Butler, Major General Matthew Calbraith (6 MAR 1836 -
"The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring."
General Maury tells a story, worthy of everlasting remembrance, about a South Carolina
soldier, Colonel Haskell, whose arm was shattered so that amputation at the shoulder was
necessary. The surgeon was about to administer chloroform when Haskell said "Stop, doctor!
You must have every little chloroform, since the enemy has declared it contraband of war. Is it
not so?" "Yes, Colonel." "Then keep it for some poor soldier who needs it. I can do without."
Another anecdote of a similar kind is thus related by General Maury:
General M. C. Butler, of South Carolina, was seriously wounded and maimed for life at
the battle of Brandy Station. He and a young captain named Farley had just come out of action
in the early morning and were laughing together over some amusing incident they had noticed.
At that moment a cannon ball came bounding at them. It struck Butler's leg above the ankle,
tore through his horse, and cut off Farley's leg above the knee.
Down they all went. Butler began to stanch the blood with his handkerchief and advised
Farley how to do the same. Captain Chestnut, Lieutenant Rhett, and other officers came running
to Butler's help; but at that moment he observed that Farley's dying horse was struggling and
seemed likely to crush its rider.
"Go at once to Farley!" cried Butler. "He needs you more than I do."
They did as they were bidden, and Farley was placed in a litter. He asked them to bring
his leg and put it, too, in the litter. Then he said:
"Now, gentlemen, you have done all for me that is possible. I shall be dead in an hour.
God bless you for your kindness. I bid you all an affectionate farewell. Go at once to Butler."
That evening Butler's leg was dressed in the hospital just as poor Farley breathed his
last. The two men had never seen each other till that morning.
"Henceforth," says General Maury, "we shall not need to go to Sir Philip Sidney for an
example of noble self-sacrifice."
Major-General Matthew Calbraith Butler was born near Greenville,
S.C., March 6, 1836. His
father was Dr. William Butler, an assistant surgeon in the United
States navy, and a
congressman in 1841; his mother, Jane T., daughter of Captain
Perry, U.S. N., of Newport, R. I.,
and sister of Commodore Oliver H. Perry and Matthew Calbraith
Perry. Judge A. P. Butler,
United States senator, and Gov. Pierce M. Butler, colonel of the
Palmetto regiment and killed at
Churubusco, were his uncles; his grandfather, Gen. William Butler,
was a gallant officer of the
revolutionary army, and his great-grandfather, Capt. James Butler,
a native of Loudoun county,
Va., was the founder of the family in North Carolina In childhood
he accompanied his father to
Arkansas, but after the latter's death returned to South Carolina
in 1851, and made his home
with Senator A. P. Butler near Edgefield He was educated at the
South Carolina college, and
then reading law was admitted to practice in 1857. In the following
year he was married
to Maria, daughter of Gov. F. W. Pickens. He was elected to the
legislature in 1860,
but before the conclusion of his term, entered the military service
of his State as captain of a
company of cavalry in Hampton's legion. This command took a
distinguished part in the first
battle of Manassas, and Captain Butler was promoted major to date
from July 21st, the
beginning of his famous career in the cavalry of the army of
Northern Virginia. He commanded
the cavalry of the legion under Stuart in the withdrawal of the
troops from Yorktown, and was
warmly commended for gallantry at Williamsburg. In August, 1862, he
was promoted to colonel
of the Second regiment, South Carolina cavalry, Hampton's brigade,
and in this rank he
participated in the Second Manassas and Maryland campaigns, winning
favorable mention for
gallant leadership in the affair at Monocacy bridge, and in
Stuart's Chambersburg raid. He
commanded the main part of his brigade in the Dumfries expedition
of December, 1862, and in
June, I863, he was one of the most conspicuous leaders in the
famous cavalry battle of Brandy
Station. Here he was severely wounded by a shell, losing his right
foot, and promotion to
brigadier-general followed in September. Returning to service
before his wound healed he was
sent home to recover. He succeeded General Hampton in brigade
command, and took part in
the fall campaigns of the army in 1863, and throughout the famous
struggle of 1864, at the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and before Richmond in opposition to
Sheridan, he was one of the
heroic figures of this last great campaign of the Confederate
armies. The reports of Sheridan
himself attest the splendid fighting of Butler and his brigade at
Hawe's Shop and Cold Harbor. At
Trevilian Station he was in command of Hampton's division, and
repulsed seven distinct and
determined assaults by the largely superior forces under Sheridan,
his command occupying the
most important point of the Confederate line and fighting as
infantry. In September
he was promoted major-general, and in the spring of 1865 he was
detached with a
small division for the campaign against Sherman in the Carolinas.
He commanded the rear
guard of Hardee's army at the evacuation of Columbia and Cheraw,
and at the last had division
command of cavalry, his forces and Gen. Joe Wheeler's forming the
command of Lieut.-Gen.
Wade Hampton. The close of the war left him in financial ruin, but
he bravely met the exigencies
of the occasion, and in a short time attained national repute for
the firmness and boldness with
which he handled the political questions which concerned the
essentials of the reorganized social
life. While he powerfully advocated obedience to the reconstruction
measures as the law, law
being preferable to chaos, he receded at no time from a persistent
opposition to infringements on
good government, and was largely instrumental in securing the
election of Gov. Wade Hampton.
In 1876 he was elected to the United States Senate, where his
admission was met by a storm of
partisan protest which is memorable in the history of the nation,
but his career of eighteen years
in that exalted body vindicated the good judgment and patriotism of
the State which deputed him
as its representative. In the stormy days of sectional debate in
Congress he was one of the
foremost champions of the South, but at a later period he was
enabled to make a splendid record
in constructive statesmanship by his staunch advocacy of a strong
navy, of civil service reform,
and other measures now settled in national policy. After the
expiration of his service in the
Senate, March, 1895, he engaged in the practice of law at
Washington, D.C. In 1898 he was
appointed a major-general in the volunteer army of the United
States, for the war with Spain, and
after peace was secured he served as a member of the commission for
the removal of the
Spanish forces from Cuba.
REF: Confederate Military History Vol. 5, pg. 379
BUTLER AND FARLEY.
Butler, Capt. Oliver Nathaniel (1844 - 12 MAY 1877)
Capt'n Oliver Nathaniel Butler, died in Augusta, State of Georgia, May 12th 1877. The writer knew him not. The annexed tribute to his memory, from the Augusta Chronicle and Constitutionalist.... [clipping] "... Capt. Oliver Nathaniel Butler, C. S. A., the youngest brother of Senator M. C. Butler of this State. Capt. Butler entered the Confederate service when quite a youth as a private in Company I of the 2d South Carolina Cavalry, which was perhaps better known at home as the Edgefield Hussars of the old Hampton Legion Cavalry... only thirty-three years of age ...."