e South, it had
roused the indignation of the civilized world.

A proud and sensitive people had no redress.

One of the first six citizens sentenced to prison in Fort Jackson was
Dr. Craven, the Methodist minister. A soldier nosing about his house at
night had heard the preacher at family prayers. He had asked God's
blessing on the cause of the South while kneeling in prayer. When Jennie
heard of it, she cried through her tears:

"Show me a dungeon deep enough to keep me from praying for my brothers
who are fighting for us!"

The speech of Butler which had gone farthest and sank deepest into the
outraged souls of the people of Southern Louisiana was his defiant
utterance to Solomon Benjamin on the threat of England to intervene in
our struggle:

"Let England or France dare to try it," Butler swore in a towering rage,
"and I'll be damned if I don't arm every negro in the South and make
them cut the throats of every man, woman and child in it. I'll make them
lay this country waste with fire and sword and leave it desolate."

That Butler was capable of using his enormous power as the Military
Governor of Louisiana to accomplish this purpose, no one who had any
knowledge of the man or his methods doubted for a moment.

On the slightest pretexts he arrested whom he pleased, male and female,
and threw them into prison. Aged men who had incurred his displeasure
were confined at hard labor with ball and chain. Men were imprisoned in
Fort Jackson, whose only offense was the giving of medicine to sick
Confederate soldiers. The wife of a former member of Congress was
arrested and sent to Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico. Her only offense
was that she laughed at some foolish thing that marked the progress of
a funeral procession through the streets of the city.

On his office wall in the St. Charles Hotel Butler had inscribed in huge
letters:

"THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A HE AND A SHE ADDER IN THEIR VENOM."

His henchmen were allowed to indulge their rapacity at will. The homes
of distinguished men and women were seized on any pretext and turned
into disreputable establishments which were run for gain. They
appropriated the contents of wine cellars, plundered the wardrobes and
dining-rooms of ladies and gentlemen to their hearts' content. Fines
were levied and collected in many cases where it could be secured. Those
who refused to pay were given the choice of ball and chain. A thriving
trade in cotton was