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Richard Butler (General)Richard Butler (April 1, 1743-November 4, 1791) was an officer in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War who later died fighting Indians in Ohio. Born in St. Bridget's Parish, Dublin, Ireland, he was the son of Thomas and Eleanor (Parker) Butler. The family moved to Pennsylvania in 1748. By the 1770s, he was an important trader at Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Continental Congress named him a commissioner in 1775 to negotiate with the Indians. He visited the Delaware, Shawnee, and other tribes to secure their support, or at least neutrality, in the war with Britain. In 1776, he was commssioned a major in the Continental Army, seeing action at the Battle of Saratoga and the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse. After the war, the Confederation Congress put him in charge of Indians in the Northwest Territory. He negotiated the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784 in which the Iroquois surrendered their lands and was involved in other negotiatons. He returned to Pennsylvania, and was a judge in Allegheny County. He also served in the state legislature. Butler was sent north from Fort Hamilton, where Hamilton, Ohio now stands, under Arthur St. Clair. On the morning of November 4, 1791, Indians led by Chief Little Turtle ambushed the army and killed 600 men in what is now Mercer County, Ohio. This was the greatest loss the U.S. Army ever suffered against the Indians. Among the dead was Butler, now a major general, killed with a tomahawk blow to the head. Butler County, Ohio, where Fort Hamilton stood, is named for him, along with Butler County, Kentucky and Butler County, Pennsylvania. Butler Butler Butler Butler
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