of the state militia in Kentucky, as it was among the rural and laboring segments of the population; including the mountainous eastern section. Governor Magoffin sent Buckner to Washington to discuss Kentucky neutrality with President Lincoln in the summer of 1861. During their discussion on July 8th, two weeks before the first battle of Bull Run, Lincoln assured Buckner he would do his best to observe Kentucky's neutrality. He also discussed a possible commission for Simon in the Union Army, perhaps a major command in the east. Later, the talk was confirmed by an offer for appointment as a brevet brigadier general. Lincoln was well aware of Simon's long-standing friendship with General Winfield Scott and George McClellan. Buckner declined the offer, and applied for a commission in the Confederate Army instead. His commission as a brigadier general arrived in September 1861. For better or worse, Simon had cast his lot with the South. Immediately, General Albert Sidney Johnson assigned Buckner to join the campaign to capture Bowling Green and help secure the State of Kentucky for the Confederacy. Throughout much of the state. Simon was branded a traitor and a
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scoundrel for deserting his civil and traditional obligations. His personal assets were seized immediately, including Mary Jane's property in Chicago. During the time Buckner was becoming established in the Confederate Army, his second child died suddenly at Bowling Green. The exact age of the infant son is unknown, but estimates place it as high as two years. Mrs. Mary Jane Buckner requested permission to pass through the Union lines in order to bury the body in Louisville, their official residence. Denied permission initially, General Carlos Buell recanted and allowed Mary Jane and an escort of thirty to make the sad journey and complete the interment. On February 10, 1862, General Buckner arrived at Fort Donelson, a few miles south of the Kentucky border on the Cumberland River, to keep a date with destiny. He was ordered to strengthen the command of Brig. General John B. Floyd, heading a brigade at the fort. It was a vital defense point for the Confederacy to control river traffic carrying Union supplies. A few miles away, Fort Henry had carried out the same function on the Tennessee River. Brig. General U. S. Grant and a flotilla of river gunboats under command of Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote had captured Fort Henry on February 6, 1862, before Buckner arrived at Fort Donelson. Grant's fifteen thousand troops and his gunboats were already on their way toward Simon's new post. The total strength at Donelson stood at approximately seventeen thousand when the attack began with a heavy bombardment from Commodore Foote's gunboats. Among the units in the defensive works surrounding the fort were some 1,500 mounted infantry under the command of the Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest. Actual firing began on February 14, 1862. The night before, a freezing rain drenched the area and dropped temperatures to ten degrees. The battle continued all day of the 14th, with everybody suffering from
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