Your Opinion On A Few Covers?

On that Civil War Cover addressed to Mrs. Lieutenant George F. French of Lunenburg, Vermont, here's something you don't come across everyday -- from the Vermont Historical Society -- a Civil War Photograph of none other than Lieutenant George F. French of the 8th Vermont Infantry, Company K:

Thanks for finding that! My googles weren't working. Upon further reading of "History of the Eighth Regiment Vermont Volunteers. 1861-1865", he, and the 8th, made it to NOLA by ship in May of 62. He was tasked as a member of the signal service to get the telegraphs back up and working after confederate sabotage.

He made 1st lieutenant on Jan 3 1863 and remained in the signal service until he retired from the Army.

That letter very well was sent by him, to his wife!

New Orleans was seized by the Union Army on April 28, 1862 so this letter bears US stamps and is from a Union officer. The Union occupying army at that time was commanded by Major General Benjamin Butler who was called 'The Beast' for his merciless control over the civilians including acts such as open robbery and issuing an order (Order 28) that any woman who showed disrespect to a Union soldier would be treated as a 'woman of the town plying her avocation' i.e. as a prostitute. Under his vicious leadership that could be argued to have included war crimes by today's standards the occupation forces did a great deal of damage to future prospects of unifying the country after the war. I would also have liked to see the content of the letter this Lieutenant in Butler's command wrote to his wife - to see whether he was complicit in the extreme suppression or was privately appalled by it.

There is an article by Patricia Kaufmann in this month's "The American Stamp Dealer and Collector" magazine regarding Maj. Gen. Butler and his Order #28. Good article to read. Ya, it would be nice if the letter was with the envelope; would be interesting to read.

Not to justify such cruelty, but it should be remembered that to most of the people of the Union the people of the Confederacy were considered traitors, and were often treated accordingly. Many would have argued that even hanging was too good for them. Just look at the Union patriotic covers of the time.

I'm not a historian, nor do I wish to cause a debate about the civil war or current politics through this post, but as I remember at least one of the major causes of the rebellion was from the debate over whether federal rights superseded state rights in governing. Its interesting that today, this issue is playing out over gun control, abortion, Affordable Health Care and other social/economic issues. That thought just came to me as I was following this post.

Yes, this is true. My point is that does not justify those few generals who decided to make war on unarmed civilians. This letter from one of this general's officers is interesting because of this aspect, and I was pointing out that it would be fascinating to have had the letter to see how one of his officers viewed this.

"I'm not a historian, nor do I wish to cause a debate about the civil war or current politics through this post, but as I remember at least one of the major causes of the rebellion was from the debate over whether federal rights superseded state rights in governing. Its interesting that today, this issue is playing out over gun control, abortion, Affordable Health Care and other social/economic issues. That thought just came to me as I was following this post"

And yet if you read the Confederate Constitution it gave the states no new rights that differ from the US Constitution except to codify slavery. The major power resided in Richmond, and their decisions were paramount to the individual states. When it comes to the Civil War, the "states rights" argument has always been just a smokescreen; the issue was always slavery.