INTERESTING DOUBLE-SIDED CDV OF CONFEDERATE GENERAL SOLON BORLAND AND UNION GENERAL BENJAMIN BUTLER

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Item Code: 1138-49

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Both images are period lithographs.

The first side depicts Confederate General Solon Borland in a dark civilian suit. The bottom of the mount has a period ink ID that reads “BRIG. GEN. SOLON BORLAND C.S.A.” the top edge has collector information in pencil.

The second side has a lithograph of Union General Benjamin Butler, also in a dark civilian suit. Bottom of the mount has a pencil ID of “GEN BUTLER.”

Both lithographs are clean and the mount is in good condition.

Solon Borland was born on September 21, 1808, in Nansemond County, Virginia. When he was a youth, his family moved to Murfreesboro, North Carolina, where he attended Hertford Academy. Borland also studied medicine in Philadelphia and Louisville. As a captain in 1831, he led a company of Virginia militia forces that were dispatched to Southampton County to fight Nat Turner's slave rebellion.

During the Mexican War, Borland was commissioned major of the Arkansas Mounted Infantry Regiment serving under Archibald Yell. Borland served throughout the war, having turned over his newspaper business to associates. He was taken as a prisoner of war by the Mexican army on January 23, 1847, just south of Saltillo. He escaped, and was discharged when his regiment was disbanded and mustered out in June, but continued in the army as volunteer aide-de-camp to General William J. Worth during the remainder of the campaign, from the Battle of Molino del Rey to the capture of Mexico City on September 14, 1847.

After the war, Borland was elected as a United States Senator to fill the unexpired term of Ambrose Hundley Sevier. His views were generally of a disunion version, and he was not popular with many Senate members. During an 1850 debate over Southern rights, he physically attacked Mississippi Senator Henry Foote. He discovered soon after his return to Little Rock, Arkansas, that his views were not popular at home, either. Borland resigned from the United States Senate in 1853 and was appointed as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Nicaragua.

Borland returned to Little Rock in October 1854, and resumed his medical practice and operation of his pharmacy. Borland declined a nomination from President Pierce as governor of the New Mexico Territory. However, he remained active in local politics, and very vocal as to his views on state's rights and secession.

At the start of the Civil War, Borland was appointed as a commander of Arkansas Militia by Arkansas Governor Henry M. Rector, and ordered to lead the expedition that seized Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the first days of the war, despite the fact that Arkansas had not yet seceded. By the time Borland and his forces arrived in Fort Smith, the Federal troops had already departed, and there were no shots fired. He was replaced as commander at the Arkansas Secession convention less than a month later, but he was able to obtain a position as a commander for Northeast Arkansas. For a time in 1861 he commanded the depot at Pitman's Ferry responsible for troop deployments and supplies.

Borland helped recruit troops for the Confederacy during this period, helping to raise the 3d Arkansas Cavalry Regiment on June 10, 1861, becoming its first colonel. The regiment was sent to Corinth, Mississippi, but without Borland. It would eventually serve under Major-General Joseph Wheeler, seeing action in the Second Battle of Corinth and the Battle of Hatchie's Bridge, along with other battles as a part of the Army of Mississippi. However, Borland never left Arkansas.

While in command of northern Arkansas, he ordered an embargo of goods to end price speculation, which was rescinded by Governor Rector. Borland protested that a governor could not countermand an order from a Confederate official, but in January 1862 his order was countermanded by the Confederate States Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin. In declining health and resenting that embarrassment, Borland resigned from further service to the Confederacy in June, 1862, moving to Dallas County, Arkansas. He died before the war's end, in Harris County, Texas. His burial place is in the old City Cemetery, Houston, Texas.

Benjamin Butler became one of the most disliked generals of the war, upsetting many on both sides of the conflict. Butler graduated from Colby College in Maine in 1838, and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1840, where he established a large criminal practice.  He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853, and then to the Senate of the Commonwealth in 1859.  While in office, he attended the Democratic convention where he voted for Jefferson Davis to run for the presidential nomination, as well as candidates such as John C. Breckinridge.  He entered the Massachusetts Militia in 1839, and was promoted to brigadier general in 1855 even though he had no formal military training.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Butler played an important role because he and the 8th Massachusetts were some of the first troops to reach Washington DC, protecting the capital in case Maryland seceded.  He was appointed a major general on May 16, 1861, being one of the first appointed by President Abraham Lincoln.  He first saw action at the battle of Big Bethel, where he was defeated.  He then commanded Fort Monroe, where Butler became the first to identify slaves who ran away into Union lines as “contraband of war,” despite the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  In August of 1861, Butler led a successful amphibious assault on the Hatteras Inlet in North Carolina, and moved onto New Orleans in May, after the city had already surrendered to Admiral David G. Farragut.  It was during this time that Butler would gain many of his enemies.

Once in New Orleans, he was appointed as military governor, and commanded the city in rather controversial ways.  Although he was able to bring order to the city, he became known as one who would pilfer goods of the Southern households he was watching.  He issued Order 28 during this time period, which stated that any lady in New Orleans who showed contempt for Union soldiers would effectively be treated as though they were a prostitute.  This law drew great controversy in both the North and South, caused Confederate president Jefferson Davis to label Butler and outlaw, and earned him the nickname “Beast Butler.”  He was removed from this position in December of 1862, and given command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina in November of 1863, which would become known as the Army of the James.  While commanding this force, he performed poorly during the Bermuda Hundred campaign, allowing Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard to slow him down with an inferior force.  He went on to fail once again at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and was ordered by Union general Ulysses S. Grant to return home to await orders. On November 30, 1865, Butler resigned his commission.

He returned to politics, and was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1882 after several unsuccessful campaigns. In 1878, he was once again elected to Congress, and was a presidential candidate during the election of 1884. He died January 11, 1893.  [ad] [ph:L]

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