Benjamin Franklin Butler

Butler, Benjamin Franklin (1818–93), U.S. politician and Union general in the Civil War. His autocratic rule as military governor of New Orleans (1862) earned him the appellation “Beast,” and he was recalled by President Abraham Lincoln. As U.S. representative (1867–75, 1877–79), he supported Reconstruction and voted for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. As Populist party candidate, he was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1882 and ran unsuccessfully for president in 1884.