Benjamin Butler

Benjamin Butler, born on November fifth, eighteen eighteen, was a prominent American major general of the Union Army, a politician, lawyer, and businessman hailing from Massachusetts. Raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Butler emerged as a significant figure during the American Civil War, where he gained notoriety for his controversial decision to classify escaped slaves as contraband of war, a stance that was later endorsed by the Lincoln administration and contributed to the formalization of emancipation as a war objective.

His military career, however, was marked by mixed reviews. Butler's command of New Orleans during the war earned him the infamous nickname