Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/513

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BUTLER
BUTLER
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in rallying a retreating detachment. At Mon- mouth he was thanked by Wayne tor defending a defile in the face of a heavy fire, while Col. Rich- ard Butler's regiment withdrew. After the war he retired to a farm, but in 1791 was made major, and commanded a battalion from Carlisle in Gib- son's regiment, under St. Clair, at whose defeat, 4 Nov., he was twice wounded. His elder brother, Richard, was killed, and he was with difficulty re- moved, his leg having been broken by a ball, by his surviving brother, Edward. He became major of the 4th sub-legion on 11 April, 1792, lieutenant- colonel commanding the 4th infantry on 1 July, 1792, and, on the reorganization of the army on a peace basis in June, 1802, was retained as colonel of the 2d infantry, to which he was appointed on 1 April, 1802. In 1797 he was ordered by President Washington to expel settlers from Indian lands in Tennessee, and made several treaties with the In- dians while in that country. His son, Robert Butler, served in the army as assistant adjutant- general to Gen. Harrison in the battle of the Thames, distinguished himself at New Orleans, re- signed his colonelcy in 1821, and from 1824 till 1849 was surveyor of public lands in Florida. — Pierce, fourth of the brothers, soldier, b. in Car- lisle, Pa., 4 April, 17(30; d. in Louisville, Ky., 11 Sept., 1821. He was a captain in the revolu- tionary army, was with Morgan at Saratoga, com- manded in the conflict with Col. Simcoe at Spen- cer's Ordinary, 25 June, 1781, and served at the siege of Yorktown. After the war he removed to Jessamine co., Ky., and was adjutant-general in the war of 1812. His son, Thomas Langford, sol- dier, b. in Lexington, Ky., in 1789 ; d. in Louis- ville, Ky., 31 Oct., 1880. In 1796 he removed to Carrollton, then Port William, Ky., and in 1809 entered the army as lieutenant. In 1813 he was promoted captain, and served through the north- western campaign under Harrison. In 1814, as aide-de-camp to Gen. Jackson, he was at the siege of Pensacola, and in 1815 at the battle of New Orleans, and was brevetted major for gallantry. After the war he received the appointment of sur- veyor and inspector of the port of New Orleans. He resigned his post and returned to his home in Kentucky. In 1826 he represented Gallatin co. in the legislature. He was a member of the old court party, and aided in its success on the question that then agitated the state. In 1847 he again repre- sented Carroll and Gallatin in the legislature. An- other son, William Orlando, soldier, b. in Jessa- mine CO., Ky., in 1791 ; d. in Carrollton, Ky., 6 Aug., 1880. Pie was graduated at Transylvania university in 1812, and was studying law under Robert Wickliffe at Lexington, when, at the break- ing out of hostilities with England, he enlisted as a private, and hastened to the relief of Fort Wayne. Promoted ensign in the 17th infantry, he was at the disastrous battles of 18 and 22 Jan., 1813, at Raisin river. He distinguished himself in the second engagement by burning a barn from which the Indians poured a galling fire into the American ranks, was afterward wounded and taken prisoner, and, after enduring privations and inhu- man treatment, was paroled at Fort Niagara, and made his way back to Kentucky amid many hard- ships. Commissioned a captain, he raised a com- pany, and did good service at Pensacola. He was ordered to New Orleans, where, on the night of 23 Dec. 1814, while in command of four companies on the left wing, he attacked and repelled Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham. This check gave time for the construction of defences at Chalmette, which on 8 Jan. enabled the Americans to defeat a force double their own and win a decisive victory. For this service he was made brevet major. In the following year he succeeded his brother, Maj. Thomas Butler, as aide-de-camp to Gen. Jackson. In 1817 he resigned from the army and resumed the practice of law, was elected in that year to the legislature, and served through three terms. In 1839 he was elected as a democrat to congress, and he was again returned in 1841, but declined a third nomination. He was induced to accept the nomination for governor in 1844, with no hope of election, but with the effect of reducing the ma- jorities of the whig party from 28,000 to fewer than 5,000. His success at the bar was marked, but at the beginning of the Mexican war he joined thearmy,andon 29 June, 1846, was appointed major - general of volunteers. He reported to Gen. Taylor, and in the early nnlitary move- ments in Texas and northern

Mexico bore a prominent part. At the siege of Monterey, 24 Sept., he charged a battery, was wounded in the leg, and was sent home, but rejoined the army of Gen. Scott the following year, and was at the capture of the city of Mexico. For his bra- very at Monterey he received a sword of honor from congress, and one from his own state. In Febi'u- ary, 1848, being senior major-general, he succeeded Gen. Scott in the chief command, and held that place when peace was signed, 29 May, 1848. In May, 1848, the national democratic convention at Baltimore nominated Gen. Butler for vice-presi- dent on the ticket on which Lewis Cass held the first place. This ticket was defeated by the schism in the party, and the nomination in New York of the free-soil candidates. Van Buren and Adams. Gen. Butler remained in private life after this elec- tion, refusing the appointment of governor of the territory of Nebraska in 1855. His last appearance on the public stage was as a member of the peace congress which met at Washington in 1861. He was the author of " The Boatman's Horn " and other short poems. His " Life and Public Services," edited by Francis P. Blair, Jr., appeared in 1848. — Edward, the youngest, b. in Mount Pleasant, Pa., 20 March, 1762 ; d. at Fort Wilkinson, Ga., 6 May, 1803, was a captain in Gibson's regiment of Penn- sylvania levies of 1791, adjutant-general to Gen. Wayne in 1796, and was retained with the rank of major on the establishment in 1802. His son, Ed- ward G. W., entered the array as a cadet in 1816, rose to be 1st lieutenant, resigned in 1831, re-en- tered the army from Louisiana in 1847 as colonel of dragoons, and served in the Mexican war.


BUTLER, Simeon, publisher, b. in 1770; d. in Northampton, Mass., in 1847. In 1792 he established the first publishing-house in western Massachusetts at Northampton. He printed the earliest American edition of Vattel's "Law of Nations," and the first volume of Massachusetts supreme court reports, and brought out Dwight's "School Geography," which had a large sale. He also en-