Simon Bolivar Buckner

Simon Bolivar Buckner (1823-1914), American army officer, born in Hart County, Kentucky, and educated at the U.S. Military Academy. After serving in the Mexican War, Buckner returned to West Point in 1848 and taught infantry tactics for two years. Resigning his commission in 1855, he entered private business, first in Chicago and later in Louisville, Kentucky. When the American Civil War broke out, he became a brigadier general in the Confederate army. He was in command of the garrison of Fort Donelson when the Union general Ulysses S. Grant forced its surrender in February 1862. Buckner was captured but was exchanged in August as a prisoner. Soon thereafter he was promoted to major general, and he fought at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. The following year he was given command of Louisiana and promoted to lieutenant general, but he was forced to surrender the state in 1865. From 1887 to 1891 Buckner was governor of Kentucky, and in 1896 he was the candidate for the vice-presidency of the United States on the ticket of the National (Sound-Money) Democrats.