Otho L. Butler

Otho L. Butler was a soldier in the United States Civil War. He was born in Richmond Virginia the oldest of five children. His father was a tobacconist and politician with a residence on 19th Street in the Church Hill neighborhood. When he was 5 years old he was poisoned, with laudanum, by the hired house servant / slave Phyllis. The quick work of several local doctors saved Otho's life and he made a full recovery. This case made the news much in Richmond as it occurred shortly after the famous Jordan Hatcher murder case. He spent much of his time growing up with his cousins Isaac Austin Gentry (Also a member of Mosby's Command), Charles Wesley Gentry and John William Gentry. His mother died when he was about 10 years old and he and his siblings were sent to live with various relatives. At this time he went to live full time with his father's sister Martha Butler Gentry and her family there in Richmond. When he was 12 years old he had another close call when he was shot in the back (with 76 pellets of #5 bird shot) by a farmer who mistook him for another boy who had stolen his property. Two years later at age 14 he enlisted in Parker's Battery. After the war followed his father to New York City where he lived until at least 1882. Otho did marry but his wife died in 1879. It is unknown if he had any children. Nothing is known of him after 1882.