Statewide County GaArchives Obituaries.....Butler, General M. C.  April 17, 1909
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Clyde Watson clyde.nell@gmail.com November 19, 2008, 8:04 pm

Savannah News Press 17 April 1909
                             GENERAL M. C. BUTLER
                              SAVANNAH NEWS PRESS
                                 17 APRIL 1909

     The death of General Matthew Calbrath Butler, soldier, senator, and
patriot, has brought forth general regret to Carolina.
     If ever a man bore the mark of gentle birth it was General Butler. He had a
singularly high-bred and patriotic air, his features were regular and refined.
"He bore without reproach the name of gentleman." His forebears were among the
pioneer of South Carolina. His great grandfather was killed in the Revolution
and his grandfather was a member of congress for thirteen years. His father was
surgeon in the United States Navy and his uncle Pierce Butler, was governor of
South Carolina and was killed in the Mexican war. The mother of Senator Butler
was the sister of Commodore Perry of Lake Erie fame. After the war, she was
presented to General Sickles of the United States army as a sister of the great
commodore, but she exclaimed insistently that also preferred to be known as "the
mother of Calbrath Butler."
     General M. C. Butler married the daughter of Governor Pickens, the old war
governor of South Carolina. In the civil struggle he entered the cavalry service
and lost a leg at Brandy Station. He served with great dash and gallantry and
was noted cavalry fighter, ranking with Stewart, Hampton, Ashby, and Forrest.
     General Butler persuaded Wade Hampton to come home from his Mississippi
plantation in 1876, and really started the "red shirt" movement which redeemed
the state from the rule of Republicanism. Hampton was elected governor and
Butler became United States Senator, which position he kept until he went down
before the reform movement of Ben Tillman. But he remained true to his friends
and bore his defeat with dignity. He was made a Major General in the Spanish
war. He was not an eminent lawyer or a great statesman,but he was gentleman and
a fine representative of the old school in Suth Carolina.

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