ccording to act of Congress in the Year 1847 by G.R. Graham
in the Clerks Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of
P^a._

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF GENERAL WILLIAM O. BUTLER.

BY FRANCIS P. BLAIR.

In memoirs of individuals of distinction it is usual to look back to
their ancestry. The feeling is universal which prompts us to learn
something of even an ordinary acquaintance in whom interest is felt.
It will indulge, therefore, only a necessary and proper curiosity to
introduce the subject of this notice by a short account of a family
whose striking traits survive in him so remarkably. General Butler's
grandfather, Thomas Butler, was born 6th April, 1720, in Kilkenny,
Ireland. He married there in 1742. Three of his five sons who attained
manhood, Richard, William and Thomas, were born abroad. Pierce, the
father of General William O. Butler, and Edward, the youngest son,
were born in Pennsylvania. It is remarkable that all these men, and
all their immediate male descendants, with a single exception, (who
was a judge,) were engaged in the military service of this country.

The eldest, Richard, was Lieut. Col. of Morgan's celebrated
rifle-regiment, and to him it owed much of the high character that
gave it a fame of its own, apart from the other corps of the
Revolution. The cool, disciplined valor which gave steady and deadly
direction to the rifles of this regiment, was derived principally from
this officer, who devoted himself to the drill of his men. He was
promoted to the full command of his regiment sometime during the war,
(when Morgan's great merit and services had raised him to the rank of
general,) and in that capacity had commanded Wayne's left in the
attack on Stony Point. About the year 1790, he was appointed
major-general. On the 4th of November, 1791, he was killed in St.
Clair's bloody battle with the Indians. His combat with the Indians,
after he was shot, gave such a peculiar interest to his fate that a
representation of himself and the group surrounding him was exhibited
throughout the Union in wax figures. Notices of this accomplished
soldier will be found in Marshall's Life of Washington, pages 290,
311, 420. In Gen. St. Clair's report, in the American Museum, volume
xi. page 44, Appendix.

William Butler, the second son, was an officer throughout the
revolutionary war; rose to the rank of colonel, and was in many of the
severest battles. He was the favorite of the family, a