Butler Richard Francis

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Richard Francis Butler is honored on the following 1 monument(s) in our database:

26th Division Tablets of the Fallen (WW1)

Name:

Richard Francis Butler

Rank:

Private

Serial Number:

Unit:

102nd Machine Gun Battalion, 26th Infantry Division

Date of Death:

1918-09-26

State:

Corporal

Cemetery:

St. Mihiel American Cem., Thiaucourt, France

Plot:

Row:

Grave:

Decoration:

Distinguished Service Cross, French Croix de Guerre

Comments:

Richard Francis Butler was born in 1897 in New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut. He enlisted in the Army on August 23, 1917 in Niantic, CT. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I as a Private in Company D, 102nd Machine Gun Battalion, 26th Infantry Division. He was Killed in Action on September 26, 1918 and is now buried in St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Thiaucourt, France. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company D, 102d Machine Gun Battalion, 26th Division, A.E.F., near Marcheville, France, September 26, 1918. Private Butler volunteered to accompany a party whose mission was to bomb a hostile machine-gun emplacement. Under heavy shell fire he approached to within 30 feet of the emplacement, when he was fired upon from loopholes in a stone wall. Working his way behind the wall, this courageous soldier enfiladed the enemy with rifle fire and effected their capture. While he was disarming prisoners he was shot and mortally wounded. General Orders No. 133, War Department, 1918.