Matthew was born on the 24th of April 1866, in Anna, Illinois, and grew up in the nearby Ozark Mountains in Missouri. In an attempt to pass the bar exam to become a lawyer, he attended Southern Illinois University for one term and spent a year studying law but by April of 1888 decided to enlist in the US Army. The first three years were served with Troops M and G of the 2nd US Cavalry and Matthew was a Corporal when the War Department offered him a commission to Second Lieutenant with the 9th Cavalry. He accepted this commission in 1891 and remained with the 9th Cavalry for seven years, during which he was married to Florence and had his first son, Irvin.

Matthew also attended the Infantry and Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1894, and deployed to Cuba in support of the Spanish-American War. According to Edward Coffman’s article for the Army War College, titled “Batson of the Philippine Scouts”, Matthew felt that officers that were stuck in a peacetime mindset were quicker to be promoted than those like himself that had a credible record during the Battle of San Juan Hill. While this sentiment was shared by others, Matthew seemed to be more vocal about this and wrote to his wife that, “Army officers are the most selfish class in existence”, even calling the Army a “rotten institution”. He was promoted to First Lieutenant in August of 1898 due to being the senior cavalry Second Lieutenant at the time, not because of his actions during the war.

Matthew then went to the Philippines and was assigned to the 1st Division, Eighth Corps in the city of Manila. When the fighting that would turn into the Philippine Insurrection, or the Philippine-American War, began, Matthew and the 1st Division was tasked with guarding the southern approaches of Manila. Once secure, the division pushed away from the city and into the countryside to break up concentrations of troops. It was during one of these missions when Matthew would display actions that would later earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

Swam the San Juan River in the face of the enemy's fire and drove him from his entrenchments.

Matthew’s commanding officer recommended him for the Medal of Honor after these actions and before moving on with the war, it is important to note a few things that will be important to the story. When Matthew was assigned to the 9th Cavalry, he was a white officer in charge of black enlisted men. The 9th was one of two Regular Army cavalry regiments that were structured like this and because Matthew fought with a unit like this, he clearly saw their courage and heroism. When he arrived in the Philippines, he used his personal money to hire a body servant named Jacinto and wrote to his wife that Jacinto could both read and write, as well as learned English faster than Matthew could learn his native language. This is important to the story because this was during a time when Jim Crow was becoming law and affecting attitudes in both the North and South of the States. Matthew did not call his Filipino enemies by the racial slurs like his fellow officers did and did not partake in the spreading of rumors about them. He saw his enemy as patriots fighting for their country and would do the same if he was in their position. Matthew thought that organizing native troops to fight for their home would be more effective than keeping the American Army engaged, costing more time, money, and men than he thought Americans would like. His idea eventually made it to the division commander, Civil War Medal of Honor recipient General Lawton, who liked the idea and gave the green light for Matthew to create two companies as an experiment.

The first company consisted of 108 men that were veterans of the Spanish colonial army and they very quickly drove out insurgents from two villages. One week later, a second company was assembled and in October of 1899, three more companies, making Matthew a First Lieutenant in command of a battalion of five companies known as Batson’s Macabebe Scouts. On the 19th of November 1899, Matthew and the scouts were instrumental in pushing back the Philippine Revolutionary Army but at a high cost of men, including himself. He had been shot in the left foot and refused to ride in a litter back to the aid station. He instead insisted that one of his wounded scouts use the litter and he rode back to the station on horseback, even while weak from blood loss. Doctors thought that they would have to amputate Matthew’s foot for a long time but it was able to be saved. He was able to return to duty and promoted to Major of volunteers in March of 1900. He and the scouts continued with heavy counter-guerrilla operations for the next year and it took a toll on Matthew’s health. He was reported to being on the edge of a nervous breakdown shortly before returning to the States and the volunteer force was legally dissolved on the 30th of June 1901. Matthew was promoted to a Captain in the Regular Army and even with a less stressful garrison life, his health did not improve. His son Irvin died at the age of 10 in 1905 and Matthew was divorced from Florence and remarried to Inez, with whom the couple had one son (Burnham) and one daughter (Suzanne). Matthew medically retired from the Army on the 6th of February 1902, at the age of 35. He was recalled to active duty by the War Department twice as a recruiter and it was while on duty during the second assignment that Matthew Arlington Batson died on the 13th of January 1917, in Wheeling, West Virginia. He is buried with Inez in Arlington National Cemetery: Section 2, Grave 3604-WS

His legacy became known as the Philippine Scouts and by the end of the Philippine-American War was made up of about 5,000 troops. Less than 40 years later, they totaled 11,000 and played a role with fighting the Japanese during World War 2. They were officially disbanded as an official element of the US Army by President Truman by December of 1948.