The campaigns that fall would be Buford's last. By the time of Gettysburg, the 37-year-old career cavalryman already suffered from arthritis so severe that he often had to be assisted into the saddle. Years of hard riding had crushed his vertebrae and settled into his joints. On November 21, after contracting typhoid that likely came from drinking a bad cup of water, he relinquished his command and went to stay with a friend in Washington, D.C.

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What a cannonball, saber or musket shot couldn't do, an insipid little bug did—it took the life of a fighter. In his final moments of delirium on December 16, Buford called out to an imaginary line of troopers—perhaps dusty from their hard ride, perhaps bloody from a hard fight—but all of them with their face to the enemy: "Don't let the men run to the rear!"

Buford's Gettysburg campaign was his finest hour. Decades after the war, Buford's troopers and associates prepared to place a monument of him on the battlefield, at the spot where he had opened the fight. Unknown to the men, however, sculptor James Kelly chose to portray Buford standing his ground rather than on a horse, as they had expected. At the unveiling in 1893, the onlookers—many of whom had served beside Buford—initially protested. But after a few moments, the crowd realized it was a fitting tribute after all. The statue was simple and unobtrusive, like their commander, and Buford's men could look upon it with pride. n

J.D. Petruzzi is the co-author with Eric J. Wittenberg and Michael F. Nugent of One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863.

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