Butt led a distinguished — and varied — career before dying during the Titanic disaster.
Arlington National Cemetery’s website said that Butt started out as a reporter but enlisted in the US Army during the Spanish-American War.
He served in Cuba and the Philippines. In 1908, he became President Theodore Roosevelt’s military aide and served Roosevelt’s successor, William Taft, in the same capacity.
Butt’s “health began to deteriorate in 1912 because of his attempts to remain neutral during the bitter personal quarrel” between Roosevelt and Taft, which may have prompted his decision to travel to Europe.
There are a number of unverified accounts of Butt’s behavior during the sinking — with many sensationalized stories of the military officer leading the evacuation or threatening male passengers who tried to ignore the ship’s “women and children first” protocol.
“If Archie could have selected a time to die, he would have chosen the one God gave him,” Taft said in a private memorial service, according to the Smithsonian. “His life was spent in self-sacrifice, serving others.”
He added: “Everybody who knew him called him Archie. I couldn’t prepare anything in advance to say here. I tried, but couldn’t. He was too near me.”
Taft then said: “To me, he had become as a son or a brother.”
The president later broke down weeping while delivering the eulogy at Butt’s funeral.
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