Slavery in this country was an abomination. A deeper bit of research will reveal there was much more to the Confederate States’ secession than that single issue. But, that isn’t the point of the post.
Being only vaguely familiar with the Northfield robbery I did a little looking around. Found a couple of good reads.
There was mention of leniency in a couple posts. Mention of vengeance in another. Me, I don’t know. I haven’t dug into it and I wasn’t there.
What I did find interesting was the mention of one Benjamin Butler in one of the articles. It mentioned one of the criminals thought he was tied into the Northfield Bank. And, maybe there a tie-in to the vengeance aspect.
I don’t remember exactly what Butler’s title was at the time. But he commanded Union occupation troops in the city I worked in, as well as many other Southern states and cities.
For several years my office was downtown, across the street from the main library. The back door of the building was maybe a hundred and fifty yards from the library’s front door. I liked to brown bag it, eat at my desk early then get out of the office for an hour without having to burn time getting to a restaurant and waiting to be served. Usually, I’d just walk the streets listening to talk radio on a Sony Walkman.
On bad weather days, I’d go to the archival room in the library and read old stuff on microfilm, columns, journal entries, letters, etc. That place is pretty full from serving a city over three hundred years old. Learned allot. One of the things I learned was “Butcher” Butler wasn’t held in the greatest esteem by the town’s folks. Seems as if much of what his troops did, if they did it in Iraq today, they’d be on trial. Humiliation, intimidation and harassment were practiced daily. They’d also charge, try and convict people for violations of unwritten laws, happily accepting the payment of fines on the spot. All the while Butler turned a blind eye. Or perhaps gave his blessings. The conditions described in those contemporaneous records could hardly be termed as “lenient”.
Finally fed up with it, one medical doctor, an up-standing, well respected, life long resident of the city, gut shot a young Lieutenant knowing full well he’d hang for it. And, he did.
Now that I’ve contributed to the total high-jacking of the thread, I’ll close by saying I hope any film made will be entertaining. I won’t be seeing it.