July 20, 1864
Our camp was this morning taken by assault by a cavalcade
which turned out to be Major-General Ben F. Butler and a portion of his Staff.
He is the strangest sight on a horse you ever saw: it is hard to keep
your eyes off him. With his head set immediately on a stout shapeless body, his
very squinting eyes, and a set of legs and arms that look as if made for
somebody else, and hastily glued to him by mistake, he presents a combination
of Victor Emmanuel, Ӕsop,
and Richard III, which is very confusing to the mind. Add to this a horse with
a kind of rapid, ambling trot that shakes about the arms, legs, etc., till you
don't feel quite sure whether it is a centaur, or what it is, and you have a
picture of this celebrated General. Celebrated he surely is, and a man of
untiring industry and activity. Woe to those who stand up against him in the
way of diplomacy! Let the history of “Baldy” Smith be a warning to all such. It
is an instructive one, and according to camp rumor, runs thus. It was said that
Smith, relying on his reputation with Grant, had great ideas of shelving
Butler, and Fame even reported that he had ideas also of giving Meade a tilt
overboard. So what do we see but an order stating that Major-General Smith was
to command the “forces of the field” of the Department, while Major-General
Butler would continue to command the Department, with his “Headquarters at Fortress Monroe.”
Next day everybody says: “So, Butler has gone.” Not exactly. Butler
was still there, precisely as before. “As long as I command the Department, I
command its troops; therefore, Headquarters where I please. I please here.” Off goes Smith to
Washington, mysteriously. Down pounces Butler on City Point. Long confab with
General Grant. Back comes Smith comfortably and is confronted by an order to “proceed
at once to New York and await further orders!” Thus did Smith the Bald try the
Macchiavelli against Butler the cross-eyed, and got floored at the first round!
“Why did he do so?” asked Butler, with the easy air of a strong man. “I had no
military ambition; he might have had all that. I have more important things in
view!” Speaking of Butler's visit, he had sent him an aide without consulting
him, and Benjamin thought it a good chance to hit Halleck over the aide's head.
“Aide-de-camp, sir! Ordered on my Staff, sir! I 'm sure I do not know what you
are to do. I have really nothing for you. All the positions are filled. Now
there is General Halleck, what has he to do? At a moment when every true
man is laboring to his utmost, when the days ought to be forty hours long,
General Halleck is translating French books at nine cents a page; and, sir, if
you should put those nine cents in a box and shake them up, you would form a
clear idea of General Halleck's soul!”
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 192-3
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