Napoleon Bonapart Buford was an American Union soldier. He is regarded for holding many commands in the West and for being a hero at the Battle of Belmont, Missouri.
Background
Napoleon Bonapart Buford was born on January 13, 1807 on a plantation in Woodford County, Kentucky, the second child of John Buford by his first wife, Nancy Hickman. He was also half-brother of John Buford.
He was a grandson of Simeon Buford, who migrated from Virginia to Kentucky in 1790 and settled in what was to become Woodford County.
Education
Napoleon Buford graduated sixth in his class in the United States Military Academy, July 1, 1827, and was commissioned a lieutenant of artillery. He attended the artillery school at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, 1827-28; was on topographical duty along the Kentucky River and at the Rock Island and Des Moines Rapids of the Mississippi, 1828-29; was in garrison at Fort Sullivan, Maine, 1830-31 and 1832-34; studied on leave of absence at the Harvard University Law School during 1831; was assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at West Point 1834-35; and resigned from the Army, December 31, 1835.
Career
For the next seven years Buford was in the service of his native state as engineer in charge of the Licking River improvement. He then followed his family to Rock Island, Illinois, where he was successively a merchant, iron founder, railroad promoter, and banker.
In 1850 he was a member and secretary of the board of visitors of the Military Academy. The outbreak of the Civil War ruined him financially, for his bank had invested heavily in the bonds of Southern states. Making over his entire property to his creditors, he helped raise the 27th Illinois Volunteers, was commissioned its colonel, August 10, 1861, and was presently in action.
At Belmont, Missouri, November 7, 1861, the 27th Illinois was left behind in the retreat and might easily have fallen into the hands of the enemy; Buford, with a cool head and accurate information about the terrain, took his men down a byroad to the river and got them aboard a gunboat without mishap.
Buford took part in the demonstration on Columbus, Kentucky, February 23, 1862, and was in command of the town, March 4-14, after its evacuation by the Confederates.
He was in the siege of Island No. 10 March 14-April 7, and commanded the garrison after its capitulation. During the siege he took a small detachment and fell on Union City, Tennessee, early in the morning of March 31, taking the town by surprise and capturing a number of prisoners, one hundred horses, and a quantity of munitions and stores. For this exploit he was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers, April 15, 1862. He participated in the expedition to Fort Pillow, Tennessee, April 10-20, and served in the Mississippi campaign of the following summer.
During the pursuit after the second day's fighting at Corinth, Mississippi, October 4, 1862, he suffered a sunstroke. While recuperating he was sent to Washington on court-martial duty and was a member of the court that convicted General Fitz-John Porter. On his return to the West he was in command of Cairo, Illinois, March-September, 1863, and of the District of East Arkansas, with headquarters at Helena, September 12, 1863-March 9, 1865. There he did his most notable work.
He coped successfully with smugglers, guerrilla parties, and lessees of plantations (some of whom, he declared, were as bad as the enemy), organized a freedmen's department of 5, 000 men, established an orphan asylum and an industrial school for liberated slaves, and prosecuted dishonesty among his own subordinates.
In spite of an inadequate force of men and much illness, he gave an excellent account of himself. The state of his health finally compelled him to ask for a change of duties. He was relieved of his command by an order of March 6, 1865, was brevetted major-general of volunteers, March 13, "for gallant and meritorious service during the Rebellion, " and was on leave of absence from March 9 until August 24, 1865, when he was mustered out of the volunteer service.
He was superintendent of the Federal Union Mining Company in Colorado June 1-December 1, 1866, special United States commissioner of Indian affairs, February 7-September 1, 1867, and special United States commissioner to inspect the completed Union Pacific Railroad, September 1, 1867-March 10, 1869. The latter years of his life were spent in Chicago, where he was one of the founders of the Chicago Society of the Sons of Virginia and was a social favorite.
He died in Chicago and was buried at Rock Island.
Achievements
Membership
He was a member of the Chicago Society of the Sons of Virginia.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
In a subsequent parley over the exchange of prisoners he met his classmate, Leonidas Polk, who wrote of him to Mrs. Polk: "He is as good a fellow as ever lived, and most devotedly my friend; a true Christian, a true soldier, and a gentleman, every inch of him. "
Connections
He was twice married: first, to Sarah Childs of Cazenovia, New York; and second, to Mrs. Mary Anne (Greenwood) Pierce.