View source for William Bruce Mumford

{{short description|Confederate-American executed for treason 1862}}
{{refimprove|date=May 2018}}
{{redirect|William Mumford|the English footballer|William Mumford (footballer)}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name              = William Bruce Mumford
| image             = William Bruce Mumford.jpg
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1819|12|5|mf=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[North Carolina]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1862|6|7|1819|12|5|mf=yes}}
| death_place       = [[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], U.S.
| known_for         = Being executed after tearing down an American flag during the U.S. Civil War
| conviction        = [[Treason]]
| conviction_status = [[Executed]]
| criminal_penalty  = [[Capital punishment|Death]]
| death_cause       = [[Execution by hanging]]
}}
'''William Bruce Mumford''' (December 5, 1819  – June 7, 1862)<ref>{{cite news |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1862-06-19/ed-1/seq-2/ |title=Particulars of the Execution of William B. Mumford for Hauling Down the United States Flag |newspaper=[[New York Herald]] |date=June 19, 1862 |page=2 |issue=9,414 |via=Library of Congress}}</ref> was a [[North Carolina]] native and resident of [[New Orleans]], who tore down the U.S. flag raised over Confederate New Orleans after the city was captured by Union troops during the [[American Civil War]]. In response, [[Union Army]] Maj. Gen. [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]], the commander of the Union ground forces, had Mumford court-martialed and executed for treason.
== Biography ==
Mumford's life leading up to the incident which resulted in his execution was relatively insignificant. A native of North Carolina, he owned no slaves, nor much of anything else, and had not volunteered to fight in the Civil War. However, he had been in the [[United States Army]] prior to secession. He was a noted gambler.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |first=James |last=Karst |title=The execution of William Mumford |url=https://www.nola.com/news/politics/the-execution-of-william-mumford/article_3b0f8c2a-b330-51b6-81d3-d8ad84638a18.html |access-date=2023-02-10 |website=NOLA.com |date=27 May 2016 |language=en}}</ref> He was married to Mary Mumford; after his death she never remarried.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Haugen |first=Andrew |date=2022 |title=Patriotic Fervor, the Civil War Press, and the Execution of William B. Mumford |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27190845 |journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=191–236 |jstor=27190845 |issn=0024-6816}}</ref>
== Flag incident ==
[[File:US flag 34 stars.svg|thumb|upright|The American flag, as it would have appeared in 1862.]]
On April 25, 1862, as [[Union Navy]] ships approached [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] New Orleans, [[Commodore (United States)|Commodore]] [[David Farragut]] ordered two officers to send a message to Mayor [[John T. Monroe]] requesting removal of [[Confederate flag]]s from the [[United States Custom House (New Orleans)]], [[New Orleans Mint]], and New Orleans City Hall at the [[Gallier Hall]] building, and the replacement of Confederate flags with U.S. flags. Monroe refused, claiming it was beyond his jurisdiction. On April 26, [[Captain (United States)|Capt.]] Henry W. Morris sent ashore Marines from the {{USS|Pocahontas|1852|6}} 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 (military)|surrender]] from the mayor.
As the Marines raised the flag, a number of locals gathered around in anger. The Marines told them that 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, he carried the flag to the mayor at city hall, but onlookers tore at it as he walked, reducing it to a stub.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Port of New Orleans and Mississippi delta circa 1862.jpg|thumb|Port of New Orleans and Mississippi delta circa 1862]]
==Trial and execution==
Three days later [[Union Army]] Maj. Gen. [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]], the commander of the Union ground forces, heard about the incident and decided to [[arrest]] and punish Mumford. He said he spotted Mumford wearing a piece of the flag during a speech by Monroe at the [[St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans|St. Charles Hotel]]. Butler decided that Mumford had to be punished.<ref name=":0" />
When the Union Army occupied the city on May 1, Mumford was arrested and charged with "[[High crimes and misdemeanours|high crimes and misdemeanors]] against the [[Law of the United States|laws of the United States]], and the peace and dignity thereof and the [[Martial law|Law Martial]]." On May 30, he was [[Trial|tried]] before a [[military tribunal]] and convicted, even though there was no clear attempt to determine whether the city was actually occupied when the event occurred.
On June 5, Butler issued the following Special Order No. 70:
<blockquote>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 Commodore 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.</blockquote>
On June 7, just before noon, 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 Wars]] and the [[Mexican–American War]].
== Aftermath ==
[[File:Confederate War Memorial Greenwood Cemetery New Orleans.jpg|thumb|upright|A Confederate Monument in which William Mumford is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans]]
After he was hanged, on June 18, Confederate [[Governor of Louisiana]] [[Thomas Overton Moore]] issued a statement declaring Mumford a hero and a model. [[Robert E. Lee]] demanded that Union [[General]] [[Henry Wager Halleck]] explain how execution could have occurred for a crime committed before New Orleans was occupied. [[President of the Confederate States of America|Confederate President]] [[Jefferson Davis]] issued a proclamation stating that Benjamin Butler should be considered a criminal and worthy of hanging.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1862/12/29/archives/proclamation-oe-jeff-davis-the-retaliatory-policy-fully-inaugurated.html ''Proclamation by the Jefferson Davis'']</ref> Later on Butler assisted Mumford's wife and helped her find a job in Washington.
Mumford was originally buried in a vault in Cypress Grove Cemetery, New Orleans. In 1950, the [[Ladies' Memorial Association]] moved Mumford's remains to the base of the Confederate monument at [[Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans]]. The Association placed a small stone there that reads "William B. Mumford, Martyr to the Cause of the Confederacy, June 7, 1862, Aged 42 years."<ref name=":1" />
== Legacy ==
Mumford's name has been mentioned alongside figures such as [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Elmer E. Ellsworth]], [[John Pelham (officer)|John Pelham]] and [[Stonewall Jackson]], which represent "martyred heroes and violent villains for both the North and South."<ref name=":1" /> In the South, Mumford was praised as a hero and a martyr, while conversely in the North, he was condemned as a coward and a treasonous thug.<ref name=":1" /> After his wife's death in 1912, the [[South Carolina|South Carolinian]] newspaper ''[[The Times and Democrat]]'' noted that just hearing the name Mumford in the South could still "stir the hearts of the older people with bitter memories of General Butler’s brutality and revengefulness."<ref name=":1" />
At the [[Confederate Memorial Hall Museum]], a piece of the flag that Mumford tore, the rope that he was hanged with, and a large image of him are on display.<ref name=":1" />
== See also ==
* [[Susan Brownlow]] - involved in another American Civil War flag situation
* [[New Orleans Massacre of 1866]] feat. John Monroe
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* 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.&nbsp;20.
* Roehl, Marjorie. "He was a rebel with a cause to the bitter end." ''The Times-Picayune'' [New Orleans] 10 May 1987: p. G11.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mumford, William B}}
[[Category:1819 births]]
[[Category:1862 deaths]]
[[Category:1862 crimes in the United States]]
[[Category:19th-century executions by the United States]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Seminole Wars]]
[[Category:Benjamin Butler]]
[[Category:Civilians who were court-martialed]]
[[Category:Civilians killed in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Confederates executed by the United States military by hanging]]
[[Category:People of Louisiana in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:People executed by military occupation forces]]
[[Category:People executed for treason against the United States]]
[[Category:Executed people from North Carolina]]