Buckner, Simon Bolivar

Life Span
to
Full name
Simon Bolivar Buckner
Place of Birth
Munfordville, KY
Burial Place
Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, KY
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
South
Origins
Slave State
Family
Aylett Hartswell (father), Elizabeth Ann Morehead (mother), Mary Jane Kingsbury (first wife), Delia Claiborne (second wife), Lily Buckner (daughter), Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. (son)
Education
West Point (US Military Academy)
Occupation
Military
Businessman
Educator
Journalist
Relation to Slavery
White non-slaveholder
Political Parties
Democratic
Government
Governor
Military
US military (Pre-Civil War)
Confederate Army

Simon Bolivar Buckner (American National Biography)

Scholarship
Buckner considered Union actions in Kentucky to be violations of the U.S. Constitution and of states' rights, so in September 1861 he went to Nashville, where he accepted Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston's offer of a brigadier generalship. Johnston ordered Buckner to Fort Donelson, where a terribly confused situation left him in command. The Union forces enveloped that position, and in February 1862 Buckner surrendered the fort on the now-famous "unconditional surrender" terms of General Ulysses S. Grant. Buckner remained a prisoner for more than five months. After being exchanged he was promoted to major general and served capably in a number of battles, notably Perryville and Chickamauga. In 1864 Buckner joined the trans-Mississippi forces of General E. Kirby Smith and in September received promotion to lieutenant general.
Bennett H. Wall, "Buckner, Simon Bolivar," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00098.html.
Date Event
- In Tennessee, Union forces surround Fort Donelson and begin probing attacks
In Tennessee, Union troops reinforce the siege of Fort Donelson, while gunboats attack from the river
In Tennessee, Confederate troops attempt a full-scale break out from the siege of Fort Donelson
In Tennessee, General Grant forces Fort Donelson's "unconditional and immediate" surrender
Generals Buckner and Tilghman, captured at Fort Donelson, arrive in Boston as prisoners-of-war
In Kentucky, Union troops capture Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner's furniture
- In Georgia, advancing Union forces suffer a very heavy defeat near Chickamauga Creek
Date Title
Abraham Lincoln to Erastus Corning and others, June 12, 1863
How to Cite This Page: "Buckner, Simon Bolivar," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5258.