Blanche Butler Ames (March 2, 1847 – December 26, 1939) was the wife of

Adelbert Ames Adelbert Ames (October 31, 1835 – April 13, 1933) was an American sailor, soldier, and politician who served with distinction as a Union Army general during the American Civil War. A Radical Republican, he was military governor, U.S. Senato ...

, a decorated general of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

and

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

during Reconstruction. Blanche Butler was born in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

, the second child and only daughter of Sarah Jones (née Hildreth) and

Benjamin Franklin Butler Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American major general of the Union Army, politician, lawyer, and businessman from Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Butler is best ...

, who would also serve as a general in the Civil War. She attended school in Lowell until she was sent to the Academy of the Visitation in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

at age 13, where she described the sectional tension between northern and southern students on the eve of the Civil War. Blanche met Adelbert Ames, who had served under her father in the

Army of the James The Army of the James was a Union Army that was composed of units from the Department of Virginia and North Carolina and served along the James River (Virginia), James River during the final operations of the American Civil War in Virginia. Histor ...

, while he was serving as Senator from Mississippi during

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

. They married at Saint Anne's Episcopal Church in Lowell, the same church where her parents were wed, on July 21, 1870, and had six children:

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

, Edith, Sarah, Blanche, Adelbert, Jr., and Jessie. When her husband was elected Governor of Mississippi in 1873, Blanche accompanied him, and wrote a series of letters detailing her experiences as a Northern woman living in the South during Reconstruction. After Adelbert resigned under pressure in 1876, the Ames family returned to Lowell to pursue business interests, where they remained for much the rest of their lives. After her husband's death in 1933, Mrs. Ames compiled a collection of their letters, released by the family as ''Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century: Family Letters of Blanche Butler and Adelbert Ames'' in 1957. She also compiled a detailed account of the Butler Ancestry in 1895.
The Butler ancestry of Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler in America
' She died at the Ames winter home in

Ormond Beach, Florida Ormond Beach is a city in central Florida in Volusia County. The population was 43,080 at the 2020 census. Ormond Beach lies directly north of Daytona Beach and is a principal city of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL Metropolitan ...

, on December 26, 1939, at the age of 92, and is buried beside her husband and their children at the Hildreth family cemetery in Lowell, across from her parents and siblings.

References

External links

Blanche Butler Ames , Civil War Women Blog

Sophia Smith Collection
Smith College. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ames, Blanche Butler 1847 births 1939 deaths Butler–Ames family People from Lowell, Massachusetts First Ladies and Gentlemen of Mississippi