Butler's wife wrote Watie a letter explaining why Butler killed him. She explains Parks repeatedly insulted him in front of the enlisted men beyond what a man and officer could/should bear. I have the transcript of this letter somewhere but haven't located it yet -- I thought I had posted it a few years ago but it wasn't in the archives. The letter was in the Watie-Boudinot Papers, the source of Cherokee Cavaliers but is extremely hard to read and, perhaps for that reason, overlooked.

There is a letter from Watie to wife Sarah in Cherokee Cavaliers where he says he is being accused of being somehow involved with Butler's shooting of Parks. Parks was very angry that Adair was made colonel of the 2nd Cherokee Mtd Vols instead of him and was very critical of all the officers of the 2nd regt. About a year before his death he had submitted his resignation to Watie but apparently he was convinced to remain.

Butler's wife was Francis "Frannie" Harvey Taylor, a half-sister of Lt Col Thomas Fox Taylor and a 1st cousin of Lt Col Robt C Parks. Parks was elected to take Taylor's place after Taylor was taken prisoner and murdered by Pins after the Battle of Bayou Menard. She was also the aunt of Lt Col Oliver Hazard Perry "Perry" Brewer (my gggrandmother's older brother).

James Butler was the nephew of the Oliver Hazard Perry and Commodore Matthew Perry.

I had James Butler's family lineage screwed up in my earlier post. It was his father, not grandfather, who was so well respected by the Cherokee that they made him and his family Cherokee citizens.

James' uncle Pierce M. Butler became Indian Agent to the Cherokee in 1841. Capt Pierce M Butler oversaw the construction of the military road from Ft Gibson to Fort Smith in the 1820s. Later he became governor of South Carolina. He was killed in the Mexican War in 1847. Following his uncle's death, James' father, Dr William Butler, was appointed Cherokee Agent. James' mother Jane Perry was the sister of Commodore Matthew Perry and Oliver Hazard Perry. James L. Butler's older brother George took over as Cherokee Indian Agent when their father died in 1850.