William Butler
William Butler first served as a Lieutenant of the Militia when General Lincoln Issued his proclamation from his camp near Augusta, Georgia. The militia from the upcountry were then discharged, but William Butler, who had been of the detachment engaged in the action of Stono, remaining himself attached to the Legion of Colonel Pulaski. When General Greene moved towards Ninety-Six, William Butler was serving under General Pickens on the Carolina side of the Savannah River near Augusta. Butler was at the Siege of Augusta, and after the fall of that place, he was detailed by General Pickens to attend Colonel Lee to Ninety-Six, who was also besieged. The stockade was then taken down, and the garrison deprived of the use of the spring. As the British Lord Rawdon approached Saluda Old Town, several soldiers were killed and wounded. The Americans fell back and the combatants had not long swept by when a young dragoon officer with a white plume and the cockade of the Whigs in his hat, accompanied by an orderly, rode up to the home of Mr. Savage and learned from his step-daughter who had recently returned from Ninety-Six, that the siege was raised and General Greene was in full retreat.The young officer was William Butler, appointed Captain in 1781. He decided to join the retreating army, and being told that two stragglers from Rawsons force were down in the low grounds of Mr. Savage, taking plantation horses. Butler took the stragglers as prisoners, mounted one of them behind himself and the other behind his orderly, swam the Saluda River near the Boazman Ferry. Butler then joined General Lee who was about ten miles from the Island ford on the Newberry Side.