John F. Buford (March 4, 1826 – December 16, 1863) was an American cavalry officer during the American Civil War, with a prominent role at the start of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Buford was born in Kentucky but raised in Rock Island, Illinois. He graduated in the 1848 class of United States Military Academy and fought with the dragoons in the West. He was stationed at Fort Crittendon, Utah, from 1859 to 1861. When Civil War broke out, he returned to the East from his post in Utah. Buford was regarded as a man who drove himself too hard, which might have contributed to his success. He had relatives who fought for the South, and upon receiving an offer of a commission in the Confederate Army, legend has it he crumpled it up and threw it on the ground, declaring that he would "Live and die under the flag of the Union".

In November 1861, he was appointed assistant inspector general with the rank of major, and in July 1862, after having served for several months in the defense of Washington, was raised to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He was given his first position in 1862, under Major General John Pope, the Reserve Cavalry Brigade, which fought with distinction at the Battle of 2nd Bull Run. Buford personally led a charge late in the battle, but was badly wounded in the knee and left for dead. He returned, though, and served as a cavalry "advisor" to Maj. Gens. George B. McClellan and Ambrose E. Burnside. In McClellan's Maryland Campaign he served as chief of cavalry in the Army of the Potomac and was in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, replacing George Stoneman on McClellan's staff. Under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, however, Buford was given the Reserve Brigade again, and he helped introduce the dragoon technique of fighting while dismounted.

After the Battle of Chancellorsville, Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton was given command of the Cavalry Corps, although Hooker later agreed that Buford would have been the better choice (Pleasonton was too flashy and rather incompetent as a cavalry leader). In the Gettysburg Campaign, he is credited with having selected the field of battle at Gettysburg. Buford's division was the first to arrive at Gettysburg and successfully held off Maj. Gen. Henry Heth's Confederate division so that Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds's I Corps could hold the high ground west of town. Afterwards, Buford's tired troopers were sent by Pleasonton to Emmitsburg, Maryland, to resupply and refit, an ill-advised decision that uncovered the Union left flank. They saw no more action at the eventual Gettysburg victory, of which Buford had been a key component.

Buford pursued the Confederates to Warrenton and was afterward engaged in many operations in central Virginia, rendering a particularly valuable service in covering George Meade's retrograde movement in the October 1863 Bristoe Campaign.

Buford was stricken with typhoid fever and died on December 16, 1863, at Washington, D.C., receiving a commission as major general effective on the day of his death. He is buried in West Point Cemetery. He was one of the ablest cavalry officers in the Union Army; in fact, most historians would agree that only Philip Sheridan even competed with him as the best cavalry officer in the Army of the Potomac. Had he been given command of the Cavalry Corps, the course of the war in the East (so hampered by bad intelligence) might have been totally changed.

In 1895, a bronze statue of Buford designed by artist James E. Kelly was dedicated on the Gettysburg Battlefield.

In popular media

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Buford was portrayed by Sam Elliott in the 1993 film Gettysburg, the film adaptation of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels.

Buford is a character in the alternate-history novel Gettysburg, written by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen.

References

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• Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Proceedings of the Buford Memorial Association (New York, 1895)
• History of the Civil War in America (volume iii, p.545)

1826 births | 1863 deaths | Union Army generals | United States Army generals | West Point graduates

John Buford