Ben Butler

The Scottsdale Civil War Roundtable ended its 2022-23 season with a special event; many members attending a performance of Ben Butler, a play presented at the Don Bluth Front Row Theatre.  The play is in the midst of an extended run at Don Bluth, and the theater made available discounted tickets to our group along with a special "talk back" session, at which, after the play's conclusion, the director, cast, and the playwright (who happened to be visiting that day), answered our questions.

Back at the beginning of the year, when one of our Board members approached me with the proposal to do this, explaining there was a play about Ben Butler and it had comic aspects, I was incredulous.  Ben Butler?  The incompetent Union general?  But I found that yes, indeed, it was about an incident involving Butler during the Civil War, and the play had garnered positive reviews.

My reaction was natural.  Ben Butler has a bad reputation.  Before the Civil War, Butler, a Massachusetts politician, was not only anti-abolitionist, he'd actually spoken in favor of slavery.  As a delegate to the 1860 Democratic Convention, he'd voted, ballot after ballot, for Jefferson Davis to be the party's presidential nominee.

However, he was a strong Unionist when secession occurred.  President Lincoln, desperate for Democratic support, appointed Butler as a general.  During the war he became notorious when as the general overseeing the occuption of the New Orleans area in 1862 he was accused of terrible conduct, including stealing silver spoons from wealthy Confederate supporters.  His generalship was generally poor, most notoriously in June 1864 when his incompetence resulted in the failure to capture Petersburg, Virginia, which, if successful, might have shortened the war by several months.  After another fiasco, Butler's failure to capture Fort Fisher, North Carolina, U.S. Grant was finally able to get Lincoln to agree to relieve him from his command.

By that time, Butler had become a Republican.  Elected to Congress, he led the prosecution in the 1868 impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.  Once again, many people then and now viewed his performance as incompetent.  Serving several terms, Butler played an important role in the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1871 and 1875 (the latter, the last enacted by Congress until 1957).

After several unsuccessful attempts to gain election as governor of Massachusetts until he changed parties once again, and was elected as a Democrat in 1882.

The play is centered on a specific incident in May 1861, one that casts Butler in a somewhat different light than many of his other actions.  The newly appointed general had just taken command of Fort Monroe, at the mouth of the James River in Virginia, when he was notified that three escaped slaves had entered the fort.  The slaves, Sheppard Mallory, Frank Baker, and James Townsend, had been employed by the Confederates in constructing fortifications for their planned assault on Fort Monroe.  Butler learned that a Major Carey was coming to the fort, under a flag of truce, to demand the return of the slaves.

At the beginning of the war the express policy of the Lincoln administration was not to interfere with slavery in the states where it was legal.  Moreover, the Fugitive Slave Act was, at least technically, still in force, and the three were the property of Colonel Mallory, serving in the rebel forces near the fort.  This was still 16 months before Lincoln announced the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.  What was Butler to do?

Butler's solution was based on the general principles of the Laws of War, which allowed combatants to confiscate property declared as "contraband", most commonly materials used in the construction or support of military activities.  In this case, Butler refused to turn over the slaves to Carey on the grounds that they were "contraband" since they were being used to construct fortifications.  In his interpretation the slaves were the same as the shovels and axes they were using.  The enraged Carey left with his demands unsatisfied.

While Butler hoped to contain the fallout from his decision, within a couple of days 8 more escaped slaves reached the fort and a month later the total reached 500 (by end of the war the fort would receive more than 10,000 escapees).  Lincoln and his cabinet discussed Butler's decision and reasoning and decided to tacitly endorse it, though making no public announcement.  Nonetheless, across all theaters of the war escaped slaves began to be deemed contraband by Union commanders and set to work on constructing fortifications and supporting the federal army.  In 1862, Congress passed the first of its Confiscation Acts, providing legal support for Butler.

Butler also became an enthusiastic supporter for enlisting blacks as soldiers in the army and later, as mentioned, an advocate for civil rights.

The play Ben Butler takes this very serious moment and manages to deftly make its points with the use of comedy.  It is a very funny play that had all of us laughing uproariously at times.  There are only four roles, Butler, Mallory, Major Carey, and a fictional Union lieutenant.  The Don Bluth Theatre is in-the round, but the stage is not elevated, and there are only 74 seats, making for an intimate setting.  The cast was outstanding, and their performance successfully balanced the comic and the serious.  Everyone I spoke with loved the play and the performances.

We know little of the three escaped slaves beyond this incident.  Sheppard Mallory was regarded as the leader.  He was born around 1835, his wife was named Fanny (she later joined him at Fort Monroe).  They had several children and after the war the family remained in residence at Hampton Roads, near the fort.  Mallory died in 1924 at the age of 89.