Carte de visite, cartoon caricature of Butler in uniform with caption "The Terry-fied General". Sign post with "LOWEL" on it. Content of the caricature likely refers to when Lincoln at US Grant’s urging relieved Butler from command of the Department of North Carolina and Virginia due to lack of confidence in  his military ability; he was to report to Lowell, Massachusetts. At his hearing Butler focused his defense on his actions at Fort Fisher. He produced charts and duplicates of reports by subordinates to prove he had been right to call off his attack of Fort Fisher, despite orders from General Grant to the contrary. Butler claimed the fort was impregnable. To his embarrassment, a follow-up expedition led by Major General Alfred H. Terry captured the fort on January 15, and news of this victory arrived during the committee hearing; Butler's military career was over. He was formally retained until November 1865 with the idea that he might act as military prosecutor of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Simple back mark of JOSEPH WARD, BOSTON.

Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American major general of the Union Army, politician, lawyer, and businessman from Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire and raised in Massachusetts, Butler was a politically appointed major general of the Union Army during the Civil War and had a role in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.

Butler joined the Union Army, where his lack of military skill was evident time and again. His controversial military governing of New Orleans made him widely disliked in the South and earned him the "Beast" epithet. Butler came up with the idea of designating freed slaves as "contraband of war," an idea that the Lincoln administration endorsed and that played a role in making emancipation an official war goal.

After the war, Butler continued to be very active in State and National politics. Butler died on January 11, 1893, of complications from a bronchial infection, two days after arguing a case before the Supreme Court. He is buried in his wife's family cemetery, behind the main Hildreth Cemetery in Lowell, MA.  [JET/LD][PH:L]

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