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Biographical Notes on the

LIFE OF JOHN K. BUCKLYN
By Leonard H. Bucklin

Who was John Knight Bucklyn?

What did he do?

John Knight Bucklyn (with a "y") was born on 21 April 1834 in Hopkins Mill, Forster, Rhode Island. His family line is firmly in the Bucklin (spelled with an "i") family, directly from William Bucklin who came to New England in 1630. . (William - Joseph - Joseph, Jr - Benjamin - Squire - Squire, Jr. - Jeremiah - John Knight.)  John's father - Jeremiah - was born into the Bucklins that had been in Forster since Squire Bucklin settled there as a blacksmith.

Jeremiah's siblings retained the "Bucklin" without the "y" as it had been for several generations --- except for brother Isaac, who changed his family's spelling to an "e" to be Bucklens!. 

As to the the Isaac who changed to using an "e" and the Jeremiah that changed to using a "y", it might be significant that each of them were highly educated. Perhaps each thought they "knew better" how the family name should be spelled.

Jeremiah change was a firm one. He even had some relatives reburied with the new spelling in the new grave markers. Why the name spelling change?  We do not know.  Newspaper clippings show  the "Bucklyns" attending "Bucklin "family weddings and such family events, so there apparently was no animosity that caused John Knight's father to distinguish himself from his ancestors, siblings, aunts and uncles by using a different spelling.

John Knight Bucklyn graduated from the Academy at East Greenwich, RI, and taught school in East Greenwich for a period until he returned to the Academy for additional education.  In the fall of 1856 he entered the Smithville Seminary and graduated with a college degree in 1857. (One biographer indicates John had a Doctor of Legal Literature degree.) He then entered Brown University in Providence, RI, from which he graduated with honors, in 1861, with a Master of Arts degree. After his graduation he again became a teacher.

When the Civil War started, John Knight Bucklyn was in Battery E of the 1st Regiment Light Artillery, which was organized at Providence 23 Sep 1861. Bucklyn declined an offered commission as an officer, stating he wanted to earn his rank.  He enlisted as a private and rose through the non-commissioned ranks and commissioned officer grades to become the Captain of the Batterty E. Unit.  The unit began its service at the effective start of the military campaigns of the Civil War, and participated almost continuously in battles, including the bloody battles of  Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, in which Capt. Bucklin was the commanding officer.

The appreciation his men had for Bucklyn as their commander was illustrated in 1886, when a monument was erected on the Gettysburg battlefield, to mark where Battery E had fought. (The unit was stationed at Cemetery Ridge, and specifically later, at the Peach Orchard, scenes of perhaps the most intense fighting of the Civil War.)  After the service of dedication, several of the soldiers asked for permission, and were granted permission, to chisel at the bottom: "Lt. J. K. Bucklyn Commanding".

After the Civil War, Bucklyn formed a college preparatory school at Mystic, Connecticut, the Mystic Valley Institute, and was its President until his death.

Bucklyn's  tomb is in the Lower Mystic Cemetery (Fish Town Cemetery), Mystic, CT.

Historian Steve Usler, of Warwick, Rhode Island, has written an article about John Knight Bucklin.  Volume 4, Civil War Historian (March/April 2008 issue). Usler is in the process of writing a full book about John Knight Bucklyn.

Read our page on   John Knight Bucklyn's Medal of Honor citation, which contains both the official citation and our research notes on his heroic acts.

Read more biographical material, focusing on the personal facts and civilian career of John Knight Bucklin, at our additional page on him.

Read more biographical material, focusing on the military career of John Knight Bucklin, at our additional page on him.

Bucklyn is mentioned often in the several hundred pages of the official history of Battery E of the First Regiment of Rhode Island Light Artillery.  We have some additional notes on Bucklyn and also the entire history book of Battery E available for you.

Read still more biographical J.K. Bucklyn material, written at the start of the 1900's. It is a part of the material we have not yet incorporated into our data base or biography of JK Bucklyn, because of lack of funds to do so.