"He [Buford] despised the false flourish and noisy parade of the charlatans of the service and avoided, too much, perhaps, the proper praise due to his glorious actions and sought to depreciate, prompted by his inherent modesty, the contemporary glorification which less worthy men coveted. For this reason he was not known to the newspaper world as were many others who will sink into insignificance while the name of Buford will occupy a bright page in the history of his country."
Wesley Merritt, Rock Island Daily Union, July 11, 1895