Civil War
In 1861 Kentucky governor Beriah Magoffin appointed Buckner adjutant general, promoted him to major general, and charged him with revising the state's militia laws. The state was torn between Union and Confederacy, with the legislature supporting the former and the governor the latter. This led the state to declare itself officially neutral. Buckner assembled 61 companies to defend Kentucky's neutrality.
The state board that controlled the militia considered it to be pro-secessionist and ordered it to store its arms. On July 20, 1861, Buckner resigned from the state militia, declaring that he could no longer perform his duties due to the board's actions. That August he was twice offered a commission as a brigadier general in the Union Army—the first from general in chief Winfield Scott, and the second from Secretary of War Simon Cameron following the personal order of President Abraham Lincoln—but he declined. After Confederate Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk occupied Columbus, Kentucky, violating the state's neutrality, Buckner accepted a commission as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army on September 14, 1861, and was followed by many of the men he formerly commanded in the state militia. When his Confederate commission was approved, Union officials in Louisville indicted him for treason and seized his property. (Concerned that a similar action might be taken against his wife's property in Chicago, he had previously deeded it to his brother-in-law.) He became a division commander in the Army of Central Kentucky under Brig. Gen. William J. Hardee and was stationed in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Read more about this topic: Simon Bolivar Buckner
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