Meet General Buford
Gettysburg National Military Park Kidzpage

 

Buford & staff
General Buford and members of his staff in 1863. Standing at left is Miles Keogh who later served with General George A. Custer and was killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.
(US Army Military History Institute)
Born on March 4, 1826, John Buford spent most of his boyhood days in Woodford County, Kentucky. His parents moved their family to Rock Island, Illinois in the early 1840's, where he pursued his love of horses and riding. By the time he was appointed to the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, Buford was a skilled and expert rider. Buford was a good student and graduated in 1848. He was assigned to the 2nd United States Dragoons, a cavalry regiment, and saw service in Kansas, Texas, and in the New Mexico territory. When the Civil War began in 1861, Buford's regiment was in Utah. The soldiers marched overland to Kansas and then on to Washington where it was re designated as the 2nd US Cavalry. Buford's efficiency got him noticed in upper levels and he was assigned as an inspector for the defenses that were being constructed around Washington. Still, he was anxious for a field command and the opportunity came in 1862 when he was appointed a brigadier general and given command of a reserve cavalry brigade in the Army of Virginia under General John Pope. Pope undertook a campaign in Northern Virginia that resulted in the Second Battle of Bull Run and another Union disaster. Confederate reinforcements overran the Union left and drove Pope's troops from the battlefield. During the retreat General Buford was so seriously wounded that he was left for dead. Remarkably, he quickly recovered and returned to duty with the Army of the Potomac in time for the first Southern invasion of Maryland in September. Buford remained with the cavalry as a staff officer through the winter and spring of 1863.

Soon after the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia in May 1863, General Buford left his staff position to assume command of the 1st Division of the Cavalry Corps. Marching from the Union camps near Fredericksburg, Virginia in June, Buford led his soldiers northward in an attempt to shadow the Confederate march into Maryland and Pennsylvania. The end of the month found the general in a fateful location about ten miles south of Gettysburg. He ordered his troopers northward and approached Gettysburg just as his scouts spied a column of Confederate soldiers west of town. Buford decided to picket the area and send a cavalry outpost west of Gettysburg to look for the Confederates if they returned th next day. He then sent a message to his old friend, General John Reynolds, commander of the Union First Corps, to march to Gettysburg the next morning and that there were Confederates camped in the area. The stage was set for the opening of the Battle of Gettysburg!

Early the next morning, Confederate soldiers under Henry Heth marched toward Gettysburg and encountered Buford's pickets on the Chambersburg Pike. The battle opened with the infantrymen pushing back Buford's cavalrymen. General Buford skillfully arranged his men into a line where they could hold up the Confederates until the Union infantry arrived. Finally at about 9:30 AM, General Reynolds rode up to Buford's observation post at the Lutheran Seminary building on Seminary Ridge. The two greeted each other and talked briefly over the change of troops that would occur on the McPherson Farm. General Reynolds rode off to hurry his men forward while Buford's troopers fought for time. Just when it appeared that the cavalry line was going to collapse, Reynold's column appeared on the field and the battle was underway in earnest. General Buford withdrew his exhausted cavalrymen from the battle lines and then covered the Union retreat later in the day. His decisive action to stall the Confederate advance on that fateful morning gave the Union army time to congregate at Gettysburg.

After Gettysburg, General Buford remained in command of his division until that fall when he was stricken with typhoid fever. He was taken to a hospital in Washington where he finally received the rank of major general. Buford died the following day and his remains were taken to West Point for burial. Today he is remembered as one of the finest examples of a cavalry officer to lead troops during the Civil War.

Keywords:
scout
division
cavalry
McPherson's Farm
picket
US Military Academy

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