Matthew Calbraith Butler (March 8, 1836April 14, 1909) was a Confederate soldier, an American military commander and attorney and politician from South Carolina. He served as a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, postbellum three-term United States Senator, and a major general in the United States Army during the Spanish–American War. Early life and career Butler was born at Eagle's Crag near Greenville, South Carolina, to a large and prominent family of politicians and military men. His grandfather was U.S. Congressman William Butler. His mother, Jane Tweedy Perry of Rhode Island, was the sister of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew Calbraith Perry, for whom Matthew Calbraith Butler is named. His father, William Butler, Jr., was a Congressman beginning in 1841. His uncle Andrew Butler was a U.S. Senator from South Carolina and uncle Pierce Mason Butler was Governor of South Carolina. One of Matthew Butler's first cousins was Congressman Preston Brooks, who assaulted Senator Charles Sumner in 1856 on the floor of the U.S. Senate with a cane. He said it was because Sumner had insulted Senator Andrew Butler, at whose home Matthew lived as a young man. Two of Butler's first cousins twice removed were James Bonham (killed at the Battle of the Alamo) and Confederate General Milledge Luke Bonham. In 1848 Butler went with his father to Arkansas but returned in 1851 to live with his uncle, who resided in Edgefield, South Carolina. He received his initial education in the city's Edgefield Academy, and then attended the South Carolina College, where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, graduating in 1856. He studied law, was admitted to the state's bar association in 1857, and began practicing as a lawyer in Edgefield. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1860, but resigned in 1861 when the American Civil War began. Marriage and family On February 25, 1858, Butler married Maria Calhoun Pickens. She was the daughter of Francis Wilkinson Pickens, who was elected as governor of the state. Civil War years During the Civil War, Butler served in the cavalry in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, serving in Hampton's Legion, attaining the rank of captain on June 12, 1861, and then Major on July 21, 1861. When the legion's cavalry battalion was consolidated with the 4th South Carolina Battalion and became the 2nd South