Beast Butler Signs a Lieutenant's Commission for the Seventh Regiment of Colored Troops

(CIVIL WAR COMMISSION). BUTLER, MAJOR GENERAL BENJAMIN F. United States of America. Head Quarters Deparment of Virginia and North Carolina. Provisional Commission. [Caption title]. Sm. folio broadside. Norfolk, Va: New Regime Print, [1864]. Breaks in several old folds, but quite good. $475.00

The commander at Fort Monroe, Benjamin "Beast" Butler signs a lieutenant's commission for Alpheus K. Long for the Seventh Regiment United States Colored Troops. Commissions are common; commissions for officers of colored troops are scarce. Such commissions by Butler are very nice; Butler was the first to declare slaves "contraband" and as Grant's commissioner for the exchange of prisoners, Butler forced the Confederacy to recognize the military status of the U.S. colored troops.