nd was boasted
of by this race of heroes as the coolest and boldest man in battle
they had ever known. When the army was greatly reduced in rank and
file, and there were many superfluous officers, they organized
themselves into a separate corps, and elected him to the command.
General Washington declined receiving this novel corps of
commissioned soldiers, but in a proud testimonial did honor to their
devoted patriotism.

Of Thomas Butler, the third son, we glean the following facts from the
American Biographical Dictionary. In the year 1776, whilst he was a
student of law in the office of the eminent Judge Wilson of
Philadelphia, he left his pursuit and joined the army as a subaltern.
He soon obtained the command of a company, in which he continued to
the close of the revolutionary war. He was in almost every action
fought in the Middle States during the war. At the battle of
Brandywine he received the thanks of Washington on the field of
battle, through his aid-de-camp Gen. Hamilton, for his intrepid
conduct in rallying a detachment of retreating troops, and giving the
enemy a severe fire. At the battle of Monmouth he received the thanks
of Gen. Wayne for defending a defile, in the face of a severe fire
from the enemy, while Col. Richard Butler's regiment made good its
retreat. At the close of the war he retired into private life, as a
farmer, and continued in the enjoyment of rural and domestic happiness
until the year 1791, when he again took the field to meet the savage
foe that menaced our western frontier. He commanded a battalion in the
disastrous battle of Nov. 4, 1791, in which his brother fell. Orders
were given by Gen. St. Clair to charge with the bayonet, and Major
Butler, though his leg had been broken by a ball, yet on horseback,
led his battalion to the charge. It was with difficulty his surviving
brother, Capt. Edward Butler, removed him from the field. In 1792 he
was continued in the establishment as major, and in 1794 he was
promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel commandant of the 4th
sub-legion. He commanded in this year Fort Fayette, at Pittsburg, and
prevented the deluded insurgents from taking it, more by his name than
by his forces, for he had but few troops. The close of his life was
embittered with trouble. In 1803 he was arrested by the commanding
general--Wilkinson--at Fort Adams, on the Mississippi, and sent to
Maryland, where he was tried by a court-martial, and acquitted of all
the c