler. He seemed to think that as high a degree of discipline was to be expected from a body of men prostrated and demoralized by serious and depressing bodily ailments, so occasioned, as from robust battalions just out of garrison or camps of instruction; and hence he sought in Order No. 62 to convey the impression that the Seventh was an undisciplined regiment, and that the officers were blameable therefor. The "official reports" of the commanding officers under whom the regiment served, and who (unlike Gen. Butler) were eyewitnesses of, and personal participants with it, in its movements on the battle field, sufficiently refute this imputation, as they show conclusively that the Seventh had abundant morale left to do its duty bravely, notwithstanding it was handicapped with a sick list comprising over two-thirds of its members.

The secret impulses which actuated Gen. Butler in pursuing the course he did toward the Seventh are, of course, known only to himself. But there were many circumstances, at the time, which tended to indicate that his action was inspired by malice and from a desire to add to his own reputation as a disciplinarian, and for political effect.

Allusion has already been made to the fact that the State authorities were opposed to placing the Seventh under Gen. Butler and to the indignation which it is said he felt in consequence. Also to his quarrels with the officers soon after our arrival at Ship Island and to his controversy with Gen. Phelps, and the well known interest which the latter took in our welfare. These things induced many of our officers and men to believe, and that belief has not yet become extinct, that Gen. Butler was influenced thereby to avail himself of the first pretext that offered to visit his wrath upon the Seventh, and his arbitrary and unjust refusal to listen to us when the charges in question were made, certainly lends color to the supposition that these early matters of difference did form a constituent part of his motives for attacking the regiment.

Gen. Butler at this time had acquired great celebrity for the audacity and vigor with which he had administered affairs in New Orleans, and had also achieved a factitious and less enviable reputation (as dear probably to him, however, as the former) for the severity with which he had waged war upon the women and non-combatants of that city. Gen. Dix in a moment of patriotic fervor had exclaimed, "If any man attempts to haul down the American flag shoot him on the spot," and Gen. Butler catching the spirit of this patriotic utterance caused one Mumford who had pulled down our flag to be put to a more ignominious death, and instead of shooting him "on the spot" caused him to be summarily hung. These and some other acts of a kindred character gave him much notoriety and prestige as a bold and aggressive officer