Floyd

John Buchanan, an American politician; born in Blacks burg, Va., June 1, 1807. He served in the Virginia Legislature several terms; and was qprenne of the State in 1850-1853. In 1857 President Buchanan appointed him Secretary of War. While in the cabinet, he was detected in the act of stripping the Northern arsenals of arms and ammunition, and indicted by the grand jury of the District of Columbia as ern privy to the abstracting of $870, in bonds from the Department of the Interior. He fled, however, to Virginia, where, at the close of 1860, he became a brigadier-general in the Confederate army. In that capacity he was driven from West Virginia by General Rose crans. The night before the surrender of Fort Do nelson he stole away in the darkne , throwing the responsibility of surrendering on a subordinate officer, and, being censured by the Confederate government, never afterward served in the army. He died near Abingdon, Va., Aug. 26, 1863.