General John Buford

The bronze statue to cavalry division commander John Buford is located near the Reynolds equestrian on the Chambersburg Pike. This seems especially appropriate because Reynolds and Buford worked closely together to choose this ground as the battlefield.

The Buford monument was dedicated on July 1, 1895. The monument was sculpted by James E. Kelly. It is an excellent likeness of the tough Kentucky cavalryman.

The sculptor, James Kelly, was a sculptor and illustrator. He executed the famous engraving of Meade’s council of War at Gettysburg and was responsible for several other bronzes of other Civil War generals in various locations around the country, including Fitz-John Porter and Horatio Wright.

An interesting feature of this monument is the four Ordnance Rifles tubes located along the base. Number 233 features a plaque denoting that it was the gun that fired the first artillery shot of the battle. The tube was part of a gun in John Calef’s horse artillery battery located near here.

It was Calef’s idea to include the tubes and during the dedication, Calef symbolically spiked the four cannon barrels.

Buford (1826-1863) commanded the Army of the Potomac’s First Cavalry division. Fighting dismounted, Buford’s “defense in depth” purchased time for Reynolds to come up to the battlefield.

Buford was stricken with typhoid fever in the fall of 1863. He died in December of that year, having been promoted on his deathbed to major general to rank from July 1, 1863.

Tags: Commemoratives, Gettysburg, McPherson Ridge, Monument Project