Jesse Lee Reno

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Jesse Lee Reno

Jesse Lee Reno (born April 20, 1823 or June 20, 1823 in Wheeling , West Virginia , † September 14, 1862 in Boonsboro , Maryland ) was an American general who fought on the side of the US Army in the Civil War and in the Battle of South Mountain fell. He had previously served in the Mexican-American War and the Utah War .

Early life

Reno was the third of eight children of the married couple Lewis Thomas and Rebecca (Quinby) Reno. His ancestors anglicized the surname “Renault” in 1770 when they immigrated from France . The family moved to the Franklin , Pennsylvania area in 1832 . He spent his childhood there.

Reno was called to the West Point , New York Military Academy in 1842 , graduating in 1846 as the eighth of 59. He was in the same year as George B. McClellan , George Pickett , Darius N. Couch , Ambrose Powell Hill, and George Stoneman . Reno and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson became close friends at West Point. After graduation, Reno was assigned to the artillery .

Mexican-American War

During the Mexican-American War in 1847, Reno ran an artillery battery and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and captain for his bravery in the battles of Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec . He was wounded at Chapultepec.

After the war, Reno taught mathematics at the West Point Military Academy from January to July 1849. He then headed a working group that should develop a training program for the heavy artillery. From 1851 to 1853 Reno worked as a deputy head of the Department of War Arms in Washington, DC. On March 3, 1853, he was promoted to first lieutenant and then carried out a land survey from the mouth of the Big Sioux River to Mendota , Minnesota. On November 1, 1853, he married Mary Blanes Cross with whom he had five children.

Reno was transferred to Frankford Arsenal , northeast of Philadelphia , as a supply officer in 1854 . During the Utah War he was the officer in charge of supplies under the command of Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston .

Upon his return from Utah, Reno took command of the Mount Vernon Arsenal near Mount Vernon , Alabama . On July 1, 1860, he was promoted to captain. A week before Alabama left the Union, on January 4, 1861, Reno had to hand over the arsenal to state militias and was captured.

Civil war

A week later, Reno was replaced and remained in command of the Fort Leavenworth , Kansas replenishment depot until late November 1861 . On November 12, 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general of the volunteer organization and took command of a brigade. Reno took part in Major General Ambrose Burnside's North Carolina expedition with this brigade and stayed after the successful completion of the expedition as brigade commander in the newly established North Carolina Defense Area. He was appointed division commander on April 2, 1862, and promoted to major general on July 18, 1862 (this promotion was confirmed posthumously on March 9, 1863). The division was on July 22, 1862 the IX. Corps under Burnside's command. This corps was initially under Major General McClellan's Potomac Army . On August 3, it was placed under Pope's Virginia Army . In the Northern Virginia campaign, Reno led the IX. Corps in the second battle at Bull Run and in the battle at Chantilly.

Reno had a reputation for being a soldier of the soldiers. He often fought side by side with his soldiers with no sign of rank. On September 12, 1862, Renos IX Corps spent the day in Frederick, Maryland as the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee moved out. Sections of Lee's army defended three low-lying gaps : Crampton's Gap , Turner's Gap and Fox's Gap . On September 14, Reno was shot in the chest at Fox's Gap by a Union soldier who mistook him for an enemy. Lying on a stretcher, he was taken to the Brig. Gen. command post. Samuel Davis Sturgis brought. In a clear voice he is said to have said to this: "Hello, Sam, I am dead!" Sturgis, West Point graduate from 1846, could not believe it and thought of a joke, since Reno spoke in such a clear voice. Reno then said: "Yes, yes, I am dead, goodbye!". Minutes later he was dead. In his official report of the CSA General wrote Daniel Harvey Hill "The Yankees On Their side lost General Reno, a renegade Virginian, who what killed by a happy shot from the Twenty-third North Carolina." ( The Yankees on their side lost General Reno, a renegade Virginian who was killed by a lucky shot from the twenty-third North Carolina ).

On April 9, 1867, he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, DC) in Georgetown (Washington, DC) .

memory

One son, Conrad Reno, became a lawyer in Boston , Massachusetts. Another son, Jesse W. Reno , graduated from Lehigh University and invented the first elevator.

In 1889 veterans of the IX Corps erected a monument on the spot where Reno had fallen. The road that leads to this monument is called Reno Monument Road . The cities of Reno, Nevada , El Reno, Oklahoma , Reno, Pennsylvania, and Reno County , Kansas are named after him.

literature

  • Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher . Civil War High Commands . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 .
  • Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam . Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983. ISBN 0-89919-172-X .
  • US War Department. The War of the Rebellion : a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies . Washington, DC: US ​​Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
  • Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7 .
  • The Parke Society Newsletter . Vol.36-No.2 pages 28-29 dated: 1999.
  • McConnell, William. Remember Reno: A Biography of Major General Jesse Lee Reno . Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Publishing, 1996. ISBN 978-1-57249-020-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ezra J. Warner: Generals in Blue. Louisiana State University Press, 1992, accessed December 6, 2016 (Renos CV, p. 394).
  2. ↑ a b Jesse L. Reno. West Virginia Division of Culture & History, 2015, accessed December 6, 2016 (English, Renos CV). West Virginia Division of Culture & History
  3. ↑ a b c d e f John H. and David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, 2001, accessed December 6, 2016 (English, Renos biographies, p. 449).
  4. ↑ a b JESSE LEE RENO (1823-1862). Ad Fontes Academy, 2016, accessed December 16, 2016 (English, Renos CV).
  5. ^ The War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Vol. 1, Part III, p. 327. Ohio State University, accessed on December 22, 2016 (English, Renos report).
  6. ↑ Central Maryland Heritage League Land Trust ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cmhl.org
  7. ^ Sears, p. 140.
  8. ↑ Official Records, Series I, Vol. XIX, Part I, Chap. XXXI, p. 1020
  9. ^ Warner, p. 395.
  10. ^ West Virginia Division of Culture and History .
personal data
SURNAME Reno, Jesse Lee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American general
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1823 or June 20, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Wheeling
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1862
Place of death near Boonsboro , Maryland