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

After I had been relieved and had settled all my accounts with the government, so that not a dollar's difference stood between me and the government, suits were brought against me in New York, Baltimore, and elsewhere, to the amount of several hundred thousand dollars, for my acts during the war, or those done by my orders, even for the capture of General Twiggs' swords.

All such suits have now been tried which the plaintiff would prosecute. These suits, by the law of military affairs, were to be defended by the government, and were so done by its law officers.

I refused to have a single one settled. All were adjudicated in my favor; and not a dollar of a judgment has been rendered against the United States or myself in those suits.

As all of them were against me as well as the government, and as the government could not defend itself without my being present as a witness and aiding in the trial, I thought it but just that the government should pay my actual expenses, at least, as a witness while attending so many trials a great number of days. I asked the Attorney-General to be allowed witness fees, but he decided that as I was a party as well as a witness for the government, the United States could not pay me anything without a special act of Congress; so that so far I have received nothing for the trouble and annoyance of those suits and my services in preparing them, and just double that for my expenses actually paid out for attending them as a witness.

I had but one other civil duty to do and that was, under the direction of the President and in obedience to his proclamation, to hold an election in the two congressional districts in Louisiana under my control. Every means were accorded to have a fair election with as full a vote as could be cast. The army did not vote, but every citizen voted who could show that he had taken the oath of allegiance and was a loyal man. Messrs. Flanders and Hahn were chosen by an aggregate vote larger than the whole number of soldiers of the United States within the districts. The election was duly certified, and the members were admitted to Congress, where they served out their term.

Another piece of work had been put upon me by the War Department, the faithful performance of which, perhaps, was one of the causes of my removal from command. As soon as I landed in the city, I was