Matthew Butler

This article is about the politician Matthew Butler. For the film technician, see Matthew Butler (special effects artist) .

Matthew Butler

Matthew Calbraith Butler (* 8. March 1836 near Greenville , South Carolina ; † 14. April 1909 in Columbia , South Carolina) a politician who was a US senator and Major General of the Confederate in the Civil War .

Life

Butler was born in 1836 to a prominent family. His father William Butler was a member of Congress in 1841, his uncle Andrew Butler was a US Senator , another uncle was Oliver H. Perry , Commodore of the US Navy , his cousin the MP Preston Brooks and he was the son-in-law of Francis Wilkinson Pickens , the governor of South Carolina. Butler grew up in Edgefield , where he also settled as a lawyer after graduating. In 1860 he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives.

At the outbreak of the civil war, however, he resigned his office, and as captain of the cavalry for the Confederate Army . In August 1862 he was promoted to Colonel and took over the 2nd South Carolina Cavalry with which he fought on August 26, 1862 at Manassas Junction and Sharpsburg, Monocacy Bridge and Chambersburg Raid. He was wounded and lost a foot during the Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863. In September 1863 he was appointed Brigadier General . He led his troops in early May 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness , at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in mid-May 1864, and at the Battle of Trevilian Station . The next promotion to major general was in September 1864.

After the war ended, Butler returned to politics and was re-elected to the House of Representatives in 1866. He also served as the Democratic U.S. Senator on three separate terms from 1877 to 1895 . From 1895 he practiced as a lawyer in Washington until 1898 when he went to the Spanish-American War with the rank of Major General of the US Volunteers . After the American victory that same year, he oversaw the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Cuba . He then returned to Edgefield and continued to work as a lawyer.

See also

• List of Confederate Generals in the Civil War

literature

• David J. Eicher: The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography , University of Illinois, 1997, ISBN 0-252-02273-4 .
• Richard N. Current: Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993) (4 vol.) ( ISBN 0-13-275991-8 )
• John H. Eicher & David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands , Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 .
• Ezra J. Warner: Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders , Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5 .

Web links

• Matthew Butler in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Matthew Butler in the database of Find a Grave (English)