Napoleon Bonaparte Buford
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Napoleon Bonaparte Buford (January 13, 1807 – March 28, 1883) was an American soldier, Union general in the American Civil War, and railroad executive.
Buford was born in Woodford County, Kentucky on his family's plantation, "Rose Hill." He graduated from West Point in 1827 and served for eight years in the artillery. He studied law at Harvard, was assistant professor at West Point, and in 1835 resigned from the service to become an engineer. He thereafter engaged in iron manufacturing and banking at Peoria, Ill., and became president of the Rock Island and Peoria Railroad, which went bankrupt when major Southern bonds were defaulted with the start of the Civil War.
In the Civil War, he was first a colonel of the 27th Illinois Infantry and then a brigadier general. In the final days of 1862, he served on the court-martial that convicted Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter of cowardice and disobedience. He took part in the sieges of Corinth and Vicksburg, and in 1865 was brevetted major general of volunteers while commanding the District of Eastern Arkansas. He mustered out of the army in August 1865.
His younger half brother, John Buford, was also a West Point graduate (Class of 1848) and a general in the Union Army during the Civil War, commanding the 1st Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. A cousin, Abraham Buford, was a general in the Confederate Army.
Buford was government inspector of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1867 to 1869 and a special commissioner of Indian affairs in 1867–68. He died in Chicago, Illinois, and is buried in Rock Island, Illinois.
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
