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

“ [419] never be repeated. So far, all the aggression has been against us. Here we are, conquerors in a conquered city; we have respected every right, tried every means of conciliation, complied with every reasonable desire; and yet we cannot walk the streets without being outraged and spit upon by green girls. I do not fear the troops, but if aggression must be, let it not be all against us.”

My troops were New England soldiers, and consequently men well bred in every courtesy toward women, for a well behaved woman can safely travel alone all through New England. I did not fear that any one of them would conduct himself in such a way that he could not look me in the face and tell me of it if I asked him. I was not afraid on that score. I was only afraid the order would not be understood by the women.

There was no case of aggression after that order was issued, no case of insult by word or look against our officers or soldiers while in New Orleans.

The order executed itself.

No arrests were ever made under it or because of it. All the ladies in New Orleans forebore to insult our troops because they didn't want to be deemed common women, and all the common women forebore to insult our troops because they wanted to be deemed ladies, and of those two classes were all the women secessionists of the city.

The order was, as it was intended to be, self-executing. And now, after all these years, I challenge the production of any authentic evidence that the order was not a message of good to the good, and of fear to the bad who required it. I do not believe any man of ordinary sense, of clear judgment, ever did misunderstand it or misinterpret how the order intended that such women should be dealt with, or that it was the slightest suggestion that she be dealt with in any other way than being put in the hands of the police.¹