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Major General John F. ReynoldsMajor General John Fulton Reynolds was the highest ranking officer killed at the Battle of Gettysburg and one of the most senior in the Civil War. His decision to commit his infantry west of Gettysburg set the course of the fighting, but his early death in the battle was a serious blow to the Union Army. There are four statues and monuments to General Reynolds on the battlefield of Gettysburg, a sign of the respect and affection he had earned. An equestrian monument is west of Gettysburg on Chambersburg Pike (U.S. 30) Location: 39.837899 N, 77.251284 W; see map. A monument marks the site where General Reynolds was mortally wounded on South Reynolds Avenue just north of Meredith Avenue. Location 39.834392 N, 77.250954 W; see map. The earliest of the Reynolds monuments and one of the first at Gettysburg is southeast of town in the National Cemetery. Location: 39.8213 N, 77.23033 W; see map There is also a statue of General Reynolds, a native of Pennsylvania, on the Pennsylvania State Memorial.
From the equestrian monument on Chambersburg Pike: Major General From the reverse of the equestrian monument: Cadet U.S.M.A. July 1, 1837; Brevet Second Lieut. 3d U.S. Artillery July 1, 1841; Second Lieut. October 23, 1841; First Lieut. June 18, 1846; Captain March 3, 1855; Lieut.-Colonel 14th Infantry May 14, 1861; Colonel 5th Infantry June 1, 1863. Brig. General U.S. Volunteers August 20, 1861; The equestrian statue was sculpted by Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, who also did the Meade and Sedgwick equestrian statues and the bust of Lincoln in the Lincoln Speech Memorial, It was dedicated in 1899, with Reynolds' nephew Charles Reynolds Evans pulling the cord that unveiled the monument. The statue weighs four and a half tons, yet is superbly balanced with only two of the horse's feet on the ground. The monument follows the unofficial rule (or coincidence) where a horse with two feet off the ground indicates its rider was killed in battle. From the front of the monument on Reynolds Avenue: Major Gen. From the rear: Here The statue of Major General Reynolds in the National Cemetery (bottom right) was the first bronze statue at Gettysburg. It was dedicated in 1872, and was cast from four bronze cannon barrels. From the front of the monument: Major General From the rear: To his memory From the right sife: Killed From the left side: Born |
(above) Equestrian statue to General Reynolds on Chambersburg Pike (U.S. 30) (see enlargement)(below) Monument marking where General Reynolds was mortally wounded near South Reynolds Avenue
(below) Monument to General Reynolds in the National Cemetery
John Fulton Reynolds was born in 1820 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a little over fifty miles away from the battlefield. He graduated from West Point in 1841, spending four years in the artillery in Atlantic coast garrisons. He received two brevets in the Mexican War, then spent the next fourteen years in garrison duty. In 1860 he became Commandant of Cadets at West Point. After the outbreak of the war he quickly became a brigadier general. While commanding a brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves in the Peninsula in June of 1862 he was cut off behind Confederate lines and captured. Exchanged in August, he commanded a division at Second Bull Run. When Lee invaded Maryland Reynolds was sent at Governor Curtin's insistance to command Pennsylvania's militia. He returned to the army to command the 1st Corps at Fredericksburg, where one of his divisions under George Meade made the only break in the Confederate lines. Reynolds was called to Washington after Chancellorsville to confer with Lincoln. It is believed that he was offered command of the army at that time but turned it down because he felt he would be continually second guessed by Washington like the commanders in the past. Instead the army was given to his subordinate, George Meade. At the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign Reynolds was given command of the left wing of the army: his own 1st as well as the 3rd and 11th Army Corps. He was leading the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment to the relief of Buford's cavalry in Herbst's Woods when he called out, "For God’s sake forward. Drive those men from the woods!” At that moment he was mortally wounded in the head, exactly 22 years to the day after his West Point graduation. |