Browsing named entities in Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler. You can also browse the collection for December 16th or search for December 16th in all documents.

Your search returned 2 results in 2 document sections:

Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler, Chapter 13: occupations in 1863; exchange of prisoners. (search)
so held, except colored soldiers, I proposed to the Secretary of War the plan of so exchanging until we had exhausted all our prisoners held by the rebels, and as we should then have a surplus of some ten thousand, to hold these as hostages for our colored troops, of whom the rebels held only hundreds, and to retaliate upon this surplus such wrongs as the rebels might perpetrate upon our soldiers. This was set out in a letter to the Secretary of War. See Appendix No. 2. About the 16th of December the business of exchange was confided to me. In pursuance of my plan I sent Major Mulford, assistant agent of exchange (to whose faithfulness to his duties, and unvarying kindness to the unfortunates under his charge of both armies, I bear most cheerful witness), with some five hundred Confederates up to City Point with a proposal to deliver them for a like number of our men. It seemed to me quite certain that the Confederate authorities could never withstand the pressure of the friends
Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler, Chapter 17: Fort Fisher. (search)
waited that day, which was very fine, and waited also the next day. The sea was so smooth that I lowered my gig and took a row for pleasure. There was not wind enough to fill the sail of a yawl boat that was let down. I sent General Weitzel and Colonel Comstock on the Chamberlain to make a reconnoissance of the fort, and they ran in so as to draw the fire. We waited there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Sunday morning (the 18th) I received a letter from Admiral Porter dated the 16th of December, in which he said that he expected to leave for the rendezvous on the 17th, and that if the weather permitted he expected to blow up the powder vessel on the night of the 18th. He also informed me that it had been suggested to him by some of the naval engineers that even at twenty-five miles the explosion might affect the boilers of the steamers and make them explode if heavy steam was carried, and advised that before the explosion took place the fires be drawn and the steam allowed to