General Matthew Calbraith Butler

  General Notes:

Matthew Calbraith, senator, son of William, born near Greenville, South Carolina, 8 March, 1836, was educated at South Carolina College, studied law at Edgefield Courthouse with his uncle, was admitted to the bar in 1857, practiced at Edgefield Court-House, and was elected to the legislature in 1859. He entered the confederate service as captain in June, 1861, became colonel of the 2d South Carolina cavalry on 22 August, 1862, brigadier-general on 1 September, 1863, and afterward a major general, commanding Wright's and Logan's brigades of cavalry in the Army of northern Virginia. At the battle of Brandy Station, 9 June, 1863, he lost his right leg. He was elected to the legislature of South Carolina in 1866, was a candidate for lieutenant governor in 1870, and received the democratic vote for United States senator the same year. In 1876, when there were two contending state governments in existence, he was elected United States senator by the democratic legislature, as the successor of Thomas J. Robertson, republican. David T. Corbin, who was elected by the republican legislature, contested the election: but General Butler was admitted to the seat on 2 December, 1877. In 1882 he was re-elected for the term expiring 3 March, 1889.

BUTLER, Matthew Calbraith, (son of William Butler [1759-1821] and nephew of Andrew Pickens Butler), a Senator from South Carolina; born near Greenville, Greenville County, S.C., March 8, 1836; attended the local academy in Edgefield, S.C., and South Carolina College at Columbia; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1857 and commenced practice in Edgefield; elected to the State house of representatives in 1860; entered the Confederate Army as captain in June 1861 and served throughout the Civil War, attaining the rank of major general; again elected to the State house of representatives in 1866; unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor of South Carolina in 1870; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1876; reelected in 1882 and again in 1888 and served from March 4, 1877, until March 3, 1895; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Forty-sixth Congress), Committee on Interstate Commerce (Fifty-third Congress); resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C.; appointed major general of United States Volunteers during the Spanish-American War, and was one of the commissioners appointed to supervise the evacuation of Cuba by the Spanish forces in 1898; returned to Edgefield, S.C., and resumed the practice of law; died in Columbia, S.C., April 14, 1909; interment in Willow Brook Cemetery, Edgefield, S.C.