35 Facts About Daniel Butterfield

Daniel Adams Butterfield was a New York businessman, a Union general in the American Civil War, and Assistant Treasurer of the United States.

Daniel Butterfield commanded a division at Fredericksburg, and then became General Joseph Hooker's chief of staff for the Army of the Potomac, sharing both the credit for improved morale and responsibility for the licentious behavior that Hooker tolerated in camp.

Daniel Butterfield became embroiled in Hooker's political feuds with Generals Ambrose Burnside and George Gordon Meade.

Daniel Butterfield then served in William T Sherman's Atlanta campaign, before retiring from front-line service through illness.

Daniel Butterfield was born on October 31,1831, in Utica, New York.

Daniel Butterfield attended Union Academy and then graduated in 1849, from Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he became a member of the Sigma Phi Society.

That same year, his father, John Warren Daniel Butterfield, founded the express company of Daniel Butterfield, Wasson, and Co.

Daniel Butterfield was employed in various businesses in New York and the South, including the American Express Company, which had been co-founded by his father, an owner of the Overland Mail Company, stage-coaches, steamships and telegraph lines.

Daniel Butterfield went to New York City as superintendent of the eastern division of his father's company.

Shortly after the fall of Fort Sumter, Daniel Butterfield joined the Clay Guards of Washington, DC, as a first sergeant, but subsequently transferred to the 12th New York Volunteer Infantry as a colonel.

Daniel Butterfield was commissioned brigadier and major general of the Volunteers and commanded a division of the V Corps.

Daniel Butterfield fought at the First Battle of Bull Run on 21 July 1861.

Daniel Butterfield wrote the 1862 Army field manual, Camp and Outpost Duty for Infantry.

Daniel Butterfield continued in brigade command at the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam, became division commander and then V Corps commander for the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Daniel Butterfield's corps was one of those assaulting through the city before facing an assault from Marye's Heights.

Joseph Hooker replaced Ambrose Burnside as Army of the Potomac commander and Daniel Butterfield became Hooker's chief of staff in January 1863.

Daniel Butterfield was promoted to major general of volunteers in March 1863, with a date of rank of November 29,1862.

Hooker and Daniel Butterfield developed a close personal and political relationship.

Political infighting became rampant in the high command and Daniel Butterfield was widely disliked by most of his colleagues.

Daniel Butterfield was inspired by the division patches used earlier by Maj.

Philip Kearny, but extended those to the full army; Daniel Butterfield designed most of the patches himself.

Meade distrusted Daniel Butterfield, but retained him as chief of staff.

On July 1,1863, Daniel Butterfield was appointed as colonel of the 5th United States Infantry.

Daniel Butterfield returned to duty that fall as chief of staff for Hooker, now commanding two corps in the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Illness prevented his continuing with Sherman, resulting in Daniel Butterfield's assuming light duties at Vicksburg, Mississippi, followed by recruiting and the command of harbor forces in New York.

Daniel Butterfield wrote "Taps" to replace the customary firing of three rifle volleys at the end of burials during battle.

Daniel Butterfield agreed to tell Corbin and speculators Jay Gould and James Fisk when the government was planning to sell gold, a market that Fisk and Gould wanted to corner.

Daniel Butterfield accepted $10,000 from Gould, which Daniel Butterfield said was "to cover expenses".

Daniel Butterfield later testified to Congress that it was an unsecured real estate loan.

The scheme was uncovered by Grant, who sold $4,000,000 of government gold without telling Daniel Butterfield, resulting in the panic of collapsing gold prices known as Black Friday, on September 24,1869.

Daniel Butterfield then became active in business and banking, including an executive position with American Express.

Daniel Butterfield was active in Union College's alumni association and several veterans organizations, including the Grand Army of the Republic.

On September 21,1886, Daniel Butterfield married Mrs Julia Lorrilard Safford James of New York in a ceremony in London.

The Butterfields built a summer residence, Craigside, across the Hudson River from West Point in Cold Spring, New York, where Daniel Butterfield died on July 17,1901.

Daniel Butterfield was buried with an ornate monument in the West Point Cemetery at the United States Military Academy, although he had not attended that institution.