Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler, page 204

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Let me be just: There were more officers taken from the enlisted men of that regiment afterwards during the war, who did their duty bravely and well so far as I know, than from any other regiment ever in the service of the United States. Their own history boasts that because of the social and influential position of the men composing the battalion there were taken from its numbers during the war six hundred and six officers. And as their force was only about eight hundred men, it appears that no more than two hundred of them served as privates only.¹

As an illustration of the accuracy with which history is written, and especially in that book entitled “Abraham Lincoln, a history,” I beg leave to quote from that work the following description of the entrance of the Seventh Regiment into the beleaguered capital, as showing its effect upon the despairing government:--

Promptly debarking and forming, the Seventh marched up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. As they passed up the magnificent street, with their well-formed ranks, their exact military step, their soldierly bearing, their gaily floating flags, and the inspiring music of their splendid regimental band, they seemed to sweep all thought of danger and all taint of treason out of that great national thoroughfare and out of every human heart in the federal city. The presence of this single regiment seemed to turn the scales of fate. Cheer upon cheer greeted them, windows were

1 After I had written this, and before I had revised the manuscript, the following letter was brought to my notice, which I use as an authority for my statements about the bravery of the officers, which I did not know of my own knowledge:--

New York, March 15, 1891.
Major-General Benj. F. Butler, Boston, Mass.:
Sir:--I have read Swinton's History of the New York Seventh Regiment, and from it I learn that the Seventh was a well drilled and equipped regiment in April, 1861. That during the Civil War they did not fire a shot at the enemy, were not in any battle, not once under fire, did not kill or wound any of the enemy, and never trod on rebel territory.
In May, 1861, a portion of the regiment remained in camp in Washington while the others crossed the Long Bridge over the Potomac, and bivouacked one mile from the bridge. The next morning being Sunday, they formed in picturesque groups, and their chaplain preached to them. That afternoon they returned to their camp in Washington.
They call this “Our campaign in Virginia,” That part of Virginia was not rebel territory. For a few weeks in the summer of 1862 and 1863 they did garrison duty in Baltimore. They returned to New York in July, 1863, and did not leave here again during the war. Shortly after the war they caused to be erected in Central Park in this city, an expensive monument On the pedestal is inscribed “In honor of fifty-eight members of the Seventh Regiment who died in defence of the Union.” In their so-called roll of honor appear the names “of fifty-eight of our members killed in battle.” The name of Robert G. Shaw is there. He was a private in the Seventh. He went to the front with a Massachusetts regiment, and afterwards was colonel of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts (colored) volunteers. He was killed while leading his regiment in the attack on Fort Wagner. S. C. The day he was killed the Seventh was in New York. The Seventh, having won no laurels, took one belonging to a regiment of negroes; and wear it as their own.<
Hoping that you will find some portion of this letter interesting, I remain,
Respectfully yours,
* * * 280 Broadway, New York.

A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.

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Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

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