Federal General Benjamin Butler was to do a number of things during the War that would generate nicknames. His refusal to grant freedom to escaped slaves, or slaves "liberated" by Federal troops, earned such blacks the nickname of "contraband"; Butler successfully argued that the former Southern slaves, being property of the citizens of a foreign nation at war with his, were now the property of the North.
Butler, as commander of the occupation forces of New Orleans and southern Louisiana, required all citizens to either swear allegiance to the Federal government or to leave Federal-occupied territory with no more than their personal clothing and no more than fifty dollars. He then began the systematic confiscation of Southern property (and including his relatives in the haul - a dubious form of generosity), indulging his much-rumored (if unverified) lust for silver spoons by taking them himself, resulting in his earning the nickname "Spoons" Butler.
However, the nickname by which Butler was best-known was given to him by Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard: "Beast" Butler.
To demonstrate his intolerance for any signs of rebellion or hostility from among the populace of New Orleans, Butler had a New Orleanian - William Mumford - hanged for having the audacity to enter the New Orleans branch of the United States Mint and lowering the Federal flag. As William Mumford's wife begged Butler to spare the life of her husband, Butler had him executed as an example of how he would treat all those who defied him in the least degree.
Although Butler quieted the gentlemen of New Orleans with Mumford's cold-blooded murder, New Orleans ladies of every social strata were not deterred from expressing their contempt for Butler and his troops. Butler earned the nickname "Beast" Butler by issuing his "Woman Order" on May 15, 1862. Modeled on similar orders issued in Maryland and Europe, the New Orleans "Woman Order" said:
"As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insult from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation."In other words, a lady who failed to extend every courtesy and pleasantry to a Federal soldier or officer was to be regarded and treated as a street prostitute - something of which Butler's peer, General Joseph Hooker, would know much.
Butler earned the enmity and hatred of Southern men and women everywhere with that single order.
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