Private John Wilson Buckner (CSA)

John Wilson Buckner was born in Sumter County. Buckner joined the 1st South Carolina Artillery on March 27. 1863. He served in the company of Captains P.P. Galliard and Alexander Hamilton Boykin, local men who knew that Buckner was a Negro. Although it was illegal at the time for a Negro to formally join the Confederate forces, the Ellison family's prestige nullified the law in the minds of Buckner's comrades.

Buckner's grandfather, William Ellison, was a former slave who was the third largest slave owner in South Carolina at the time of his death in 1861. Ellison turned his plantation over from cotton cash crop production to farming foodstuff for the Confederacy.

John Buckner was wounded at Fort Wagner on July 12, 1863, in the battle against the 54th Massachusetts Regiment which was comprised of colored troops. After recovering, he was a regular in Capt. P.O. Gaillard’s company and later became a scout in Capt. Boykin’s company, both South Carolina regiments. When John Wilson Bucker died in August, 1895, at his funeral, he was praised by his officers as being a faithful soldier.