Read John Monaghan’s review of “Butler” for Detroit Free Press
The news that “a runaway negro slave demands to see you” does not sit well with the Maj. Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler. First of all, he wasn’t informed of any slaves at Virginia’s Ft. Monroe, where he has just taken charge for the Northern cause. And second, no one makes demands like that of him, except for those few people who outrank him, including his wife.