The following scathing
resume of the
Massachusetts General's exploits in
Maryland, is from the Baltimore
Exchange, of the 10th instant:
‘
The greenest laurels that have been gathered in this war have been plucked by
General Benjamin F. Butler, of
Massachusetts.--The earliest chieftain in the field, he has reaped the fruits of his diligence and courage by achieving the first success of the campaign.
He has ennobled the name of
Butler and of
Benjamin also, and has added lustre to the initial F. His glory shall not wholly fade away; for though his grateful country should fail to reward him with a collectorship or foreign mission, posterity will be mindful of his services, and history will record his deeds and perpetuate his fame.
On Saturday last, as our readers will remember,
General Butler assaulted and carried the heights surrounding the
Relay House.
By a forced march in a railway train with twenty-four hundred men, he reached the ground, and although he did not succeed in surprising the vigilant garrison, his undaunted resolution carried all before it. The watchman on the viaduct was speedily overpowered; the landlord, the barkeeper and stable boys, who were posted on this side of the river, shared the same late; and the three lawyers who held the key of the position were also forced to surrender.
The gallant General proceeded at once to fortify the eminences he had won, and he now announces that his entrenchments are ‘"impregnable."’ One prisoner has been taken, who has been sent to
Annapolis.
The losses which the attacking column has thus far met with are not greater than were, perhaps, anticipated One man has blown his own head off, in the hazardous attempt to clean his gun, and another has been brought to death's door through under-done pies and tough ginger-bread.
An expedition so admirably planned, and so successfully executed, would, under any circumstances, redound to the honor of the officer who commanded it; but we of
Baltimore, who know the peculiar difficulties and perils which
General Butler overcame, are alone able to do him full justice.
We can understand the triumphant joy that filled his breast as he penned the ‘"special brigade order"’ which we published yesterday.
We can comprehend the exultation with which he congratulated his troops upon the capture of ‘"one
Spencer,"’ and thanked the two officers who performed that feat for the ‘"coolness, promptitude and zeal"’ which they displayed.
We can appreciate the pride with which he referred to the private who was killed by his own ramrod, as ‘"a heroic, conscientious soldier, who died in the act of discharging his duty."’ We acknowledge, also, the eminent propriety of the rhetorical style which the
General has adopted in this instance.
A profusion of fine words, and an exaggeration of plain facts, are not only necessary on such occasions as the present, but they are natural to some great men, and we, of course,
judge General Butler as he stands upon the heights commanding Elk Ridge Landing, by the same rules that we would apply to
Napoleon who had gained the summits of the
Alps.
But there is one part of
General Butler's order which we cannot afford to pass over without an expression of strong disapprobation and disgust, both because it contains a statement which we believe to be utterly untrue, and a suggestion or threat which we feel called upon to pronounce cowardly and atrocious.
It is charged in this order that one of the soldiers ‘"has been poisoned by means of strychnine administered in the food brought into the camp"’ by the ‘"venders of supplies"’ who have been permitted to visit it. Now this story has been for some days in circulation, and the poisoned men have gradually dwindled down from four or five to the number mentioned by
General Butler, and all who have undertaken to investigate the matter agree that the sick man was suffering from the effects of unwholesome food, or from his own excesses.
There has been, so far as we can learn, no proof whatever of the presence of strychnine in anything that he ate, and even if there had been such indications, the natural inference would be that the affair was accidental, unless it could be traced to the agency of some personal enemy of the individual whose life was attempted.
No intelligent person can, for an instant, suppose that if any miscreant here intended to poison the members of the
Massachusetts regiment, the design would have resulted only in the illness of one soldier.
The charge is so preposterous that no man of proper feeling and common sense ought to have given it credit until it was so authenticated as to place its truth beyond reasonable doubt.
But so far from pursuing this course,
General Butler seems to have caught at the opportunity to frame a libel against this State, and to launch against its people one of those diabolical intimations which have of late been so freely given us by the
North.
He takes advantage of a rumor, and founds a miserable calumny upon it, and the calumny affords him the excuse for throwing out a threat which he thinks will intimidate us.--He tells us that he can place the poisoned cup upon our tables.
He reminds us that he ‘"can put an agent, with a word, into every house.
hold armed with this terrible weapon;"’ and we may suppose that he is now felicitating himself upon the terror with which we are stricken at the suggestion, and the submissive attitude which we are, consequently, likely to assume.
Let
General Butler undeceive himself in this matter, and that right speedily.
Let him not presume overmuch upon the endurance of this people.
Let him not even calculate on the forbearance of our citizens if he slanders or threatens them.
He and his troops are but intruders here at best.
They have occupied our territory without authority under the laws or the
Constitution.
They are temporarily holding this State in subjection.
All this is enough for us to bear patiently.
Let him, then, be careful how he fulminates any more brutal threats from the camp which is intended to overawe us; for, just so sure as he tifles-with us, just as surely will he rue it. When the blood of
Maryland is up all the militiamen in
Massachusetts cannot hold her soil against her sons.
’
