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{{Short description|American Confederate Army general}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Abraham Buford
|image= BufordAbraham2.jpg
|caption= Brigadier General Abraham Buford
|birth_date= {{Birth date|1820|1|18}}
|death_date= {{Death date and age|1884|6|9|1820|1|18}}
|birth_place= [[Woodford County, Kentucky|Woodford County]], [[Kentucky]]
|death_place= [[Danville, Indiana|Danville]], [[Indiana]]
|placeofburial= [[Lexington Cemetery]] [[Lexington, Kentucky]]
|placeofburial_label= Place of burial
|allegiance= [[United States of America]] [[Confederate States of America]]
|branch= [[United States Army]] [[Confederate States Army]]
|serviceyears= 1841–1854 (USA) 1862–1865 (CSA)
|rank= [[File:Union army cpt rank insignia.jpg|35px]] [[Captain (United States O-3)|Captain (USA)]] [[File:Confederate States of America General-collar.svg|35px]] [[General officers in the Confederate States Army#Brigadier general|Brigadier General (CSA)]]
|commands= Buford's Cavalry Brigade {{nowrap|Buford's Div., [[Forrest's Cavalry Corps]]}}
|unit=
|battles= [[Mexican–American War]] 
*[[Battle of Buena Vista]]
[[American Civil War]]
*[[Battle of Stones River]]
*[[Battle of Champion Hill]]
*[[Battle of Brice's Crossroads]]
*[[Third Battle of Murfreesboro]]
*[[Battle of Nashville|Hood's Retreat]]
*[[Battle of Nashville|Richland Creek]]
*[[Battle of Franklin (1864)|Second Battle of Franklin]]
*[[Wilson's Raid]]
|awards=
|laterwork= Thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder
}}

'''Abraham "Abe" Buford II''' (January 18, 1820 – June 9, 1884) was an American soldier, Confederate combatant, and landowner. After serving in the [[United States Army]] during the [[Mexican-American War|Mexican{{endash}}American{{nbsp}}War]], Buford joined the [[Confederate States Army]] in 1862 and served as a cavalry general in the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|Western Theater]] of the [[American Civil War]]. After the war, he retired to his native [[Kentucky]] and became a [[thoroughbred]] [[horse breeder]].

==Biography==
Abraham Buford was born in [[Woodford County, Kentucky]], the son of Frances W. Kirtley and her husband, William B. Buford (1781–1848). He was named for his great-uncle [[Abraham Buford|Abraham]] who was a [[Continental Army]] officer during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. He descended from a [[Huguenot]] family named Beaufort who fled persecution in [[France]] and settled in [[England]] before emigrating to America in 1635. His cousins, [[John Buford|John]] and [[Napoleon Bonaparte Buford]], who grew up nearby, were generals in the [[Union Army]] during the Civil War.

Buford studied at [[Centre College]] before entering the [[United States Military Academy]] at [[West Point, New York]], in 1837. Graduating in 1841, as a second-lieutenant with the [[1st Cavalry Regiment (United States)|First dragoons]] from 1842 through 1846, he did [[Frontier]] duty in the [[Kansas Territory]] and the [[Indian Territory]]. He then served in the [[Mexican–American War]] in which he was appointed [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] [[Captain (United States O-3)|captain]] for bravery at the [[Battle of Buena Vista]]. When that war ended, he was dispatched for further duty on the Frontier and in 1848 was part of the [[Santa Fe Trail]] expedition. In 1849, Buford escorted the mail from [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]], to the east, using, in part, the new [[Cherokee Trail]]. He was then sent to the [[Carlisle Barracks|Army's cavalry school]] in [[Carlisle, Pennsylvania]], but in October 1854 he resigned his commission and returned to his native Kentucky where his family owned a farm property near [[Versailles, Kentucky|Versailles]] in his native Woodford County.

===Civil War===
Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, like his native state, Buford tried to stay out of the Civil War and succeeded in doing so for well over a year. In September 1862, during Confederate General [[Braxton Bragg|Braxton Bragg's]] invasion of Kentucky, Buford joined the [[Confederate States Army]]. He helped raise and took command of a Kentucky [[brigade]] and on September 2, 1862, was commissioned [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier General]]. Among his missions, Buford covered [[Braxton Bragg|General Braxton Bragg's]] retreat from Kentucky, was part of the [[Vicksburg Campaign]] under [[William W. Loring|General Loring]], fought in the [[Battle of Champion Hill]], a raid on Paducah, KY on 25 March 1864 under Maj. Gen. [[Nathan B. Forrest]], the [[Battle of Brice's Crossroads]] and was wounded on December 24, 1864, at [[Richland Creek (Tennessee)|Richland Creek]] during the [[Battle of Nashville]] when he covered [[John Bell Hood|Lt. Gen. Hood's]] retreat following the Confederate Army's loss. In Alabama in February, 1865, he commanded a division in [[Forrest's Cavalry Corps]] until the surrender at [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]] following [[Wilson's Raid]].

When the war ended in 1865, Brigadier General Buford returned to his farm in Kentucky where he became a leading [[Horse breeding|breeder]] of Thoroughbreds.

==Bosque Bonita Farm==
Abe Buford named his Woodford County farm Bosque Bonita ("Beautiful Woods"), a place ''[[The New York Times]]'' would call the "most princely residence in the [[Bluegrass region]]." It was here that [[Slavery|slave]] [[William Walker (jockey)|Billy Walker]] was born in 1860. He went on to ride [[Baden-Baden (horse)|Baden-Baden]] to victory in the 1877 [[Kentucky Derby]].

Beginning in 1852, the [[Stallion (horse)|stallion]] Sovereign stood at [[Stud (animal)|stud]] at Bosque Bonita, developing into an influential sire. The next year, Abe Buford was part of a syndicate with [[Richard Ten Broeck]], Captain Willa Viley and Junius R. Ward, who bought the then three-year-old colt, [[Lexington (horse)|Lexington]]. In 1858 Lexington was sold to [[Robert A. Alexander]] of [[Woodburn Stud]] for $15,000 in 1858, reportedly the then highest price ever paid for an American horse.

Buford also owned, raced, or bred a number of successful horses including Nellie Gray, [[Enquirer (horse)|Enquirer]], Crossland, and Versailles. [[Mannie Gray]], whom ''[[Thoroughbred Heritage]]'' calls "one of the most influential American mares in breeding history," was owned and raced by Buford who sold her to fellow Kentuckian, Major [[Barak G. Thomas]] of [[Dixiana Farm]]. In 1866, [[Leamington (horse)|Leamington's]] new owner, [[Canada|Canadian]] [[Roderick Cameron]], sent him to stand at stud at Bosque Bonita for the season. Although Leamington covered just thirteen mares that year, he produced an outstanding crop of foals, including, Anna Mace, Enquirer, [[Longfellow (horse)|Longfellow]], Lynchburg, Lyttleton, and Miss Alice.

In 1875, General [[George Custer]] came to Bosque Bonita Farm to buy cavalry remounts before the [[Battle of Little Big Horn]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lanesend.com/about/history.html |title=About Lane's End Farm |access-date=2009-12-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090306075203/http://www.lanesend.com/about/history.html |archive-date=2009-03-06 }}</ref>

===Later owners===
Since Abe Buford's time, Bosque Bonita has been owned by such prominent horsemen as [[John H. Morris]] who had trained horses for George J. Long's [[Bashford Manor Stable]] for many years and who operated [[Woodburn Stud]] on a long-term lease beginning in 1905.<ref>[http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%202/Syracuse%20NY%20Post%20Standard/Syracuse%20NY%20Post%20Standard%201905/Syracuse%20NY%20Post%20Standard%201905%20-%200197.PDF Standard Syracuse]</ref> John Morris still owned Bosque Bonita in the 1940s.

[[William R. Hawn|Fritz Hawn]] bought Bosque Bonita Farm in the fall of 1977 from Robert A. Alexander. Two years later he sold the property to [[William Stamps Farish III]] who renamed it [[Lane's End Farm]]. Some of the famous horses who stood at the farm in recent times and are buried there include [[Bally Ache]] (1957–1960), [[Sovereign Dancer]] (1975–1994), and [[Fappiano]] (1977–1990).

==Family tragedies==
[[File:Relief of Brigadier General Abraham Buford.jpg|thumb|A relief of Brigadier General Abraham Buford by [[Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson]] at [[Vicksburg National Military Park]].]]
During the 1870s Abe Buford suffered a series of financial reversals that forced him into bankruptcy with the resulting loss of Bosque Bonita Farm to his creditors. In addition, he suffered a devastating personal loss when his only son, William A. Buford, died at age twenty-three in 1872. He lost his wife Amanda Harris Buford in 1879 and on March 26 of that same year, his brother, Colonel Thomas Buford of [[Henry County, Kentucky]], shot and killed Judge [[John Milton Elliott]] in [[Frankfort, Kentucky]]. Tom Buford surrendered to police and was jailed pending trial. Abe Buford came to his brother's aid and spent a great deal of money on legal fees for his defense. On appeal of a guilty verdict, Thomas Buford would eventually be found not guilty by reason of [[insanity]] and was sent to the [[Anchorage, Kentucky]] [[psychiatric hospital]].

In his final years, Abe Buford made a living working for racing newspapers. In 1884, following his brother Thomas's much publicized escape from the insane asylum with some newspaper headlines saying he was "thirsting for blood", Abe Buford sought some peace and went to visit his nephew Benjamin T. Buford in [[Danville, Indiana]]. There, in his bedroom, a very depressed Abraham Buford took his own life. His remains were sent back to Kentucky where he was buried in the [[Lexington Cemetery]].

The Brigadier General Abraham Buford Relief was erected November 21, 1911, on South Confederate Avenue in [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]].

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|American Civil War}}
* [[List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Buford, Marcus Bainbridge. "''A Genealogy of the Buford Family in America''" (1903) ASIN: B00085UTNA
* Heidler, David Stephen,/Heidler, Jeanne T./ Coles, David J./ McPherson, James M. "''Encyclopedia Of The American Civil War''" (2002) [[W. W. Norton & Co.]] {{ISBN|978-0-393-04758-5}}
* Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|0-8160-1055-2}}.
* [http://www.battleofchampionhill.org/buford.htm Brigadier General Buford's report on the Battle of Champion's Hill]
* [https://home.nps.gov/vick/learn/historyculture/commanders-of-the-vicksburg-campaign.htm National Park Service website with list of the Commanders of the Vicksburg Campaign]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061015142625/http://www.nps.gov/vick/historyculture/brigadier-general-abraham-buford.htm Profile of Brigadier General Abraham Buford at the Vicksburg National Military Park]
* {{Cite web |url=http://migration.kentucky.gov/kyhs/hmdb/MarkerSearch.aspx?mode=Subject&subject=31 |title=Brigadier General Abraham Buford at the Kentucky Historical Society |access-date=2008-12-29 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20110804193950/http://migration.kentucky.gov/kyhs/hmdb/MarkerSearch.aspx?mode=Subject&subject=31 |archive-date=2011-08-04 |url-status= }}
* {{Cite web |url=http://216.226.178.196/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fphoto&CISOPTR=6419&CISOBOX=1&REC=12 |title=General Abraham Buford, C.S.A. at the Alabama Department of Archives and History |access-date=2017-06-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121141955/http://216.226.178.196/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fphoto&CISOPTR=6419&CISOBOX=1&REC=12 |archive-date=2008-11-21 |url-status=dead }}
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1883/12/21/archives/tom-buford-at-large-fears-that-he-has-murderous-intentions-against.html December 21, 1883 ''The New York Times'' article on the escape of Thomas Buford from the Anchorage asylum]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/1884/06/10/archives/suicide-of-abe-buford-reverses-and-family-troubles-too-great-a.html June 10, 1884 ''The New York Times'' article on the death of Abraham Buford]

==External links==
*{{Find a Grave|9507}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buford Ii, Abraham}}
[[Category:1820 births]]
[[Category:United States Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]
[[Category:Centre College alumni]]
[[Category:Confederate States Army brigadier generals]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War]]
[[Category:American racehorse owners and breeders]]
[[Category:People from Woodford County, Kentucky]]
[[Category:People of Kentucky in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Suicides by firearm in Indiana]]
[[Category:1884 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Lexington Cemetery]]

Abraham Buford II - Revision history

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