War & Peace Quote by John Buford

There is a cool, almost businesslike confidence in Buford's phrasing, the kind that only makes sense when you remember he is describing the opening moves of what will become Gettysburg. The sentence is built out of timing: "in the afternoon", "just in time", "in good season". He doesn't narrate glory; he narrates logistics. That rhetorical choice is the tell. Buford is signaling professional competence, the cavalryman's obsession with minutes and terrain, and a leader's need to make chaos sound manageable so others will act.

The subtext sits in the understated stakes. "Meet the enemy entering the town" is not just a report; it's a claim of initiative. He frames the encounter as something he chose, not something that happened to him. Even the phrase "before his getting a foothold" turns the Confederate advance into a problem of positioning rather than bloodshed, a way of translating impending catastrophe into a solvable tactical puzzle. It's the language of an officer who understands that holding long enough, in the right place, can decide what happens days later.

Context sharpens the intent: Buford's Union cavalry arrived first and fought dismounted to delay Confederate forces, buying time for Union infantry to take the high ground south of town. His calm cadence reads like battlefield triage. Reduce the moment to timing and footholds, and you give your superiors a story they can act on: we were early, we contested the ground, we can still shape what comes next.