General Butler took possession of the city the 1st day of May,
1862. His troops gutted the banks, but did not molest the merchants;
so those fellows that had given their stuff away were kicking
themselves for doing so. He closed up all the gambling-houses,
and then issued licenses for public gambling to any one who would
pay the fee and take his brother in as a partner. His profits must
have been enough to make him independently rich without the spoons.
He kept the city very clean, but old yellow-jack got in, and then
Ben got a furlough and went up to Washington, and he took the spoons
with him. He took the marble statue of Henry Clay out of the state-
house at Baton Rouge and shipped it to his home in Massachusetts.
He could not hide that as easily as he could the spoons, as after
the war the United States Government made him return it, and that
nearly killed him.
I had the race-track, and was running games out at the lake. I
was making a great deal of money, and would work the boats when I
had time. Some one told Butler that I called him names, so he sent
for me, and threatened to send me to Tortugas, but I talked him
out of that. Some of his officers lost their money against my
games and then kicked. The result was, old Ben sent for me again.
This time I did not get off so easily. He took me before the
Provost Judge, who fined me $1,000 and sent me to jail for one
year, and no amount of money could get me out. There were some of
the best men in the South in with me, and our friends on the outside
did not forget us. We had good beds, and everything to eat that
the market afforded. We played poker, and I was making money all
the time. I would fee the jailer, and at night he would take me
out in the city, so that my prison life was not so very bad. Butler
made us a visit one day just at dinner time, and when he saw the
birds and wine, you should have heard him roar. "Why," said he,
"those d----d rascals are living better than I ever did." The
jailer told him that our friends sent in the luxuries. He looked
at our big beds, shower bath, and other surroundings and said, "I
have a d----d notion to send them to the penitentiary;" but the
jailer told him it was pulled down, so he had to give up his d----d
notion, and we were glad of it.
I had been in jail for six months, when one day Governor Shipley
visited us. He asked the jailer, "Which is Devol?" I was introduced
to him, and he asked me where I was raised. I told him in Ohio.
He said the crime I was in for was not so very serious, and he told
the jailer to turn me out, and I should come to his office. I was
let out, and I reported to the Governor. He told me not to beat
the officers; I promised I would not, so I was once more a free man.
When Butler heard that I was let out on the Governor's orders, he
was mad as the d---l; so, to get even, he confiscated all my horses,
which had cost me over $50,000. I had promised the Governor that
I would not beat the officers; but I took my promise back when Ben
took my horses, and it was not long after that I caught a sucker
paymaster for $19,000, and they did not find out who it was that
won the greenbacks. I made a pile of money, bought substitutes
for some of my horses, and opened up the race-course again. Ben
Butler and I got to be friendly, and he gave me two silver spoons
to remember him by, and I have them yet.