Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Brigadier General John W. Phelps, May 9, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, May 9, 1862.
General PHELPS:

Mr. J B. G. Armand says that a boy by name of Irwin Pardon, whose services he claims, has come within your lines. The course which I have adopted in such cases is this: If I have any use for the services of such a boy I employ him without any scruple; if I have not I do not harbor him, as my subsistence would by no means serve for so many extra men that I do not need. If you have any use for him use him; if not, is he not like any other vagrant about the camp.

Respectfully,
BENJ. F. BUTLER,
Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 15 (Serial No. 21), p. 442

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