Early Life
Simon B. Buckner (Sr.), was born at Glen Lily, his family's estate near Munfordville, Kentucky. He was the third child and second son of Aylett Hartswell and Elizabeth Ann (Morehead) Buckner. Named after the "South American soldier and statesman, Simón Bolívar, then at the height of his power", Buckner did not begin school until age nine, when he enrolled at a private school in Munfordville. His closest friend in Munfordville was Thomas J. Wood, who would become a Union Army general opposing Buckner at the Battle of Perryville and the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War. Buckner's father was an iron worker, but found that Hart County did not have sufficient timber to fire his iron furnace. Consequently, in 1838, he moved the family to southern Muhlenberg County where he organized an iron-making corporation. Buckner attended school in Greenville, and later at Christian County Seminary in Hopkinsville.
On July 1, 1840, Buckner enrolled at the United States Military Academy. In 1844 he graduated eleventh in his class of 25 and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Infantry Regiment. He was assigned to garrison duty at Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario until August 28, 1845, when he returned to the Academy to serve as an assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics.
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