Dr. Massey, It was likely that Grant and Buckner knew each other from West Point as Grant finished in 1843 and Buckner in 1844 if my memory is correct. Both of them knew of General Pillow in the Mexican War and both probably had low opinions of General Pillow's military skills. Pillow had been a law partner with James K. Polk in the 1830's and his only military experience had been with the Tennessee Militia which as far as I know had no combat experience. I rather suspect the Confederate high command at Fort Donelson in those late hours of February 15, 1862 took into consideration the Buckner/Grant relationship. The story I subscribe to about the loan from Buckner was that Grant was locked out of his motel room for lack of payment and that was the reason he was working on the dock as a causal laborer with his officers jacket on when Buckner recognized him and offered Grant the money. It was indeed a low point in Grant's life no matter how the particulars in the story played out.

I do believe that General Buckner was probably a little more than disappointed when told of the terms of the surrender. Although I also subscribe to the story of Grant was not the first to offer those terms as unconditional surrender but rather it came from one of Grant's subborinates, General Smith, again if memory is correct, however when Grant heard about the reply he endorsed it. Sometimes I wonder what terms Grant would have offered to Buckner had they met face to face and had no one interfered. Probably like most people I blame Sidney Johnston for the error at Fort's Henry and Donelson and from what I understand he did take responsibility for his actions. Both Floyd and Pillow were political generals and had poor leadership abilities in my opinion and they were also assigned to a horrible last mintue situation at Fort Donelson. I agree with your assessment that Grant had great respect for Buckner both as a soldier and a gentleman. Shortly after Grant died, Buckner was elected as the Governor of Kentucky.