Background
Born in Edgefield County, South Carolina, Butler was a son of William Butler (1759–1821) and a brother of Andrew Pickens Butler and William Butler, Junior., all of whom served in the United States Congress.
governor of South Carolina army officer
Born in Edgefield County, South Carolina, Butler was a son of William Butler (1759–1821) and a brother of Andrew Pickens Butler and William Butler, Junior., all of whom served in the United States Congress.
He was educated by Moses Waddel at the Willington Academy in Willington, South Carolina.
He was killed while serving as colonel of the Palmetto Regiment at the Battle of Churubusco, during the Mexican-American War. Butler was appointed a second lieutenant in the United States Army in 1818 and rose to the rank of captain before resigning his commission in 1829. Following his term as Governor of South Carolina, he became agent to the Cherokee at Fort Gibson (present day Muskogee County, Oklahoma), a post he held until 1846.
Following his death in Mexico, Butler"s body was returned to South Carolina for burial.
In December 1853 he was reburied in the Butler Family Cemetery, in the graveyard of what is now Butler Methodist Church in Saluda County. Collectively they were four Colonels, one General, one Lieutenant
Colonel, three Majors, and one Judge and United States Senator. The General was a member of Congress, too.
The Weeping Time March 3, 1857, saw the largest slave auction in United States history, dubbed as "The Weeping Time".
Over a 2-day period, descendants of Pierce M. Butler sells 436 men, women, children, and infants, all of whom are kept in stalls meant for horses at a racetrack in Savannah, Georgia, for weeks beforehand. The Weeping Time sale was done by an entirely different Butler family. The confusion between these two families has been going on for many years (probably due to the English Butler descendants wishing to attach themselves to the more royal Irish Butlers)
James C. Gardner, who served from 1954–1958 as the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, is a descendant of Pierce Mason Butler.
Married Miranda Duval.