VP Beast Butler?

[Don1946]

Let me raise the question again: What exactly does Butler stand guilty of in the eyes of those criticizing him here? What is the actual evidence that condemns Butler?
If all this boils down to opinion or prejudice originating in where we are born, educated, or live, what is the sense in studying history? No one has glorified the "hard hand of war," but that is the historical context Butler (and his enemies) were operating in during 1862 when the war turned toward a life and death struggle over slavery. The hackneyed stereotypes of spoon-stealing and woman abuse seem to me just echoes of the slurs passed back and forth on both sides 150 years ago. We learn nothing from them.