Buckner, Simon Bolivar

Buckner, Simon Bolivar

(1823–1914) Confederate soldier; born near Munfordville, Ky. He graduated from West Point in 1844 and saw extensive action during the Mexican War. Buckner entered Confederate service as a brigadier general in September 1861. In February 1862, after his two senior officers escaped to safety, he surrendered Fort Donelson, Ky., to General Grant after receiving Grant's famous "unconditional surrender" message; exchanged later in 1862, Buckner commanded a wing of Bragg's army at Chickamauga. After the war, he edited a Louisville newspaper and served as Democratic governor of Kentucky from 1887 to 1892.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.