The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-10-09
GENERAL BUCKNER IN
HIS E|GHTY-F|FTH YEAR

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, September
Kentucky now has added one of the
most notable ones to her list. The land
| of the homes of Lincoln and of Davis,
of the even split of Civil War times, of
''The Grange the mountain feuds,
| the might riders,'' and sempiternal
politics, is now the land of the Last
Rebel.
This may not be taken to mean that
in Kentucky only does there survive
member of Lees great army, which,
during the four bloody years of the
sixties, resisted the rush of numbers
and equipment under Grant, But it
does mean that the last leader of that
army lives in Kentucky, and that now
there is not high ranked general of
that army in the world but himself.
The leader is Simon Bolivar Buckner,
of Glen Lily, Hart County, the last of
the brilliant cluster of Confederate
Acknowledgements who, under Lee and
Stonewall Jackson. made themselves co.
equal with the military genuises of all
time.
-Four months ago General Stephen d.
Lee, of Vicksburg; General Alexander
p. Stewart, of Biloxi, and General
Buckner, all three attended the Con-
federate reunion in Birmingham, and
the thin columns of old soldiers who
passed them in the reviewing stand
cheered wildly for the three symbols of
great rank in the South. The echoes
of the faltering feet of the old men
was hardly dulled in the Birmingham
streets when General Lee passed from
his peaceful life at Vicksburg, leaving
only General Stewart and General
Buckner. A week ago General Stewart
died, and in the need of praise which
! the hosts of veterans north and south
of the Ohio poured upon his grave, the
censorious blame which tacticians gave
him for his flank movement, which. is
| said to have lost the battle of Gettys-
burg, was forgotten, and General Stew
art was remembered for what he was
one of the brilliant military leaders and
| one of the most noble citizens of the
three centuries of the nation.
| General Buckner returned from the
reunion to his usual peaceful life at
Glen Lily. His eighty-four years have
bowed his shoulders and sunken his
| eyes, put the old warrior is still man
enough to lead "the boys,'' as he calls
| them, against some desperate fortress
or some forlorn hope. He passes his
life peacefully with his beautiful wife
and in treasuring the letters and the
ambitions of Bolivar Buckner, Jr., re
Gently graduated from West Point
where his father went before him, and
now dashing Young lieutenant in the
army of the United States.
'Of course, am glad that he il
under the old fag,o said the General
the other day, indignant that such
treason had been suggested.
OF Floyd and Pillow and himself
Buckner is the only General of the
Fl Donelson episode who came out
with reputation for genius in military
, affairs and for courage unassailed.
81 will fight it out on this line il
it takes all SUMMER" said the doggsi
!, Grant, drawing his lines about the for
tress, and Buckner made him keep hi
word until all provisions We're exhaust
ed, with the ammunition, and tn
: wearied garrison could fight no more
/, He served brilliantly as Bfigadier an'
l., Major General, and on March 80, 1865
!. he was made Lieutenant General
!, After the war he devoted himself to tn
!. peaceful pursuits of civil life, rising t
I, the position of Governor of Kentucky
4 and in 1896, being the candidate TO
! Vice President on the Gold ticket
!, Since then General Buckner has chose
) independently Of party lines. The let
!, ter which he wrote to State chairmai
Henry 3. Hines last year, declaring 20