Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Brigadier-General Benjamin F. Butler to Abraham Lincoln, November 9, 1861

PRIVATE.

H’d Q’rs Dep't of New England, BosTON, Nov. 9th, 1861

MY DEAR SIR: Gen. Wool has resigned. Gen. Fremont must. Gen. Scott has retired.

I have an ambition, and I trust a laudable one, to be Major General of the United States Army. Has any body done more to deserve it? No one will do more. May I rely upon you as you have confidence in me to take this matter into consideration?

I will not disgrace the position. I may fail in its duties.

Truly Yours,
BENJ. F. BUTLER

P.S. I have made the same suggestion to other of my friends.
B. F. B.

SOURCES: Jessie Ames Marshall, Editor, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, Volume 1: April 1860 – June 1862, p. 274; Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 51; Tyler Dennett, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, p. 33-4.

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