Collection of Alfred Eliab Buck Materials

Alfred Eliab Buck was born in Foxcroft, Maine on February 7, 1832 and died in Tokyo, Japan, on December 4, 1902. Buck attended Colby College (then Waterville College) and graduated in 1859. Early in the Civil War, he enlisted in the 13th Maine, Company C, and was elected Captain. He served under the command of General Butler at Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico. After the fall of New Orleans, Buck was made Lieutenant-Colonel of the 91st colored regiment which he had helped to organize out of the former Corps d'Afrique. In 1864 he was placed in command of the 51st Colored Regiment and was present at the capture of Mobile and the assault on Fort Blakely. After the Civil War, Buck lived in Mobile, Alabama and later in Georgia, and was active in both business and political life. He was a member of Congress from Alabama, 1869-1871, a delegate to several national republican conventions, head of the republican party in Georgia, a U.S. Marshal for the state of Georgia, and clerk in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta. In 1897 he was offered the post of Minister to Japan by President McKinley, a close friend. Buck was quite loved by the Japanese during his time in Tokyo. Buck died of heart disease on December 4, 1902, in Japan, while duck hunting as the guest of the Emperor.