Alexander W. Reynolds

Infobox Military Person
name= Alexander Welch Reynolds
born= April 1816
died= May 26, death year and age|1876|1816


caption= Alexander Welch Reynolds
nickname= Gauley
placeofbirth= Frederick County, Virginia
placeofdeath= Alexandria, Egypt
placeofburial=
allegiance= United States of America Confederate States of America
branch= United States Army Confederate States Army Egyptian Army
branch=
serviceyears= 1838–55, 1858–61 (USA) 1861–65 (CSA) 1869–1876 (Egypt)
rank= Captain (USA) Brigadier General (CSA) Colonel (Egypt)
unit=
commands=
battles= Mexican–American War
American Civil War
awards=
relations=
laterwork=

Alexander Welch Reynolds (April 1816–May 26, 1876) was a career United States Army officer and a Confederate general during the American Civil War. He later served in the Egyptian Army.

Early life and career

Reynolds was born in April 1816 in Frederick County, Virginia. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1833, and graduated five years later, standing 35th out of 45 cadets. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Infantry on July 1, 1838. Reynolds was promoted to first lieutenant on June 11, 1839, and was the 1st's Regimental Adjutant from October 19 to March 1, 1840.Eicher, p. 450.] Reynolds was a captain in the U.S. Army during the Mexican–American War, serving as the Army's assistant Quartermaster beginning August 4, 1847. He was at this rank on March 15, 1848, when he vacated his line commission.

He was dismissed from the U.S. Army on October 8, 1855, following the disappearance of $126,307 USD from Reynolds' office. When the funds were later accounted for, he was restored to his previous rank of captain on March 29, 1858.

Civil War service

During the American Civil War, Reynolds chose to follow his home state and the Confederate cause. He went AWOL from the U.S. Army [Eicher, p. 450. Would be "dropped" from U.S. Army rolls on October 4, 1861.] and entered the Confederate States Army in 1861. He was appointed a captain in the Confederate Infantry on March 16, and promoted to colonel of the 50th Virginia Infantry on July 10. Reynolds then was sent to the Western Theater and given various brigade commands in the Army of East Tennessee throughout the rest 1861, all of 1862, and into the summer of 1863.

Reynolds' brigade was part of the garrison that was surrendered at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863, following the Siege of Vicksburg. He was exchanged on October 13 and promoted to brigadier general on September 14. He continued in brigade command in the Army of Tennessee until the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, when he was wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church on May 27.

Upon recovery from his wounds, Reynolds was appointed assistant Inspector General of the District of Georgia in 1865 until the end of the war. He was paroled at Athens, Georgia on May 8.

Postbellum

Reynolds entered the service of Egypt in 1869 as a colonel in the Egyptian Army. He died in Alexandria, Egypt in 1876. The exact whereabouts of his remains are not known; they could be in an unmarked grave in Alexandria or in the Patton Tomb located in Lewisburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) at the Old Stone Presbyterian Churchyard. In his memory a cenotaph was erected in St. James the Less Cemetery located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

ee also

References

* Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., "Civil War High Commands", Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.

Notes