William B. Mumford

William Bruce Mumford was a North Carolina native and resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, who was hanged for tearing down a United States flag during the American Civil War.

Flag incident

On April 25, 1862, as Union naval ships approached New Orleans, Union Commander David Farragut ordered two officers to send a message to Mayor John T. Monroe requesting removal of Confederate flags from the local customhouse, mint, and city hall and then put up U.S. flags. Monroe refused, claiming it was beyond his jurisdiction. On April 26 Union Captain Henry W. Morris sent ashore a team from the USS "Pocahontas" to raise the U.S. flag over the mint. Morris did so without any order from Farragut, who was still trying to receive an official surrender from the mayor.

As the team raised the flag, a number of locals gathered around in anger and the Union sailors told the population the "Pocahontas" would fire on anyone attempting to remove the flag. However, a group of seven individuals, including Mumford, decided to remove the flag from the mint. The "Pocahontas" fired and Mumford was injured by a flying piece of brick. With cheers from local onlookers, Mumford carried the flag to the mayor at city hall, but onlookers tore at it as he walked, reducing it to a stub.

Trial and hanging

On April 28, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, the commander of the Union ground forces, heard about the incident and decided to arrest and punish Mumford. When the Union force occupied the city on May 1, Mumford was arrested and charged with "high crimes and misdemeanors against the laws of the United States, and the peace and dignity thereof and the Law Martial." On May 30, he was tried before a military commission and was convicted even though there was no clear attempt to determine whether the city was actually occupied when the event occurred.

On June 5, General Butler issued the following Special Order No. 70:

: "William B. Mumford, a citizen of New Orleans, having been convicted before a military commission of treason and an overt act thereof, tearing down the United States flag from a public building of the United States, after said flag was placed there by Commander Farragut, of the United States navy: It is ordered that he be executed according to sentence of said military commission on Saturday, June 7, inst., between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12 a.m. under the directions of the provost-marshal of the District of New Orleans, and for so doing this shall be his sufficient warrant."

On June 7, a little before noon, William Mumford was taken to be hanged in the courtyard of the mint itself, a place that Butler had decided "according to the Spanish custom" would be the ideal place. Many people came to the spot, and Mumford was allowed to give a final speech in which he spoke of his patriotism for the Confederacy and his love for what he considered the true meaning of the U.S. flag, a symbol he had fought under in the Seminole and Mexican-American wars.

Aftermath

After he was hanged, on June 18, Governor Thomas O. Moore issued a statement declaring Mumford a hero and a model. Robert E. Lee demanded that Union General-in-Chief Henry Halleck explain how execution could have occurred for a crime committed before New Orleans was occupied. Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation stating Benjamin Butler should be considered a criminal and worthy of hanging himself. However, later on, Butler assisted Mumford's wife and helped her find a job in Washington.

William B. Mumford, whose act of bravado gained him rather more attention than he hoped for, is buried in a vault in Cypress Grove Cemetery.

References

* Broadwater, Robert P., "William B. Mumford became a Southern hero for defying Union sailors in New Orleans", America's Civil War, November 2005, Vol. 18, Issue 5., p. 20.