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Sarah Hildreth Butler 1816 ~ 1877
Sarah Hildreth Butler
In many instances the wife of a great man has failed to prove
herself worthy even of reflected glory, but the wife of Benjamin
Butler was such an active factor in his career, along military
as well as civil lines that she well deserves a biography of her
own. I give it, however, in the words of her distinguished
husband, as I have taken it from the story of his own life: "In
the year 1830, I made the acquaintance of Fisher Ames Hildreth,
the only son of Dr. Israil Hildreth, of Dracut, a town joining
Lowell on the north side of the Merrimac River. That
acquaintance ripened into an affectionate friendship which
terminated only with his death thirty years later.
Doctor Hildreth had a family of seven children, six being
daughters. The son, having invited me to the family gathering of
the Thanksgiving feast I there first met Sarah, the second
daughter. I was much impressed with her personal endowments,
literary attainments and brilliancy of mind. Doctor Hildreth was
an exceedingly scholarly and literary man, who was a great
admirer of English poets, especially of Byron, Burns and
Shakespeare, and had early taught the great poet's plays to his
daughter, who in consequence developed a strong desire to go on
the stage. Her father approved of this and she appeared with
brilliant success at the Tremont Theatre in Boston and the Park
Theatre in New York, her talent for the delineation of character
being fully acknowledged by all.
When our acquaintance began I had never seen her on the stage,
her home life being sufficient to attract me. She declined to
leave her profession, however, until I had won my spurs in my
own profession. But a most cordial and affectionate intimacy
existed between us, and in the spring of 1843, I visited her at
Cincinnati, Ohio, where she was a star. There we became engaged
and we were married on the sixteenth of May, 1844."
Having thus concisely outlined his wife's girlhood and their
courtship, the General proceeds with his tribute to her value as
the helpmate of a public man: "My wife, with a devotion quite
unparalleled," he says, "gave me her support by accompanying me,
at my earnest wish, in every expedition in the War of the
Rebellion and made for me a home wherever I was stationed in
command. She went with me in the expedition to Ship Island after
the attack upon New Orleans, where I was exposed to the greatest
peril of my life, and only when my ship was hourly expected to
go to pieces and when I appealed to her good sense that our
children must not be bereft of both parents did she leave me to
seek safety on board a gun boat She suffered great privation and
hardships on Ship Island, while we were awaiting the attack of
New Orleans.
"In 1864 she went with me to the field and remained with me
during most of the campaign of 1864. Thus I had an advantage
over most of my brother commanding-generals in the field in
having an adviser, faithful, true and cool-headed, conscientious
and conservative, whose conclusions could always be trusted. In
the more military movements although she took full note she
never interfered by suggestion. In other matters all that she
agreed to was right. And if there is anything in my
administration of affairs that may be questioned it is that in
which I followed the bent of my own actions.
"Returning home with me after I had retired to civil and
political life, Mrs. Butler remained the same good adviser,
educating and guiding her children during their young lives with
such skill and success that neither of them ever did an act
which caused me serious sorrow or gave me the least anxiety on
their behalf. She made my home and family as happy as could be.
She took her place in society when in Washington and maintained
it with such grace and dignity and loveliness of character that
no one ever said an unkind or a disparaging word of her."
Mrs. Benjamin Butler died in Lowell in 1877. Her veracity and
strong mental characteristics survived pre-eminently in her
grandson, Butler Ames, the son of her eldest daughter, who has
for some years represented the district of her birth in the
National Congress.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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