BRITISH CONSULATE,
New Orleans, May 13,
1862.
Maj. Gen. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, U.S. Army,
Commanding Department of the
Gulf, New Orleans:
SIR: In answering your communication of date of the 11th
instant it is my intention to confine myself to a correction of errors in your
statement of facts.
The "British Guard" was organized under the
general call for service from all residents within the ages which give legal
exemption, and as the least obnoxious form in which, as neutrals, they could
comply with the requisition. The privileges asked for them, and with some
difficulty obtained, limited their service to the lines around the city proper.
From the time it was ascertained that a portion of the U.S.
fleet had passed the forts until its arrival before the city, the public mind
was disturbed by apprehended violence at home, and the city authorities called
upon the foreign brigades, of which the "British Guard" formed part,
to suppress any such attempt. Their services were from that moment those of an
armed police, which were by yourself and Commodore Farragut gratefully
acknowledged.
After several fatiguing days and nights passed in the
fulfillment of these duties, between the hours of 2 and 3 a.m. (not 11, as you
have it) the Guard left their stations and returned to their armory to deposit
their arms, considering that their mission was at an end and that they were no
longer wanted. Their existence as an organized body had virtually ceased. One,
or it may be two, officers were in the armory, returning with the rest. No
meeting was either called or held; there was no voting beyond the few, not
exceeding fifteen, with whom the measure originated; no formal announcement of
the proposal to dispose of the arms was ever exhibited.
Some of the members left the armory ignorant of any such
proposition, though there, when in desultory conversation, among others, it was
made and agreed to. It was the resolution of the moment, hardly to be
characterized as a deliberate act, and the impulse which prompted it, [it]
seems to me, can be reasonably referred to feelings which would actuate men
whose friends and former companions [were] with the forces to which the arms
are asserted to have been forwarded.
The number of muskets did not exceed thirty-nine, if all
were sent, for I am assured that there never was the number you have given
(sixty) in the armory.
These facts are verified by all who can speak from personal
participation in the whole of parts of them.
The British Guard comprises gentlemen who have large
responsibilities intrusted to their charge, and whose absence from the city
would result in irreparable injury to the interests confided to their care, and
whose word may be received with every confidence as vouchers for the verity of
the above statement. The injustice of an order which includes those parties to
the act and those who were not requires no explanation on my part. I have
before observed that it is not my wish or intention to justify the act; my
object is to explain its real import and to diminish the importance which,
unexplained, it bears upon its face by stripping it of features which do not
properly belong to it.
With reference to that part of your communication which has
relation to myself, I would merely add that I furnish in proof of my official
capacity letters addressed to me and signed by Earl Russell and Lord Lyons,
which, as part of my official register, I must request may be returned to me,
and that I am not aware that my accountability for the manner in which I may
have fulfilled my duties extend beyond the source from which that authority
emanated, and to which your letter will of course be forwarded in all its
crudity.
In conclusion, I would say that Mr. Burrowes, to whom I
shall exhibit my last communication before sending it, now says that he did
tell you that the arms were intended for General Beauregard, but that he could
not, from his own knowledge, state whether they were actually forwarded.
Referring to my last communication, I have the honor to be,
sir, your obedient servant,
GEORGE COPPELL,
Her Britannic
Majesty's Acting Consul.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume
2 (Serial No. 123), p. 127-8
No comments:
Post a Comment