Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818– January 11, 1893) was an American lawyerand politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as its governor. During the American Civil War, his administration of occupied New Orleans, his policies regarding slaves as "contrabands", his ineffectual leadership in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, and the fiasco of Fort Fisherrank him as one of the most controversial "political generals" of the war. He was widely reviled for years after the war by Southern whites, who gave him the nickname "Beast Butler".  He was a political general he was a general during the US Civil War who was given a high position in command due to political connections or to appease certain political blocks. .