Another few items, some of which demonstrate that that fictional account above is just that--fiction...
The Utah Expedition occurred in 1860, as part of the so-called Mormon War. Responding to an insurrection led by the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Pres. Franklin Pierce ordered a military expedition, commanded by Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, to go to Salt Lake City to put down the rebellion. After an arduous march where Col. Philip St. George Cooke, the commander of the Second Dragoons, credited his regimental quartermaster, Capt. John Buford, for keeping his command and its horses alive, the expedition arrived to find the rebellion over. However, Camp Floyd was established at Salt Lake City as a permanent army outpost.
Buford was stationed at Camp Floyd when war came. The governor of Kentucky, Beriah Magoffin, offered Buford command of all of Kentucky's military forces, but Buford turned it down, preferring to remain loyal to the Union. He served in Salt Lake City until the Second Dragoons were ordered to go to Washington in the spring of 1861. At that time, he was a captain, commanding a company that included an 1860 West Point alum, Lt. Wesley Merritt. When Buford reported for duty at the War Department in Washington, he was then assigned to the inspector general's office and was promoted to major in the Regular Army. He was still in the inspector general's office in June 1862 when Maj. Gen. John Pope arranged for him to be promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. Buford assumed command of a cavalry brigade on August 3, 1862. This was his first time commanding anything larger than a company of dragoons. He eventually rose to divisional command and would have taken command of the Army of the Cumberland's Cavalry Corps in the late fall of 1863, had he not succumbed to typhoid fever on December 16.
Buford did spend some time being stationed at the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis during the 1850's. He was stationed there when he and Pattie were married in 1854. There was never a time when he was stationed in either Chicago or Galena, Illinois.
John Buford, Jr.'s first cousin was Confederate Brig. Gen. Abraham Buford, who commanded a cavalry division under Nathan Bedford Forrest for most of 1864 and until the surrender in 1865. Abe was also a West Point alum who resigned his commission in 1854 to take over the business of his late father (William "Colonel Billy" Buford), who was the leading breeder of thoroughbred race horses in the world. Abe had served in the First Dragoons, and was known as Hell Roaring Buford for his proficiency with profanity--he was known as the greatest swearer in the Army. Abe's horse farm, Bosque Bonita, was in Woodford County, KY, where John Buford, Jr. was born and lived until after his mother's death in 1832. Bosque Bonita still exists, although it is no longer in the family. Abe Buford was named for his great uncle, referenced in the next paragraph.
Pattie Buford was, as noted above, Martha McDowell Duke Buford. Her paternal grandfather was Col. Abraham Buford of fame from the 1780 Battle of Waxhaws in South Carolina. He had commanded a regiment of Virginia infantry as part of the Virginia Line in the Continental Army after serving as a member of the Culpeper Minutemen during the run-up to the Revolution. He was given a vast land grant in Scott County, KY as a reward for his Revolutionary War service. Most of that land is today the Kentucky Horse Park, just north of Georgetown, KY. Although in bad shape, his home still stands and is easily spotted from I-75. Abraham Buford's brother Simeon Buford was John Buford, Jr.'s grandfather, meaning that John and Pattie were second cousins, which may play some role in explaining why neither of their children reached adulthood. Abraham and Simeon Buford helped to found Kentucky's horse racing industry.
One of her grandmothers was the younger sister of the great justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall, so she was tied into the First Families of Virginia. She was also a first cousin of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell. On the other side, she was a first cousin of, and was raised with, Basil Duke, the Confederate cavalryman, who came to live with her family when his parents died in the Kentucky cholera epidemic of 1832-1833. Finally, one of her sisters was married to Union Brig. Gen. Green Clay Smith. Her side of the family was strongly Unionist in its leanings.
I hope that it's obvious from all of this that I know what I'm talking about here.