Connections: A Georgia Soldier, Two Presidents, and the TITANIC Disaster

If you have toured the stately antebellum homes in Roswell, Georgia you likely know that President Theodore Roosevelt’s maternal line came from Georgia. His mother, Mittie Bulloch, married Theodore Roosevelt Sr. in her family home,”Bulloch Hall.” “Teddy” is arguably the most charasmatic of our presidents. Some of us think he may have been the best.

Although ghost writers have produced autobiographies of many recent presidents, its satisfying to know that “TR” was not only well read, he actually wrote several excellent books. With one or two exceptions, some of our more recent presidents have failed to reference books they have read or authors who have influenced them. Even fewer have written about anything other than their own life and accomplishments. TR was a prolific writer, a lifelong ornithology student, an expert on naval history, explorer of the Amazon forests, big game hunter, and ranch owner who physically roughed up a few rowdy cowboys in his time.

After losing his wife and mother on the same day, TR bought a Dakota ranch and cattle operation and went west to dig himself out of the depth of despair. Emotionally, the west was a tonic, but his cattle ranch dream was crushed when the bitterest winter in memory left the creeks damed with the carcasses of starved, drowned and frozen “beeves.” TR returned to New York to build a political career.

TR surrounded himself with intelligent, creative and courageous peple: John Wesley Powell, the one-armed explorer of the Grand Canyon; Stephen Crane, the “boy author” of Red Badge of Courage, who died very young of tuberculosis; John Hay, who served as US Secretary of State, and biographer of Abraham Lincoln ; John Muir, a pioneer of invironmentalism who helped inspire the National Parks system; and, Alfred Thayer Mahan, an admiral and arguably the father of the modern U.S. Navy, were all members of TR’s circle of remarkable friends.

One of the less well- known men in TR’s circle was a Georgian, Major Archibald Butt of Augusta, Georgia, who served as his military aide-de-camp during the White House years. Butt was a frequent and favorite visitor in the Roosevelt household. After succeeding to the presidency after President William McKinley’s assasination, TR served a four-year term to which he was elected in 1904. Roosevelt had announced publicly that he would not run again in 1908 out of respect for the precedent set by George Washington of not seeking a third term. When Roosevelt left the White House in early 1909, the indispensable Archie Butt was asked to stay on as military aid to the new president, TR’s friend and confidant, William Howard Taft.

Butt and the new president had become friends during the American efforts to pacify the Philippines following the Spanish American War. Taft was a member of a presidential commission assigned the task of organizing an American-controlled transitional government there. Major Butt was there as a logistics officer with the army. Perhaps this was the connection that brought Butt into the Roosevelt circle and led to Butt’s role in the Roosevelt White House. It may also have been Major Butt who introduced President Taft to the golf links in sunny Augusta, Georgia.

By 1912, the friendship between Taft and Roosevelt fell victim to politics and the men became acrimonious as Taft’s innate conservatism and Roosevelt’s reformist zeal conflicted. Roosevelt became the new president’s greatest and most influential critic. Archie Butt was caught in the middle, loyal to both men who were now enemies. His emotional exhaustion apparently inspired his decision to take a European vacation and a journey on board the TITANIC. That’s right, the one that hit the iceberg in 1912.

“Archie,” as friends called Butt, is famous, but not by name. He has been represented in several films and stories about the sinking. Butt was one of the 1500 passengers who was lost at sea. In one motion picture, Butt is personified by an actor on the deck of the rapidly sinking ship, the one who orders the men not to board the lifeboats until all the women and children are safely away. He is the embodiment of chivalry, the first rule of which is to regard the comfort and safety of women above your own. Archie Butt did that and went down with the ship. The reporters at all the major newspapers struggled to keep their columns full of stories related to the TITANIC tragedy, while real information trickled in slowly. Articles were written based on scant information, as reporters sought to humanize a tragedy almost beyond understanding. The greatest and fastest ocean liner in the world had sunk, leaving hundreds of men, women and children drowning-among them representatives of America’s wealthiest families as well as the Irish working poor trapped below decks. The press, desperate for stories to sell papers, may have exaggerated Butt’s heroism. Even so, it says much that his closest associates, including President Taft, readily accepted such stories because they knew the character of their friend.

I grew up in Augusta and am familiar with the charming bridge there named in Butt’s honor. President Taft spoke at the dedication of the bridge and, still grieving over the loss of his friend, became overcome emotionally and could not finish his speech. If “Archie” had been able to chose the moment of his death, Taft said, he would have chosen just such a moment in which he offered encouragement and brought some sense of order to the TITANIC’s terrified passengers.

Periodically there have been voices arguing that the charming old bridge should be torn down. It is narrow and a bottleneck, some say. Thankfully, it has survived, and its structure reinforced. I go out of my way to see it on my visits with family in Augusta.

I also discovered another memorial to Archie Butt when I took my kids to see the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Few visitors are aware before they visit the Cathedral that this is the final resting place of President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was of course Taft’s successor in the White House and led the country through the First World War. Wilson was the first president to be a figure recognizable to ordinary people world wide. Radio, news photography and films covering his attendance at the Paris Peace Conference ending World War I carried Woodrow Wilson’s voice and image literally around rhe world.

The Cathedral has witnessed many state funerals, including most recently that of Vietnam War hero and longtime Senator, John McCane. Probably the most visited D.C. tourist site away from the Capitol Mall, its basement has become a tourist shop. Sadly, I suspect, few vistors notice the bronze plaque on the wall in this unlikely place that honors Archibald Butt, Augusta-born, graduate of the University of the South, soldier and friend of presidents.