He said in a letter to Charles Sumner
and Henry Wilson, Senators in Congress, December 21, 1861:
"I am compelled to declare with great reluctance and regret,
that the course of proceeding under Major-General Butler in
this Commonwealth seems to have been designed and adapted
simply to afford means to persons of bad character to make
money unscrupulously, and to encourage men whose unfitness
had excluded them from any appointment by me to the volunteer
militia service, to hope for such appointment over Massachusetts
troops from other authority than that of the Executive himself."*
[Footnote]
* Schouler's "Massachusetts in the War," Vol. I., p. 276.
[End of Footnote]
The first considerable military operation of which he took
charge was a movement upon the rebel forces at Big Bethel.
It was rash, unskiful, blundering and lacking both in perseverance
and courage. His troops were repulsed with great and needless
slaughter.
It is a doubtful and debated question whether General Butler
was personally to blame for this terrible and disgraceful
repulse. If it were only his misfortune, it is a sample of
the misfortunes which attended him throughout the war.
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