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

Lieut.-Col. Jonas H. French was also upon my staff for a short time in New Orleans after he had been deprived of his command of the Thirty-First Massachusetts Volunteers by Governor Andrew. When General Shepley was designated by the President as Governor of Louisiana, Lieut.-Col. French was promoted from acting provost marshal on my staff to the post of provost marshal general of the State of Louisiana, and remained in that office when I left New Orleans. To his energy and ability the quiet and good order of the populace of New Orleans may be largely ascribed.

Col. S. H. Stafford, of a New York Regiment, who had been acting as assistant provost marshal, took Colonel French's place on my staff when he was promoted, and showed himself to be a brave, determined, and thorough executive officer who fully executed the duty devolved upon him by all orders. Afterwards he commanded a brigade in Hinks' division of colored troops in the Army of the James. He is not now living.

I had detailed upon my staff Lieut. J. W. Cushing, of the Thirty-First Massachusetts Volunteers, as acting chief quartermaster, and Lieut. James E. Esterbrook, of Worcester, of the Thirtieth Massachusetts, as acting chief commissary, who served until the detail from Washington of Shaffer and Turner.

When I was sent to New Orleans I had three brigadier-generals assigned to me: Gen. J. W. Phelps, Gen. Thomas Williams, and General Sherman. The latter died from heart failure very soon after he joined me.

I had no better soldier or officer, none in whose care I felt any more safe to leave everything in possession, than General Phelps. I had got him his promotion in 1861, and asked to have him transferred to the Army of the Gulf. He had but one fault: he was an anti-slavery man to a degree that utterly unbalanced his judgment. While in command of a portion of the troops on Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico near the State of Mississippi, he, in the winter of 1861-62, upon his own motion, issued a proclamation of emancipation of the slaves. No notice was taken of it, as it was simply a dead letter. He disciplined his troops very admirably, and upon my arrival in New Orleans, I put him in command of the forces stationed above the city at Carrolton. The history of that command I have already stated. Differing with me on the slavery questions