BUTLER'S ORDER NO. 28

BUTLER'S ORDER NO. 28. General Benjamin F. Butler became military commander of New Orleans on 1 May 1862, following the fall of the city to Union troops. Many residents were openly hostile to the federal government, and troops were especially angered by the women civilians who hurled insults at them. On 15 May, Butler ordered that any woman insulting or showing contempt for any U.S. officer or soldier should "be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation." The order evoked a storm of protest at home and abroad and led to Butler's removal from command of New Orleans on 16 December 1862.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Capers, Gerald Mortimer. Occupied City: New Orleans under the Federals, 1862–1865. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965.

Hearn, Chester G. When the Devil Came Down to Dixie: Ben Butler in New Orleans. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.

James E. Winston

See also Civil War; Prostitution.