Editing Archibald Butt (section)

==Sinking of the ''Titanic''==
Butt left on a six-week vacation in Europe on March 1, 1912, accompanied by Millet.<ref>"Major Butt on Sick Leave." ''New York Times.'' March 1, 1912.</ref><ref name=Brockell>{{Cite news |date=August 7, 2022 |title=Archibald Butt and Francis Millet died on Titanic. Were they a couple? - The Washington Post |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/08/07/francis-millet-archibald-butt-titanic/ |access-date=August 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807211719/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/08/07/francis-millet-archibald-butt-titanic/ |archive-date=August 7, 2022 |first=Gillian |last=Brockell }}</ref> Butt booked first-class passage on the RMS ''Titanic'' to return to the United States. He boarded the ship at [[Southampton]], in [[England]] on April 10, 1912; Millet boarded the ship at [[Cherbourg-Octeville|Cherbourg]], France, later that same day. Butt was playing cards on the night of April 14 in the first-class smoking room when the ''Titanic'' struck an iceberg.<ref name="cardgame">Lynch, p. 84.</ref> The ship sank two and a half hours later, with a loss of over 1,500 lives.<ref>{{cite book| last = Mersey| first = Lord| author-link = John Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey| year = 1999| orig-year = 1912| title = The Loss of the Titanic, 1912| publisher = The Stationery Office| isbn = 978-0-11-702403-8| pages=110–111}}</ref> Butt and Millet were among the dead; Butt's body was never recovered.<ref>Schemmel, p. 148.</ref>

Butt's actions while the ship sank are largely unverified, but many accounts of a sensationalist nature were published by newspapers immediately after the disaster. One account had the ship's captain, [[Edward Smith (sea captain)|Edward J. Smith]], telling Butt that the ship was doomed, after which Butt began to act like a ship's officer and supervised the loading and lowering of [[lifeboat (shipboard)|lifeboat]]s.<ref>Caplan, pp. 55–57.</ref> ''The New York Times'' also claimed that Butt herded women and children into lifeboats.<ref>"The Tragedy of the Titanic—A Complete Story." ''New York Times.'' April 28, 1912.</ref> Another account said that Butt, a gun in his hand, prevented panicked male passengers from storming the lifeboats.<ref name="Caplan55">Caplan, p. 55.</ref> Yet another version of events said Butt yanked a man out of one of the lifeboats so that a woman could board.  In this story, Butt declared, "Sorry, women will be attended to first or I'll break every damned bone in your body!"<ref name="Caplan55" /> One account tells of Butt preventing desperate [[steerage]] passengers from breaking into the first class areas in an attempt to escape the sinking ship.<ref name="Caplan55" /> [[Walter Lord]]'s book ''[[A Night to Remember (book)|A Night to Remember]]'' disagrees with claims that Butt acted like an officer. Lord says Butt most likely observed the ship's evacuation quietly.<ref name="ANTR">Lord, p. 78.</ref> Many newspapers repeated a story allegedly told by Marie Young.  This tale says that Butt helped her into Lifeboat No. 8, tucked a blanket about her, and said, "Goodbye, Miss Young.  Luck is with you. Will you kindly remember me to all the folks back home?" Young later wrote to President Taft denying she ever told such a story.<ref>Bromley, pp. 329–330.</ref>
[[File:After midnight selling extras. There were many young boys selling very late these nights. Youngest boy in the group... - NARA - 523536.jpg|thumb|April 17, 1912, headline: "No News of Major Butt or [[Clarence Moore (businessman)|Clarence Moore]]"]]

Even Butt's final moments remain in dispute. Dr. Washington Dodge says he saw [[John Jacob Astor IV|John Jacob Astor]] and Butt standing near the bridge as the ship went down.<ref>Mowbray, p. 113.</ref> Dodge's account is highly unlikely, as his lifeboat was more than {{convert|0.5|mi|km}} away from the ship at the time it sank.<ref>Barczewski, p. 60.</ref> Other eyewitnesses say they saw him standing calmly on deck<ref>Spignesi, p. 42.</ref> or standing side by side with Astor waving goodbye.<ref>Hines, p. 145.</ref> Several accounts had Butt returning to the smoking room, where he stood quietly or resumed his card game.<ref>Barczewski, p. 27.</ref> But these accounts have been disputed by author [[John Maxtone-Graham]].<ref>Maxtone-Graham notes that if the eyewitnesses had been where they claimed, they would have had to travel aft and down a deck to loop through the smoking room, a highly improbable journey if they were seeking to abandon ship. See: Maxtone-Graham, p. 76.</ref>