LOWELL — More than 130 years after his death, the Sons of Union Civil War Veterans held their annual birthday celebration of Lowell native Union General Benjamin Franklin Butler.

Butler was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, on November 5, 1818, and his mother would bring him to Lowell at age 9, where he would eventually graduate from Lowell High School in 1831. He would later pass the exam from the bar and became a lawyer in Lowell, later becoming more active in the political scene, first as a member of the Democratic Party. He would win his first election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1852. Throughout his career, he would also serve as a member of the United States House of Representatives, the State Senate, and as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts.

“He spent most of his term fighting discriminatory policies advanced by members of the Know-Nothing Party. He also supported labor reform legislation, including the adoption of a 10-hour workday,” said John Dupre, a member of the Sons of the Union, Civil War veterans.

Butler would be appointed colonel of a militia of Irish American men, which was later disbanded by Massachusetts Governor Henry Gardner before being reinstated, this time with Butler chosen as brigadier general. Butler was later appointed to the West Point Board of Visitors by none other than Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who would later become the only Confederate president.

It was at the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln that Butler recognized the likelihood of hostilities breaking out between the North and the South. After call-ups for militias finally took place in 1861, Butler began a campaign south as a brigadier general, occupying Baltimore, Maryland, followed by Fort Monroe. Butler and his troops would be defeated by the Confederates at the Battle of Bethel, but in August he commanded an expeditionary force with the U.S. Navy to take Forts Hatteras and Clark in North Carolina, the first significant Union victory since the First Battle of Bethel. Bull Run, Dupre said.

In May 1862, Butler commanded troops who captured and occupied the city of New Orleans, an occupation that Dupré said was controversial at the time.

“In the administration of this city, he demonstrated great firmness and great political subtlety. He devised a plan to relieve the poor, demanded oaths of allegiance from anyone seeking government privilege, and confiscated guns,” said Dupre, who noted the success of Butler’s plan to dramatically reduce cases of yellow fever in the occupied city. .

Some of Butler’s actions, such as being the first Union officer not to return runaway slaves to their owners, are credited with making emancipation a Union war goal. After the war, Dupre said Butler returned to Lowell and resumed his political career, first serving three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and then serving as governor for a year in 1883.

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Senior Vice Commander-in-Chief Kevin Tucker called Butler “a true Union hero.”

“He was a progressive, a defender of the poor, of women, of minorities. It’s our honor to remember him every year as his birthday approaches,” Tucker said.

Butler continued to practice law after his political career ended, until his death on January 11, 1893 from heart failure brought on by a case of pneumonia. SUCWV members laid wreaths and roses at the base of Butler’s large headstone before the taps were played.

The SUCWV also made sure to honor another person buried at Hildreth Cemetery, Butler’s son-in-law and Union major general, Adelbert Ames. Ames was married to Blanche Butler, the daughter of Butler and Sarah Hildreth. SUCWV member Dan Murray spoke at length about Ames’ life and military accomplishments.

“Brothers and sisters, we gather here every year to honor General Butler, but I think it is not fair to let another Union hero, General Adelbert Ames, go without recognition,” said Murray as he stood at the Ames family grave.

Ames was born in Rockland, Maine, in 1835 and as a young adult he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1856. Ames served as an artillery officer at the First Battle of Bull Run, which gave him will be worth the rank of major. when he was wounded but refused to abandon his post. Ames later mounted a significant defense after a retreat at the Battle of Gettysburg and was later promoted to major general of the Union Army for its successful assault on Fort Fisher in 1865.

After the war, Murray said Ames had served as a senator from Mississippi during the Reconstruction era after the state was readmitted to the Union, and then later as governor. Murray said Ames left Mississippi after striking a deal to avoid impeachment after Southern Democrats took control of the state, in some cases violently.

After living briefly in Northfield, Minnesota, Ames would move to New York, then to Tewksbury as manager of a flour mill while pursuing other business interests in Lowell. Ames died at the age of 97 in 1933 in Ormond Beach, Florida.