Richard Butler was Irish born American Revolutionary soldier and Indian agent. He is mostly remembered for his famous treaty with the Shawnees that occured in 1786.
Background
Richard Butler was born on April 1, 1743 in the parish of St. Bridget's, Dublin, Ireland, the son of Thomas and Eleanor (Parker) Butler. Thomas Butler was an Irish aristocrat who served in the British army. He was the brother of Colonel Thomas Butler and Captain Edward Butler. All three brothers served in the American Revolution and in the Northwest Indian War against the Western Confederacy of Native American tribes in the Northwest Territories. His two other brothers, William and Percival, served in the Revolution but did not see later military service.
His father later came to America and settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Richard served as an ensign with the Bouquet expedition of 1764, after which he and his brother William ventured a partnership as Indian traders at Chillicothe, Ohio, and at Pittsburgh.
Career
During the dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia Richard Butler raised a company of men to resist the authority of the Virginia commandant sent to Pittsburgh by Lord Dunmore. In 1775 he became an Indian agent but in the following year entered into active military service as major and in 1777 became lieutenant-colonel of Morgan's Rifles.
He took part in the battle of Saratoga, commanded Wayne's left column at the storming of Stony Point and later aided Wayne in quelling the mutiny of the Pennsylvania line. After Yorktown he went with Wayne to Georgia and was brevetted brigadier-general (1783).
With Clark and Samuel H. Parsons as fellow commissioners he met the Shawnees at the mouth of the Great Miami, and so overawed them that they signed a treaty ceding a great area of land to the United States and yielding hostages. In response to an inquiry from Congress, Butler and Parsons reported, June 19, 1786, that the western tribes were distinctly hostile and were encouraged in their continued depredations by the British.
On August 14, 1786, Congress elected Butler superintendent of Indian affairs for the Northern District. He served as state senator, as judge of the court of common pleas, and as president of the court of inquiry General Josiah Harmar.
In 1791 he was appointed second in command, with the rank of major-general, of the army under Gen. Arthur St. Clair sent into the Ohio country to avenge the ill-fated Harmar expedition. In reply to the protests of army officers against Butler's appointment, President Washington wrote to Colonel William Darke, August 9, 1791, admitting that because of illness Butler wasn't what he should be but appealing to Darke's loyalty to suuport him.
Nowhere is Butler's military incompetence better exemplified than in his change of St. Clair's order of march while he was in command during St. Clair's absence, Butler's order of march requiring that a forty-foot road be cut. The expedition finally reached the Indian country north of the Ohio River and was attacked by the Indians on November 4, 1791.
Achievements
Richard Butler has been listed as a noteworthy army officer, Indian agent by Marquis Who's Who.
Views
Quotations:
Butler, commanding the right wing, fought bravely, but was mortally wounded and carried to the middle of the camp, where he was soon joined by his wounded brother, Major Thomas Butler. St. Clair ordering a retreat, Captain Edward Butler came to remove his brothers. As he could save only one, General Butler urged him to take his brother Thomas. Edward Butler did so, writing to his brother Percival in Kentucky that, "We left the worthiest of brothers in the hands of the savages nearly dead. "
Connections
Richard married Mary (or Maria) Smith and had numerous descendants.
