Simon Bolivar Buckner

Simon Bolivar Buckner, a future Confederate Lieutenant General during the American Civil War, was born on April, 1823, near Mundfordville, Kentucky. He attended West Point, graduating in 1844. Two years later, he served in the Mexican American War (1846-1848) with Ulysses S. Grant. He was brevet promoted twice and was wounded at the Battle of Churubusco After the war he returned to West Point as an instructor. Buckner left the Army in 1855 to enter the business world, managing some family property in Chicago, Illinois. On April 4, 1857 he was appointed the Adjutant General of Illinois. His tenure was brief; leaving the office on November 7, 1857.

Buckner returned to Kentucky shortly before the outbreak of war. He accepted a commission as Brigadier General in the Confederate Army in 1861. During the siege of Fort Donelson, his superiors fled, leaving Buckner to surrender Rebel forces to his West Point classmate, General Grant. Paroled, he continued his service to the Confederate Army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant General. After the war he was a champion of Confederate veterans groups. He visited his old friend President U.S. Grant in 1885 shortly before the latters death, and served as a pallbearer. He was elected as Kentucky Governor in 1887, serving one term and was an unsuccessful Vice Presidential candidate in 1896.

Buckner died on January 8, 1914. His son, Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner, Jr., the highest ranking officer killed in action (Okinawa) during WWII, is buried next to him in Frankfort, Kentucky.

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