Southern Vengeance — The Benjamin Butler Chamber Pot,In 1862 Union forces captured the City of

Southern Vengeance — The Benjamin Butler Chamber Pot,In 1862 Union forces captured the City of New Orleans, a vital Confederate port during the American Civil War.  As military governor of New Orleans they named Gen. Benjamin Butler, a colorful character who served as a corrupt northern politician before the war.  Butler was no loveable man, in fact he was generally disliked among his colleagues and men.  As a testament to his character, Butler was given the nickname “spoons” because silverware had a tendency to disappear when he was a house-guest.It was not a stretch to imagine that Butler’s stent as military governor of New Orleans would be a tenuous one at best. Once Butler assumed his powers and responsibilities he immediately enacted unpopular ordinances to bring the city under Union control.  Among these policies was the refusal to return runaway slaves, confiscation of firearms, forbidding of assemblies, enactment of curfews, seizing of property, imprisonment of dissenters, and censorship of the press. As the most powerful man in New Orleans, he also tended to use his power to line his own pockets with city funds. His most controversial command was Order #28 which stated that any lady in New Orleans who showed contempt for Union soldiers would effectively be treated as though they were a prostitute. It was not uncommon for ladies of New Orleans to spit or toss a bucket of urine on Union soldiers.  As upper class ladies they expected such a high degree of respect that it was considered improper for a man to retaliate in any way.  Butler’s Proclamation struck at the heart of southern antebellum culture, giving upper class women no greater social respect than a prostitute.  If a New Orleans woman spit at a Union soldier, he was well within his rights to spit back.General Butler became one of the most hated figures in all of the Confederacy, even earning him another nickame; “Beast Butler”.  Newspapers all over the South and Europe sharply criticized the order.  The British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerton commented, “Sir, an Englishman must blush to think that such an act has been committed by one belonging to the Anglo-Saxon race."  Regardless Butler continued with his iron handed rule over New Orleans without pause.  The people of New Orleans struck back the only way they could; by producing special chamber pots with an image of Butler printed on the bottom of the bowl.  In the 1800’s a chamber pot was a large ceramic pot used as a toilet during the night.  Remember that this was a time before indoor plumbing and it was a pain to get up at night and walk outside to use the privy.  The new chamber pots expressed southerners distaste for Butler by equating him to the ultimate level of worthlessness, the contents of a toilet.Butler would continue his career in the military until the last year of the Civil War.  Not an especially competent military commander, he was relieved of duty on January of 1865. Later he became an industrialist, Congressman, and presidential candidate.  He died in 1893. -- source link

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