| William Butler | |
| Honorific Prefix: | Colonel |
| Death Date: | 1789 |
| Allegiance: | United States |
| Branch: | Continental Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1776–1783 |
| Rank: | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Unit: | 4th Pennsylvania Regiment |
| Battles: | American Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth Burning of Unadilla and Oquaga Sullivan-Clinton Expedition |
| Laterwork: | Original member of the Society of the Cincinnati |
Lieutenant Colonel William Butler (died 1789) was a Pennsylvania officer during the American Revolutionary War, known for his leadership in the Battle of Monmouth, the burning of the Indian villages at Unadilla and Oquaga, and in the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition.
Butler's exact year of birth is unknown, but he was probably born in the mid-1740s. His family emigrated from Ireland sometime before 1760 and settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. In the late 1760s he worked as a frontier fur trader near Pittsburgh with his brother Richard.
He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army upon the formation of the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment on October 25, 1776. He was retired from the Army on January 1, 1783. He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
The papers of his son Richard Butler (1777–1820) are held at Louisiana State University.[1] Richard Butler also became a soldier. In 1798 Butler traveled the Ohio and Mississippi to deliver dispatches to Isaac Guion.[2] He married Margaret Farar in 1799.[3] Margaret Farar was the daughter of Benjamin Farar Sr. and Elizabeth Galliard.[4] He settled in the lower Mississippi River valley after he retired from the service. According to a former U.S. Army officer named James Sterrett, writing in 1811, around 1800 or 1801 General James Wilkinson had embezzled public money to buy slaves from a Mr. Jones in Maryland; the slaves were bought on credit by John Ellis, Richard Butler, and others, while "the notes" were held by Abijah Hunt.[5] Butler's uncle Thomas Butler died at Richard Butler's "farm near New-Orleans" in 1805.[6] In 1805, the couple "purchased Ormond Plantation, in German Coast County (St. Charles Parish), from the widow of Pierre Trepagnier. At Ormond, named for the Irish family seat of one of his ancestors, he planted sugar."
His obituary stated, "The subject of this notice was educated at Carlisle, and entered into the army upon completing his colleg ate course. He was actively employed in the campaigns against the Indians which preceded the treaty of Greenville, and he continued in service till 1801. Having then married, and seeing his country in the enjoyment of a repose not likely to be soon disturbed, he retired from the army, at the age of 24, with the rank of Captain. Since 1801, he has been extensively and successfully engaged in the cultivation of the soil, as a sugar planter in Louisiana, and a cotton planter in Mississippi."[7] The couple had lived at Woodstock near Pinckneyville, Mississippi.[8] Their plantation was bordered on the east by that of William Yerby.[9] The Butlers also owned a house built in 1817 by architect Henry S. Latrobe on Royal Street in New Orleans. Col. Butler, as he was called, died with his wife at Bay St. Louis during a yellow fever outbreak.[10] He died first.[11] His sister and her husband inherited the New Orleans house.
Butler was the second of five brothers who served as officers in the American Revolution. The two oldest brothers were born in Ireland. The brothers were, from oldest to youngest:
