His great-great grandfather Samuel Love Sr. (1686-1772) had deeded his approximately 300 acres in Charles County, Maryland to his two eldest sons during the Revolutionary War and moved the rest of his family was then the Virginia frontier.

Previously, the carpenter had been gaining social status in Maryland, achieving status as a vestryman and justice of the peace and even on the earliest Committee of Correspondence, but his eldest son had with his father's assistance purchased land in Loudoun County Virginia in 1769 and had begun his own social ascent as vestryman and justice of the peace, only to enlist in the Third Virginia Regiment as a sergeant for a two year enlistment, as would his younger half brother John (but as a private and for an initial three year term in the First Virginia Regiment, which led to promotions to after re-enlistment for the duration of the war.

His great-grandfather had named the community after William Buckland, an English emigrant today best known as the architect and master carpenter behind Gunston Hall in Fairfax County.

Love secured an appointment as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York from Tennessee on September 1, 1837.

[7] Love's commanding officer, Stephen W. Kearny, was promoted to brigadier general in 1846 and placed in charge of the Army of the West (1846) during the Mexican–American War.

[citation needed] Near the end of the war, Price was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers by President James K.

[9] He led 300 men from his Army of the West at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales on March 16, 1848, defeating a Mexican force three times his size.

This was the last battle of the war, taking place days after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had been ratified by the United States Congress on March 10.

First Lieutenant John Love was in command of the artillery battalion at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales.

Love was appointed brevet captain for gallantry at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales, Mexico, March 16, 1848.

[7] At the start of the American Civil War, Love served as a major, brigade inspector and chief of staff for Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris with the Indiana volunteers in the Western Virginia campaign.

[5] Cullum shows Love as in command of a division in defense of Cincinnati, Ohio from September 1862 until his resignation on January 1, 1863.

[1] During Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan's raid north of the Ohio River in Indiana and Ohio in July 1863, Governor Morton called Love back into service with the Indiana Legion and called out the militia to defend against Morgan's raiders.

[16]On July 11, 1863, Morgan's men approached Vernon, Indiana after sending parties toward Mitchell, Salem and Seymour.

[18] Morgan had lost valuable time with this delay and his pickets and rear guard were captured by Love's infantry as his raiders moved on.

[1] Love was a Mason and master of Ancient Landmarks lodge of Indianapolis for several years as well as a charter member of the Scottish Rite.