Don't mess with Ben Butler

Having read Baldy Smith's Autobiography on Saturday, I tapped into Butler's Book last night to give "Spoons" equal time on the Petersburg controversies.

Butler must have been a hell of a lawyer. He really lays cases out simply and economically based on a few documents and not much emotion.

I felt sorry for Smith after reading the relevant passages in Butler. Expert attorney that he was, Butler also made me feel contempt for Smith. I wasn't prepared for that.

This was not a buffoon, this was an unholy terror.