Occupation Of New Orleans - Benjamin Butler Broadside

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008

A Proclamation, New Orleans, May 1, 1862. Printed on brown necessity paper, measuring 7 ½' X 24", light age, else fine. Signed in print by Benjamin F. Butler. This is Beast Butler's proclamation on the Union occupation of New Orleans. The text of the broadside begins "The City of New Orleans and its environs, with all its interior and exterior defenses, having been surrendered to the combined naval and land forces of the United States, and having been evacuated by the rebel forces in whose possession they lately were, and being now in occupation of the forces of the United States who have come to restore order, maintain tranquility, enforce peace and quite under the laws and Constitution of the United States, the Major-General commanding the forces of the United States in the Department of the Gulf, hereby makes it known and proclaims the object and purposes of the Government of the United States in thus taking possession of the city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana, and the rules and regulations by which the laws of the United States will be for the present and during a state of war, enforced and maintained for the plain guidance of all good citizens of the United States, as well as others who may heretofore have been in rebellion against their authority". This rare broadside delineates specific rules for the military governance of the city under Butler's command. These martial laws included the surrender of arms, a ban on flags other than that of the United States, the requirement of oaths of allegiance, the necessity of returns on pubic property, a suspension on the right to assemble, etc. The provision concerning flags had an immediate results when William Mumford was executed for lowering the flag that Admiral Farragut had raised over the mint prior to Butler's entering the city. This action, along with Butler's Order No. 28, which allowed New Orleans women who showed contempt for a Union Officer to be treated as a prostitute, resulted in Butler's nickname "The Beast". Only a handful are known extant.

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