James Butler was born on September 11, 1828, in Gaines, Hall Co., Georgia, the son of Whitaker Henry Butler and his wife Miriam “Myra” Walker. By 1850 he had moved with his family to Randolph Co., Alabama, where he met and married Susanna Lovvorn. On January 3, 1863, in Talledega, Alabama, James Butler enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private in Co. F, 42nd Alabama Infantry. After the war, James and his wife moved to Chandler, Etowah Co., Alabama, where they were living in 1900. James Butler died on September 20, 1912, and is buried in the Red Apple Cemetery near Boaz, in Marshall Co., Alabama.