Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1905-01-26
GEN. BUTLER

United In Marriage to Mrs.
Mamie DeS. Whitman
OffTuxedO.
New York Press.
Hero of a hundred fights and vet
eran of two wars, Maj. Gen. Mat
thew Galbraith Butler, former Uni
ted States senator from South Caro-
lima, and still regarded as one of the
handsomest men below the Mason
and Dixon's line, Saturday, married
a Southern belle, Mrs. Mamie de S.
Whitman, of Tuxedo, widow OF
Charles Sidney Whitman, in Grace
church chantry. The ceremony was
performed at noon by the Rev. DR..
McKim. It was attended by the
Generals SOL and a few other rela-
tives of the pair, with fewer than a
dozen close friends. Yet to society
in the southland, it was one Of the
most important marriages of the
season., for it recalled not only the
bridegroom's long and brilliant ca
reer-he is 50 years old-but the
glories of the Buffers Of Edgefeld,
one of the most influential families
of ante-bellum days. Nor was it
without interest to New Workers, for
the bride is prominent in Tuxedo
society, and the General, through his
ancestor, Commodore Matthews Gal
braith Berry, brother of Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry, of Lake Erie
fame, is a cousin of the Belmonts
and Tiffanys.
The union was a result of a ro-
nance interviewer with official life
in Washington, and mingled with
history making IN connection with
the war with Spain and the pacifica-
ton OF Cuba. Mrs. Butler is a mem
Der of a distinguished Maryland
family and is prominent in Wash
ington. She spent much time there
four years ago, and it was in that
city she met General Butler about a
year after the death of his first wife,
who was Maria Pickens, daughter
of former Governor Of Georgia. The
general had been a leading figure in
Washington as a member of. the
Senate, and he Lad acquired new
prominence as one of the Cuban
evacuation commissioners. He was
popular as one Of the first of the Con-
federate generals TO offer his sword
to Uncle Sam for the Spanish war.
Volunteering meant ever more in
General Buffers cas- than in Joe
Wheeler's, for the South Carolinian
lost a leg in the battle Of Brandy
Station IN 1868. 1t was il recogn,-
ton of his loyalty to the country
that the Empire State society Of the
Sons of the American Revolution
gave shim a magnificent black
charger IN Chickamauga on the day
it presented s ord to- Brig. Gen.
Frederick Dent Grant.
General Butler and the charming
widow o 20 became fast friends, and
in the next three years their friend
ship ripened to a tender feeling. The
Southtron, though well along in the
sixties, was not an impetuous wooer,
however, for it was not until FIVE
wears after the death of his first wife
that he married Mrs. Whitman. His
children approved the match, and
Capt. Matthew G. Butler, U. S. A,
his oldest son, fairly beamed at the
wedding. The generals other sup
porters for the ceremony We're Col.
Michael J. O'Brien and Perry Bel
mont. Mrs. Whitman was given
away by her mother. The newly
welded pair left town shortly after
the marriage for a bridal tour Of the
south. They will live in North
Augusta, assuburb of Augusta, Ga,
where the bridegroom has large real
~ holdings.
The general was born in the Pal
metto State, but his father, a naval
surgeon, took the family to Arkan-
sas about 1910. Young Butler re-
turned to South Carolina and lived
with his uncle il Edgefeld. He was
admitted to the bar in 1857, and was
elected to the Legislature in 1860.
Then he entered the Confederate
army as captain of the Edgeield