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On this date 150 years ago, Lowell’s Benjamin Butler took command of Fort Monroe, a massive installation at the southern tip of Hampton, Virginia that remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.

Very early in his tenure at Fort Monroe, Butler was confronted with the novel problem of what to do with three slaves who had escaped from Confederate lines and who sought asylum inside the Union fort. Butler’s impromptu by well-reasoned decision, to treat them as “contraband of war”, inadvertently shaped the policy towards escaped slaves for the entire Union Army and accelerated the movement towards emancipation.

Butler’s transfer to command of Fort Monroe was born of controversy. Just nine days earlier as commander of the Department of Annapolis, Butler had slipped the Lowell-based Sixth Regiment into Baltimore on a rainy night, occupied some strategic high ground, and began arresting many of the city’s leading citizens for treason. Butler’s bold move had secured Baltimore for the Union for the duration of the war, but it also infuriated General-in-Chief Winnfield Scott who thought it a reckless risk in violation of orders. Scott summonsed Butler to Washington for a dressing-down. President Lincoln’s thoughts on the subject are unclear, but after meeting with General Scott, Butler called upon the president. We don’t know what was said between them, but when Butler entered the White House, he was a one star general of the Massachusetts Volunteers; when he departed, he was a two star general of the Regular Army en route to Fort Monroe.

I don’t know if it is because we endured such a harsh winter this year, but the spring season seems like it has come to us in high-definition. I’ve read the media coverage about the mother-of-all-allergy-seasons and the double deluxe blooming in the woods and fields. That’s part of the overall quality outside, the grass extra thick and leaves extra dense.

In a year when it seemed like spring was never going to turn the calendar, the season arrived bigtime. Have you ever seen the flowering trees around the city so massively blossomed? My wife and I bought our annual supply of yard flowers at “Sykes the Florist & Greenhouses” on Lawrence Street yesterday afternoon. The place is a riot of color, as the saying goes. We bought as many flats of impatiens, fat marigolds, and other varieties whose names I can’t remember as would fit in the trunk of the car and back seat. And a couple of geraniums, robust red ones. If you don’t know “Sykes,” treat yourself to a visit to an urban oasis. What a plus to have a place like this in the city. I didn’t see zinnias there yesterday. I’m looking for zinnias that will go strong all summer. I heard there might be some at a greenhouse on River Road. Let me know if you have a source.

The plantings along the upgraded sidewalk on the Thorndike Street side of the South Common appear to have made it through the brutal winter intact. The new trees and flowering bushes have bounced back to life. In the South Common Historic District, we’re looking forward to the completion of the sidewalk project all the way up to Highland Street.