Mrs.
Rebecca Levy resided in the New Orleans home of her brother,
Confederate cabinet member Judah Benjamin, at the time of the enemy
occupation. Northern General Butler seized the home “and also certain
other possessions which [he] could lay his hands on, including a black
tin box full of Tehuantepec bonds and other papers.” Mrs. Levy escaped
to Georgia for the war’s duration.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Butler, the Anti-Semite
“Some
of the most prominent persons of the Union were imbued with prejudice
against the Jews. One of these was Major-General Benjamin F. Butler of
Massachusetts, conniving careerist and political opportunist of major
proportions, who was given the title “Beast” by the Confederacy for his
severity during the early military occupation of New Orleans.
One
of his better known victims was Mrs. Philip Phillips, wife of the
Alabama Congressman, a fire-eating secessionist in skirts. Butler
ordered her imprisoned on Ship Island for months . . . . The war Butler
waged upon this Jewess and other Southern women made him the
Confederacy’s “Public Enemy Number One,” with a price upon his head.
The
General revealed the extent to which he had imbibed prejudicial
conceptions of the Jews. They were [to him] a tightly-knit and highly
organized nation who set themselves apart and defended themselves
against others even when one of their group was wrong. They were all
“traders, merchants, and bankers.” They were supporting the Confederacy
with whole heart – “two of them certainly are in the Confederate
Cabinet.”
[A
Jewish editor] wondered who the Cabinet officers were . . . the
progenitor of “the tribe of Benjamin, the Jewish Secretary of State,” as
Butler referred to him in another connection; and then a highly
inaccurate report: “I refer to Mr. Memminger as the other member of the
Confederate Cabinet. I have been informed that Mr. [Stephen] Mallory is
also of the Jewish faith or nationality.” It was apparent that Butler
was one of those who, without further investigation, adopt any rumors
which support their prejudices.
The
Jewish Record of New York . . . reported that Butler had said “he could
suck the blood of every Jew, and he would detain every Jew as long as
he can.” The editor of the Record said he was afraid to publish details
of Butler’s mistreatment of Jewish prisoners because it would only give
him a chance to “increase his severities” against them.”
(American Jewry and the Civil War, Bertram Wallace Korn, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1951, pp. 164-166)
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