Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

In the course of three quarters of an hour the officer reported that he had the prisoners I had sent for.

“Bring them in in single file, and march them around this room.”

As they were being marched before me, the face of one of them caught my eye and I knew I had seen it before. I rarely forget a face.

“Halloa, my man,” I said, “where have I seen you before?”

“In Boston, General.”

“Whereabouts?”

“In court.”

“Which one of your crimes were you being tried for there?”

“Burglary, General.”

“Well, you were tried for burglary there and convicted?”

“Yes.”

“And pardoned out of State Prison to enlist in the army, and you did so?”

“Yes.”

“What regiment?”

“The Thirtieth.”

“Are you of that regiment now?”

“No; I have been discharged on account of a rupture.”

“Very well; having been convicted of burglary and pardoned once and now caught here robbing houses again, can you show any reason why you should not be hanged at once to save all further trouble?”

“Oh, don't do that, General; I will tell you all about it,”

The room was cleared, and he began, under a caution to tell the truth, because lying to me was a sin I never pardoned. He said that there was a party of seven of them who had formed a secret society under an oath. They had organized and gone around the last two weeks searching houses for arms, and getting everything they could. They had visited eighteen different houses. He gave me the names of the band and the places where the men lived. They did not all live at this coffee-house. Three of them we had not caught. They were immediately sent for and brought in. I recognized one of them as being the mate of my steam yacht. Three confessed that night and signed a written confession, and the property was substantially all recovered. A notice was put in the