Buckner, Simon Bolivar, 1886-1945

From the Kentucky Encyclopedia on S.B. Buckner: Simon Bolivar Buckner, governor of Kentucky during 1887-91, was born at Glen Lily, the family estate near Munfordville, Kentucky, on April 1, 1823. When his parents, Aylett Hartswell and Elizabeth Ann (Morehead) Buckner, moved to Arkansas, they left him behind to attend schools in Greenville and Hopkinsville before he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1840. After graduation Buckner saw active duty with Gen. Winfield Scott during the Mexican War . In 1850 he married Mary Jane Kingsbury. In 1855 he resigned his commission to help his father-in-law with his extensive business interests. He returned to Kentucky in 1858 from Chicago, and two years later became head of the state militia. Buckner tried to preserve the state's neutrality in 1861, but when that failed he rejected a Union commission, becoming a Confederate brigadier general. He led troops to Bowling Green, Kentucky, in September 1861, and after a confused command situation left him in charge, he surrendered Fort Donelson to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in February 1862. After a prisoner exchange, Buckner saw extensive duty in the western theater, including the 1862 Confederate invasion of Kentucky; he was promoted to major general and became involved in a bitter controversy with Gen. Braxton Bragg. Sent to the trans-Mississippi theater in 1864, Buckner was promoted to lieutenant general. On May 26, 1865, he surrendered Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith's army. He was a New Orleans journalist and businessman until allowed to return to Kentucky in 1868.

From the description of Kentucky Civil War circulars. 1861. (Kentucky Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 191699363

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