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[531]
address to the citizens,1 embarked in a steamer for New York.
His administration had been marked by great vigor and justice, as the friend and defender of the loyal and the oppressed, and the uncompromising foe of the rebellious.2 He took with him thirteen thousand seven hundred soldiers for the capture of New Orleans, and he turned over to his successor seventeen thousand eight hundred well-drilled and disciplined men, among whom, as we have observed, were regiments of colored troops.
In the mean time some active military operations had been in progress in Missouri and Arkansas.
For some time General Curtis, whom we left at Helena,3 was unable to do much more than menace Little Rock and watch and smite guerrilla bands, which, in conjunction with others in Missouri, soon crystallized into quite a formidable army, as we shall observe presently.
Since the autumn of 1861, General J. M. Schofield, Lyon's second at the battle of Wilson's Creek,4 had been in command of the militia of Missouri, and in June, 1862, that State was erected into a separate military district, with Schofield at its head.
He was vigilant and active; but when Curtis withdrew to the Mississippi, and left Arkansas and Southern Missouri open to the operations of guerrilla bands, then numerous in the western part of the former State, he found his forces inadequate to keep down the secessionists in his district.
When Price crossed the Mississippi, early in May, he sent back large numbers of Missourians to recruit guerrilla bands for active service during the summer, and these, at the middle of July, were very numerous in the interior, and were preparing to seize important points in the State.
To meet the danger, Schofield obtained authority from the Governor to organize all the militia of the State.
This drew a sharp dividing line between the loyal and disloyal inhabitants.
He soon had fifty thousand names on his rolls, of whom nearly twenty thousand were ready for effective service at the close of July, when the failure of the campaign against Richmond so encouraged the secessionists in Missouri, that it was very difficult to keep them in check.
Schofield's army of volunteers and militia was scattered over Missouri in six divisions,5 and for two months a desperate and sanguinary guerrilla warfare
1 See Parton's Butler in New Orleans, page 603.
2 General Butler found a large portion of the wealthier and more influential of the inhabitants of New Orleans, native and foreign, bitterly hostile to, the Government. He also found that, in consequence of their rebellion, there was wide-spread distress among the poorer classes of the city, and he resolved to make the authors of their misery contribute largely to their relief. He discovered a list of contributors to the fund raised for the promotion of the rebellion, with the amount of their subscriptions, and he at once assessed them, for the relief of the poor, twenty-five per cent. of that amount. In various ways he made them play the part of benefactors of the poor. During the few months he was there, he collected, by fines, forfeitures, confiscations, taxation, and assessments, $1,088,000, all of which, as documentary evidence shows, he faithfully applied to the public service. He expended $525,000 in feeding the poor of New Orleans; he sent to the Government Treasury $345,000; and handed to the quartermaster and commissary of his successor about $200,000. He was cursed by the rebellious, and beloved by the loyal and oppressed.
In his farewell address General Butler said: “I saw that this rebellion was a war of the aristocrats against the middling men — of the rich against the poor: a war of the land-owner against the laborer; that it was a struggle for the retention of power in the hands of the few against the many; and I found no conclusion to it, save in the subjugation of the few and the disinthrallment of the many. I therefore felt no hesitation in taking the substance of the wealthy, who had caused the war, to feed the innocent poor who had suffered by the war. And I shall now leave you with the proud consciousness that I carry with me the blessings of the humble and loyal, under the roof of the cottage and in the cabin of the slave, and so am quite content to incur the sneers of the salon or the curses of the rich.”3 See page 525.
4 See page 50.
5 Colonel John M. Neill, of the Missouri State Militia, commanded the northeastern part of the State; General Ben Loan the northwestern; General James Totten the central; General F. B. Brown the southwestern; Colonel J. M. Glover, of the Third Missouri cavalry, at Rolla; and Colonel Lewis Merrill, of the National Volunteer cavalry, at St. Louis.
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