children must not be bereft of both parents did she leave me to seek safety on board a gun boat. She suffered great privation and hardships on Ship Island, while we were awaiting the attack of New Orleans.
"In 1864 she went with me to the field and remained with me during most of the campaign of 1864. Thus I had an advantage over most of my brother commanding-generals in the field in having an adviser, faithful, true and cool-headed, conscientious and conservative, whose conclusions could always be trusted. In the more military movements although she took full note she never interfered by suggestion. In other matters all that she agreed to was right. And if there is anything in my administration of affairs that may be questioned it is that in which I followed the bent of my own actions.
"Returning home with me after I had retired to civil and political life, Mrs. Butler remained the same good adviser, educating and guiding her children during their young lives with such skill and success that neither of them ever did an act which caused me serious sorrow or gave me the least anxiety on their behalf. She made my home and family as happy as could be. She took her place in society when in Washington and maintained it with such grace and dignity and loveliness of character that no one ever said an unkind or a disparaging word of her."
Mrs. Benjamin Butler died in Lowell in 1877. Her veracity and strong mental characteristics survived pre-eminently in her grandson, Butler Ames, the son of her eldest daughter, who has for some years represented the district of her birth in the National Congress.
MRS. HENRY D. GILPIN.
Mrs. Henry D. Gilpin was the widow of an eminent man, and had a ruling influence in Philadelphia owing to her intellectual superiority, her culture and refinement. She was the daughter of Dr. John Sibley, a distinguished physician in Louisiana until the close of his life and exercised throughout that state a wide influence. Leaving school at an early date she joined her father in Louisiana and married Josiah S. Johnston, then Judge of the Western District of that state. He was afterwards elected to the House of Representatives and served for three terms in the Senate of the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston resided in Washington and while there their house was celebrated for its hospitality. After the death of Mr. Johnston, Mrs. Johnston became the wife of Honorable Henry D. Gilpin, United States Attorney for the District of Pennsylvania, and whom Mr. Van Buren, after he was elected President called to his cabinet as Solicitor of the Treasury and subsequently to the office of Attorney-General of the United States. Their home in Philadelphia was the resort of distinguished strangers, artists, connoisseurs. The library of Mr. Gilpin was perhaps the largest private collection in America and was bequeathed by him (after his wife's death), to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. His works of art were left to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and to this collection Mrs. Gilpin added the portraits of Mr. Gilpin and herself. Mrs. Gilpin took a prominent part in the great Sanitary Fair held in Philadelphia: was chairman of the Ladies' A Committee, which department alone realized thirty-five thousand dollars.
