“Its founders were Thomas A. Malcolm, Edward Courtenay, William and James Hunter, Joseph Crombie, John S. Adams and a few others. They professed as the primary object of their union, aid and relief to the distressed emigrant. But there was latent in their bosoms an object beyond and higher. It was to preserve the traditions of their downtrodden race; to embody and cluster around a common centre, in a genial and hospitable clime, the virtues of their ancestors, and to reflect in all their splendor under the bright blaze of a Carolina sun the united rays of true Irish manhood and Irish intelligence.... At the base of our organization is one grand permeating idea, to give character and worth and potency to the Irishman in America. It was this society which built the first Irish-American hall in the United States.” The gallant and distinguished Gen. M. C. Butler, in response to inquiries about his family, writes from his home at Edgefield, S. C.: “I have been absent from home for a fortnight, and did not receive your letter in regard to the Irish-Americans in our late war from this state in time to aid you. “I have a typewritten copy of the family history of the Butlers of my family, and would send that to you, but it is the only copy, and therefore do not like to risk it, as it is doubtless too late for your purpose. The Pierce Butler to whom you refer was of the same stock as my great-grandfather, James Butler, who came here from Prince Williams county, Virginia, sometime before the Revolution. “Another branch moved to Kentucky, to which Gen. Wm. O. Butler belonged and also Col. E. G. W. Butler of Louisiana. They have always been a ‘fighting’ people—the cropping out of their Irish blood—and have taken a hand in all the wars of our past history. “I think the most distinguished and conspicuous military man of my immediate family was my uncle, Col. Pierce M. Butler, who was killed at the head of the Palmetto Regiment on the 20th of August, 1847, at Churubusco, in Mexico. I have always understood he was held in the highest estimation by General Scott, and other general officers of rank in the United States army. “I should think Armstrong, that witty, devil-may-care gallant Irishman of Charleston, could give you valuable information of the part the Irish-Americans of this state bore in the Confederate armies. He is himself a conspicuous example of their gallantry and patriotism.” I publish the following extracts from letters of Col. James Armstrong, of Charleston, S. C., just mentioned, than whom there was no more gallant soldier in the army of Northern Virginia: