Butterfield, Daniel

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Daniel Butterfield
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Spouses
    2
    No. of Children
    0
    Family
    John Butterfield (father), Malinda Harriet Baker (mother), Elizabeth (first wife, 1857), Julia Lorrilard James (second wife)
    Education
    Other
    Other Education
    Union College, NY
    Occupation
    Military
    Businessman
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Republican
    Government
    Grant Administration (1869-77)
    Military
    Union Army
    US military (Post-Civil War)

    Daniel Butterfield (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    Butterfield's rapid rise in the volunteer service and his regular army appointments cannot be reconciled with his limited talent as a field commander. Family prominence, high rank in the militia, and political connections appear to have been responsible. His managerial and organizational talents served him well as a staff officer, although his officiousness and his sometimes abrasive personality weakened his usefulness as a liaison between army headquarters and subordinate commanders. Despite his prominent position in the Union hierarchy, despite serving in important campaigns in the two major theaters of operations, and despite winning a Medal of Honor, he is remembered chiefly--but inaccurately--as the composer of "Taps."
    Edward G. LongacrE, "Butterfield, Daniel," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00111.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Butterfield, Daniel," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/12205.