American soldier and political aide Archibald Butt was BOTD in 1865. Born in Augusta, Georgia, he grew up in poverty, leaving school at 14 after his father’s death to work and support his family. With the financial help of his local pastor, he attended the University of the South in Tennessee, studying journalism and editing the college newspaper. After graduation, he worked as a journalist in Kentucky, before moving to Washington D.C., where he became a national affairs correspondent for Southern newspapers. Handsome, charismatic and gregarious, he befriended a number of politicians, and in 1895 was appointed as secretary to the US Embassy in Mexico. He then spent eight years as a quartermaster for the United States Volunteers military branch, serving at posts in Panama, the Philippines and Cuba. In 1908, he was appointed as military aide to President Theodore Roosevelt. The two men formed a close friendship, participating in sports, hiking and other manly outdoor pursuits. Butt maintained his role during the presidency of William Howard Taft, though struggled to maintain his loyalty to Roosevelt. A lifelong bachelor who was slavishly devoted to his mother, Butt shared a house with the artist Francis Millet, hosting lively all-male parties and arguing over Millet’s preference for pink and red rosebud wallpaper. The pair had a lodger, Australian-born diplomat Archie Kerr, who was fond of wearing kilts without underwear. In 1912, Taft despatched Butt to Europe (accompanied by Millet) to win the endorsement of Pope Pius X for the upcoming Presidential election. In April 1912, Butt and Millet departed from Southhampton, England to return home on the Titanic. Both men died when the ship hit an iceberg. Butt’s body was never recovered, and he was pronounced dead, aged 63. After his death, several accounts circulated of Butt’s actions during the final hours of the tragedy, including herding women and children onto lifeboats, using a gun to stop male passengers from storming the lifeboats in a panic, pulling men from lifeboats so that women could board, and preventing steerage passengers from entering first class areas to escape the sinking ship. Titanic historians are generally agreed that the stories were fiction, invented to bolster Butt’s posthumous reputation. His memorial service was attended by President Taft, who broke down in tears while giving a speech. Biographers and historians have also strained to argue that Butt and Millet were just good friends, presumably so as not to tarnish his heroic image by acknowledging his homosexuality. Max Allan Collins’ 1999 novel The Titanic Murders portrays Butt and Millet as lovers aboard the Titanic, who murder a blackmailer threatening to expose their relationship.