He was commissioned in the Regular Army on April 11, 1792 as a major in the Infantry and was assigned to the 4th Sublegion on September 4, 1792.
Within two years, however, the exemption was mysteriously revoked and Butler stood before a court martial which ended in a recommendation of reprimand.
Butler was promoted to colonel of the 2nd Infantry Regiment on November 1, 1802 and was assigned to New Orleans, and was again ordered to cut his hair.
On January 30, 1805 a petition was presented to the United States Senate signed by "sundry citizens and officers of the Militia of the State of Tennessee" asking that Colonel Butler be exonerated for failing to crop his hair, terming it "an illegal and arbitrary mandate".
[1] Butler died of yellow fever on 7 September 1805, at Ormond Plantation, owned by his nephew, in St. Charles Parish, Territory of Orleans (today's Louisiana).