Otelia Butler Mahone (August 1, 1835 – February 11, 1911) from Smithfield, Virginia was a nurse during the American Civil War and the wife of Confederate Major General William Mahone, who was a civil engineer, teacher, railroad builder, and Senator in the United States Congress. Popularly known in Virginia as the "Hero of the Battle of the Crater" during and after the Civil War, her small-of-stature husband was nicknamed "Little Billy." An illustrious "character" in her own right, strong-willed Otelia Butler Mahone became almost as well known as her famous husband. She is credited by local legend with the naming of the towns of Windsor, Ivor, Wakefield, Waverly and Disputanta along the famous 52-mile tangent railroad tracks (now part of Norfolk Southern) engineered and built by her husband between the cities of Suffolk and Petersburg. When he led the formation of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O) from three trunk lines across the southern tier of Virginia in 1870, wags claimed the initials stood for "All Mine and Otelia's." In their later years, Otelia and Little Billy Mahone settled in her mother's original hometown of Petersburg, Virginia, where she lived as a widow for many years after his death in 1895. Parents and childhood Otelia Butler was the daughter of Dr. Robert Butler (1784–1853) of the town of Smithfield in Isle of Wight County, Virginia and his second wife, the former Otelia Voinard (1803–1855), originally from Petersburg, Virginia. The Butler family was prominent, and Dr. Butler was serving as the elected Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Virginia when he died in 1853. She has been described in published accounts as a "lady of rare beauty with a strong, forceful personality." It was also said that young Otelia Butler came from "cultured" background. Marriage William Mahone was of Irish-American heritage and grew up in Southampton County, Virginia. He graduated with the Class of 1847 from Virginia Military Institute (VMI), trained as a civil engineer. He was hired in 1853 to build the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (N&P), which passed through Isle of Wight County not far from the Butler's home in Smithfield. Otelia married 29-year-old Mahone on February 8, 1855. The couple settled in Norfolk, Virginia. Later in 1855, they escaped the yellow fever epidemic which decimated a third of the population of the Norfolk-Portsmouth area by staying with his mother in Jerusalem (later renamed Courtland) in Southampton County. Popular