Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. July, 1863, No. LXIX. by Various

V >> Various >> Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. July, 1863, No. LXIX.

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Turn now your steps homeward, and pause a moment at the Bermudas, "the
still vexed Bermoothes." Beautiful isles, with their fresh verdure, green
gems in the ocean, with airs soft and balmy as Eden's were! They have
their homely uses too. They furnish arrowroot for the sick, and ample
supplies of vegetables earlier than sterner climates will grant. Is this
all that can be said? Reflect a little more deeply. Here is a military and
naval depot, and here a splendid harbor, land-locked, amply fortified,
difficult of access to strangers,--and all this as near to the whole
Southern coast as Boston and New York are, all this within three or four
days' sail of any one of the Atlantic ports North or South. England keeps
this, no doubt, as a sort of halfway house on the road to her West Indian
possessions; but should we go to war with her, she would use it none the
less as a base of offensive operations, where she might gather and hurl
upon any unprotected port all her gigantic naval power.

We have asserted that England holds all the Southern points in which the
continents of the world terminate. Examine this statement, and see how
much it means. Take your map of the world, and you will find that the
land-surface of the globe culminates at the south in five points, no
more,--America at Cape Horn,[5] Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, Asia in
Ceylon and the Malayan peninsula, and Australia in the island of Tasmania.
Is it not surprising that these wedges which cut into the steady flowing
stream of commerce, these choice points of mercantile and naval advantage,
are all in the hands of one single power? Can it be of chance? Or rather,
is it not the result of a well-ordered purpose, which, waiting its time,
seizing every favorable opportunity, has finally achieved success?

[Footnote 5: It is not absolutely true that England holds Cape
Horn; for the region is unfit for the residence of civilized man.
And were it not so, the perpetual storms leave no secure
anchorage. But Great Britain does hold the nearest _habitable_
land, the Falkland Islands,--and notwithstanding the rudeness of
the climate, Stanley, the principal settlement, does a
considerable business in refitting and repairing ships bound round
the Cape.]

The topic is not exhausted, but the facts already adduced prove clearly
enough that somewhere in the English government there has been sagacity to
plant colonies, not only at convenient distances, but also in such
commanding positions that they do their part to confirm and perpetuate her
maritime supremacy. Can any one fail to see how immeasurably this system
increases naval force? Of course such strongholds, wherever placed, would
be of no use to a power which had not ships. They could not be held by
such a power. But, given a fleet as powerful as ever rode the waves, given
seamen gallant and skilful as ever furled a sail or guided the helm, and
these depots and havens, scattered, but not blindly, over the earth,
quadruple the efficiency of the power which they could not create.

* * * * *

The number of the English colonies, their happy distribution, and, above
all, their commanding position, furnish subjects of exceeding interest.
But the patience with which England has waited, the skill with which she
has seized the proper moment for success, and especially the fixed
determination with which she has held her prizes, are topics of equal or
greater interest.

The history of the Rock of Gibraltar, one of the earliest of these prizes,
supplies a good illustration. This had many owners before it came under
British rule. But none of them seemed to know its true value. All held it
with a loose grasp. Its surprise and capture by the sailors from Admiral
Rooke's fleet, creditable as it was to its captors, who swarmed up the
steep cliffs as they would have swarmed up the shrouds and yards of their
own frigates, leaping from rock to rock with fearless activity, was
equally discreditable to its defenders, who either did not appreciate the
worth of their charge or else had not the courage to hold it as such a
trust should have been held. But when England closed her strong hand upon
it, nothing could open it again, neither motives of profit nor motives of
fear. In 1729 Spain offered no less than ten million dollars for its
return. A great sum in those times, and to offer to a people who had been
impoverished by long wars! But the descendants of those sea-kings, Drake,
Hawkins, and Frobisher, who had carried England's flag and England's
renown into every sea, would not part with the brightest jewel in her
crown, and for a price. Three times, too, the besieger has appeared before
Gibraltar, and vainly. From 1779 to 1782 France and Spain exhausted all
their resources in a three-years' siege, which is one of the most
remarkable episodes in military history. By sea and by land, by blockade,
by bombardment, by assault, was it pressed. But the tenacity of England
was more than a match for the fire and pride of France and Spain, and it
ended in signal and disastrous failure.

Glance for a moment at the history of the seizure of Malta. For
generations the value of this citadel had been known. All the strong
nations of Europe had looked with covetous eyes upon it. But it was a
difficult thing to find any pretext for its capture. It was held by the
Knights of St. John, the decrepit remnant of an order whose heroism had
many times been the shield of Christendom against the Turk, and whose
praise had once filled the whole earth. They were now as inoffensive as
they were incapable. Their helplessness was their true defence,--and the
memory of their good deeds. At last, in 1798, Napoleon, on his way to
Egypt, partly by force and partly by treaty, obtained possession of it. So
strong were its fortresses, that he himself acknowledged that the knights
needed only to have shut their gates against him to have baffled him. Two
years after, the English, watching their time, by blockade, starved out
the French garrison. Its new owners held it with their usual
determination. Rather than surrender it,--though they had made
treaty-stipulations to that effect,--they deliberately entered upon a
ten-years' war with France. The indignation which Napoleon felt, and the
language which he used, show that he knew the value of the prize for which
he was struggling. "I would rather," said he, "see you in possession of
Montmartre than in possession of Malta." "Malta gives the dominion of the
Mediterranean; I thus lose the most important sea in the world, and the
respect of Europe. Let the English obtain a port to put into; to that I
have no objection; but I am determined that they shall not have two
Gibraltars in one sea,--one at the entrance, and one in the middle."
Nevertheless he was forced to yield to destiny stronger than his own iron
will. Eleven years more found him in sad exile, and the British flag still
waving over the Valetta.

Nothing better illustrates the firmness with which England holds her
purpose than the fate of Aden. This is the halfway station between England
and her East Indian possessions. It commands the Red Sea. It is the best
spot for a coal-depot in the East. Properly defended, it is almost
impregnable. The wide-roving eye of mercantile England had long ago
searched out and in fancy possessed it. Hear what one of her own
historians has said:--"Eager eyes had long been turned toward this spot."
To find an excuse, real or apparent, for its appropriation was the
trouble. The Sultan of Lahidge, its owner, was indeed little better than a
freebooter. But, though wild, lawless, and of piratical tendencies, he had
for a long time the wisdom not to molest British traders. In 1839,
however, whether from ignorance of its nationality, or from recklessness,
is uncertain, he seized and pillaged a native Madras boat sailing under
British colors. The East Indian government at once took advantage of the
opportunity thus afforded. An ambassador was sent to demand remuneration,
and this remuneration was--Aden. The Sultan was at first disposed to
accede to this demand, but soon kindling into rage, he attempted to lay
violent hands upon the ambassador. The reply was--a fleet and a military
force, which first cannonaded and then stormed the stronghold at the point
of the bayonet. So Aden passed into the hands which had been waiting for
years to grasp it. It is said by some writers that a compensation has been
made to the Sultan; but the sum is not mentioned, nor the authority for so
doubtful a statement given.

Hong Kong furnishes another illustration. Most, no doubt, are familiar
with the general outlines of the first Chinese War: how England stormed,
one after another, the ill-constructed and worse-defended Chinese forts,
until the courage and insolence of the Lord of the Central Flowery Kingdom
alike failed. Why, now, did not England retain military possession of
Canton, or some other important commercial town? That would have given her
much trouble and little profit. She chose rather to retain only one
sterile island of a few miles in diameter, whose possession would awaken
nobody's jealousy, but which would furnish a sufficient base for
operations in any future wars.

One more example. Until about the beginning of the present century, Ceylon
and Cape Colony were Dutch possessions. This is the history of their loss.
Soon after the French Revolution broke out, Holland, with the consent of a
portion of her people, was incorporated, if not in name, yet in reality,
into the French Empire. During the long wars of Napoleon, she shared the
fortunes of her master, and when continual defeats broke the power of both
on the sea, her colonies were left defenceless. Ceylon and Cape Colony
fell into the hands of the English; but so, too, did Java, Sumatra,
Borneo, Essequibo, Berbice, and, indeed, with but little exception, all
her colonial possessions, East and West. At the peace of 1814, England
restored to Holland the larger portion of this territory, though not
without many remonstrances from her own merchants and statesmen. But
Ceylon and Cape Colony she did not restore. These were more to her than
rich islands. They were links in a grand chain of commercial connection.
As Aden is the half-way station on the overland route, so Cape Colony is
the half-way station on the ocean route; and Ceylon, while it rounds out
and completes the great peninsula of which it may be considered to be a
part, furnishes in Point de Galle, at the south, a most needed port of
refuge, and on the east, at Trincomalee, one of the finest of naval
harbors, with dock-yards, machine-shops, and arsenal complete. Even
England could be generous to a fallen foe, whose enmity had been quite as
much a matter of necessity as inclination. But by no mistimed clemency
could she sacrifice such solid advantages as these.

This steady march toward the control of the commercial waters of the
earth, some of whose footsteps we have now traced, reveals the existence
of as steady a purpose. This colonial empire, so wide, so consistent, and
so well compacted, is not the work of dull men, or the result of a series
of fortunate blunders. Back of its history, and creating its history,
there must have been a clear, calm, persistent, ambitious policy,--a
policy which has usually regarded appearances, but which has also managed
to accomplish its cherished purposes. And the end towards which this
policy tends is always one and the same: to enlarge England's commercial
resources, and to build up side by side with this peaceful strength a
naval power which shall keep untarnished her proudest title,--"Mistress
and sovereign of the seas."

* * * * *

With justice England is called the mightiest naval power in the world. And
well she may be. She has every element to make her mighty. The waves which
beat upon all her coasts train up a race of seamen as hardy, as skilful,
as courageous as ever sailed the sea. In her bosom are hidden
inexhaustible stores of iron, copper, and coal. Her Highland hills are
covered with forests of oak and larch, growing while men sleep. Her
borders are crowded with workshops, and her skies are dark with the smoke
of their chimneys, and the air rings with the sound of their hammers. Her
docks are filled with ships, and her watchful guardians are on every sea.
Her eyes are open to profit by every invention. And her strong colonies,
overlooking all waters, give new vigor and a better distribution to her
naval resources. A mighty naval power she is, and, for good or evil, a
mighty naval power she is likely to continue. The great revolutions in
warfare, which in our day are proceeding with such wonderful rapidity, may
for a time disturb this supremacy; but in the end, the genius of England,
essentially maritime, and as clear and strong on the sea as it is apt to
be weak and confused upon the land, will enable her to stand on her own
element, as she has stood for centuries, with no superior, and with
scarcely a rival.

* * * * *

OUR GENERAL.

An officer on General Butler's staff, residing constantly, while in New
Orleans, under his roof, having had direct personal observation of him
during the entire progress of the "Ship-Island Expedition," may perhaps be
pardoned for putting on record in this magazine some characteristic traits
of the man whom this war has brought so prominently, not only before our
own people, but also the people of Europe.

In the execution of this task I shall confine myself to the mention of
incidents of his administration at New Orleans, and the relation of the
inside history (the history of motive and cause) of many of his public
acts which elicited from the European press and the enemies of the Union
in our own land the bitterest abuse,--believing that in so doing I offer
stronger proof of the injustice of their attacks than I could possibly
furnish by any attempt to argue them down. And that the patience of my
readers may not be unnecessarily taxed, I shall proceed without further
introduction to the consideration of OUR GENERAL in New Orleans.

* * * * *

One of the first difficulties which General Butler found in the way of the
restoration of the national authority in that city was the attitude of the
foreign consuls. Under the leadership of Mr. George Coppell, who was
acting for the British Government in the absence of the consul, Mr. Muir,
they tacitly declared an offensive and defensive war of the guerrilla
stamp against every step or order for the promotion of loyal sentiment or
the inculcation of a belief in the strength of our Government. Nothing
excited greater hostility abroad than the General's treatment of these
gentlemen, and in nothing has he been more admired by his loyal countrymen
than in his complete discomfiture of them.

I have noticed this little episode in the history of the Rebellion simply
with the view of showing, that, while officially he met their combined
attacks with "war to the knife," his personal intercourse with them was
friendly and pleasant.

After the consuls had apparently abandoned their unsuccessful alliance in
despair, Mr. Coppell, who had never yet met the General, expressed,
through the commander of Her Britannic Majesty's frigate Rinaldo, a desire
for an introduction to him.

The General received Mr. Coppell with marked cordiality, and was, I think,
pleased with his appearance; at all events, from that time until we left
the city Mr. Coppell was frequently at the office, oftentimes by
invitation of the General, and nothing ever occurred to disturb the
harmony of their personal relations.

On one occasion they were discussing the French and English statutes
prohibiting the subjects of those powers from holding slaves. A large
number of French and English subjects were living in open violation of
this prohibition in New Orleans, and the General remarked to Mr. Coppell
that he had a great mind to heap coals of fire on the heads of his friends
across the Atlantic by enforcing their laws. Mr. Coppell with eager
enthusiasm applauded the project, and urged the General to carry it into
effect.

The Spanish Government was represented in New Orleans by Don Juan
Callejon. Early in the summer the strictness of our quarantine of vessels
from Cuba produced some ill feeling on his part, which manifested itself
in the refusal of a clean bill of health to the steamer Roanoke, about to
leave New Orleans for Havana. In response to a request from the General,
Don Juan called immediately at the office; but owing to the unfortunate
circumstance of his entire ignorance of the English language, and the
consequent necessity of conversing through the medium of an interpreter, a
serious misunderstanding ensued, and the General, supposing the Consul to
be contemptuously setting our Government at defiance, threatened to send
him out of the country; but afterwards learning that their difference had
arisen purely from misinterpretation, and that Senor Callejon had proved
himself a patriot and hero in his country's service, the General, with the
honest admiration which one brave man always feels toward another, took
especial pains to render their intercourse, both official and personal, as
agreeable as might be. And to show the Spanish consul that in the matter
of quarantine he was inspired by no dislike toward his Government, he
placed more rigid restrictions, if possible, on American vessels from
infected ports than on the vessels of Spain.

To Senor Ruiz, the acting consul of the Republic of Mexico, who had the
singular consular virtue of sympathizing warmly with the free North, the
General's attentions were something more sincere than the hackneyed
"assurances of distinguished consideration" so necessary to diplomatic
correspondence and intercourse.

Indeed, I doubt if any of the foreign commercial agents at New Orleans
would claim that they ever had cause to complain against General Butler on
account of any personal grievance.

* * * * *

Probably nothing in the history of General Butler's administration in New
Orleans drew from the foes of free government in every land such
unmeasured execration as the celebrated "Order No. 28," relating to the
conduct of women in the street, and I wish to give the most decided
testimony upon this subject. That something was necessary to be done to
stop the insults to which we were continually subjected by the other sex,
I presume no one who is well informed as to their frequency and
humiliating character will for a moment doubt. Upon our arrival in the
city I flattered myself that such demonstrations would excite in me no
sentiment more serious than pity for the childishness that prompted them;
but I confess, that, after a day or two, the sneers and contortions of
countenance, the angry withholding of the dress from contact with my
person, and the abrupt departure from the sidewalk to the middle of the
street to avoid even passing the hated uniform, were too much for my
philosophy, and gave me a sense of humiliation more painful than I can
express. And yet the insults I received were slight, compared to those
offered to many of our officers and men.

This condition of affairs continued about two weeks, until it became
positively intolerable.

Young officers, too gallant, and too deeply imbued with the American
respect for woman, to resent, by word or deed, the indignity, would come
to the General with their cheeks crimson with shame and the effort to
repress their just indignation, and beg him to take some measure for the
suppression of the evil.

Most men would have seen no other solution of the difficulty than the
arrest and punishment of a few of the offenders as a warning to the rest.
But General Butler foresaw, what was afterwards proved in the case of Mrs.
Larue, that the arrest of women would invariably provoke a
street-disturbance, which might lead to bloodshed; he, therefore,
remembering an old ordinance of the city of London, republished it in the
form of the General Order which has gained so universal a celebrity.

Mr. Monroe, who was mayor of the city at the time of its capture, came in
a paroxysm of anger to protest against the order as a libel on every lady
in New Orleans.

The General, with perfect good-nature, went over every word of it with
him, explaining its origin and its intent, and demonstrating beyond doubt
that it simply gave the female population of the city the opportunity to
choose in which of the two categories they would be classed,--ladies or
"common women,"--and assured the Mayor, that, above all, his idea was to
promulgate such an order as would execute itself, and prevent the very
thing which the Rebels have since charged upon him,--"a war upon women."

Three times Mr. Monroe left the General with the firm conviction that the
act was perfectly proper; but, instigated by crafty and able conspirators,
of whom the ruling spirit was Mr. Pierre Soule, he repeatedly returned
with fresh attacks on the General's administration, and especially on this
order, until, the General's patience being exhausted, he said to
him,--"Mr. Mayor, you have played with me long enough. Your case is
settled. The boat leaves for Fort Jackson this afternoon, and you must be
ready to take passage on her at four o'clock."

I never witnessed greater forbearance than the General displayed in his
treatment of the Mayor; indeed, I was at the time quite indignant that he
allowed him such liberty of speech and action.

One word more about "Order No. 28." General Beauregard's fierce anger, and
his horrible construction of its provisions, intended for effect on his
troops, will be well remembered by my readers. It may not be uninteresting
to them to know that Beauregard's sister in New Orleans, when asked her
opinion of the order, answered,--"I have no interest in or objection to
it; it does not apply to me." Is it difficult to guess to which class she
belonged?

Can I say anything stronger in vindication of the propriety of this order,
or of the General's sagacity in issuing it, than that the first
twenty-four hours after its promulgation witnessed a complete, and, it
seemed to us who were there, almost miraculous, change in the deportment
of the ladies of the Crescent City? If success is the test of merit, then
was it one of the most meritorious acts of the war.

* * * * *

The severity with which General Butler punished crimes against the
Government that he was determined should be respected, or against the poor
and oppressed, was of course in the Confederacy and in Europe denounced as
the most fiendish cruelty, and he was characterized as a man whose every
impulse was prompted by the most brutal passions.

I do not expect the people of the South to believe my statement, that I
never met a man of greater generosity and kindness of heart, or one more
pleased to do an act of clemency; but I think the loyal reader will find
in the following illustrations of these traits evidence of its truth.

Among the Rebel soldiers who were captured at the surrender of Fort
Jackson, in April, 1862, were four men who, with the remainder of the
garrison, were paroled as prisoners of war, but were soon after discovered
in an attempt to organize a company, of which they were elected officers,
with the view of crossing our lines by force and rejoining the Rebel army,
and upon their own confession were convicted and sentenced to be
shot,--the only expiation known to the rules of civilized warfare for so
flagrant a violation of the parole.

During the interval between their conviction and the day appointed for
their execution, I had occasion to see them frequently, and was strongly
impressed with the idea that they had sinned in ignorance of the magnitude
of their offence, and that a commutation of the death-penalty would be of
more benefit than injury to our cause. As the day of their death rapidly
drew near, and I observed their agonized despair of a reprieve, and their
earnest, sincere efforts to prepare for a fate they deemed inevitable, I
determined to make an urgent appeal to the General for their lives.

On the afternoon previous to the day of their expected execution, I went
to the General's room and implored him to relent toward the unhappy men.

The General, in a kind, but apparently decided manner, met my urgent
request by referring to the proofs of their guilt, and the necessity of
the severest punishment as an example to others.

I was well aware of the futility of attempting to reason with the astute
lawyer, who had all the law on his side, and twenty years' experience at
the bar in cases where he had met every argument that ingenuity could
devise; so, avoiding his reasoning, I appealed directly to his feelings.
In this I was most earnestly and efficiently aided by one of his
household, whose heart and influence were always on the side of tenderness
and mercy.

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