[CORRESPONDENCE OF THE UNION.]

    It has been the misfortune of all great men to be ubiquitous to the extent of having their previous history so much obscured by various localities claiming to have once patronized them and honored them and foreshadowed their future greatness, that the world at large does not know which of these claims are founded in truth. Since General Grant has attained his present eminence, there has not been a solitary town in Oregon or Washington Territory, or even Northern California, in the vicinity of which existed a camp, but what claimed to have at one time held our greatest general as one of its most honored citizens, while the naked truth is that a more unpretending, unnoticed officer never came to this coast, and but for this war, which brought him out first among our different leaders, very few outside of those who served immediately under him would even have recollected the obscure subaltern of 1852. Regimental quartermaster of the Fourth United States Infantry, from April 1847 until August 1853, Lieutenant Grant remained at Fort Vancouver until the latter period, when, by his promotion to captain in the Fourth Infantry he joined his company at Fort Humboldt, where he was stationed on the 31st of July 1854, when his resignation was accepted. His record in the regiment was that of a quiet, unpretending, not over-brilliant officer, and within a few months after leaving it his name was almost forgotten. In his case, there were no opportunities offered by which he could call the attention of the people to his qualifications for a higher position, and having made no intimacies among his brother officers, he was entirely lost sight of. What his motive was to resign was never known, but it is fair to presume that the inactivity to which a garrison life condemned him had no small share in deciding him to that step, but that he was compelled to resign was never hinted at until he reappeared before the public as the hero of Fort Donelson, but he has outlived the malice of his detractors, and he stands today before the American people as the true patriot, a title no less honorable than the lofty one of the greatest military leader of this century. With him closes our series of leading generals springing from the Fourth United States Infantry. Others of the same regiment, equally meritorious, have not, for want of opportunities, shone as prominently before the public, but they are nonetheless entitled to the regard and gratitude of their fellow citizens, and when this rebellion is subdued, generals Alvord, Judah, Russell, Prince, Crook and others whose names are less familiar to our population will be pointed at with pride by the regiment in which they first perfected themselves in their profession. And perhaps the brightest record among them all will be that of a venerable general who first came to this coast with it, and who, by his prudence and his sagacity, has helped to keep away from us the calamity of a civil war. To General Wright the people of Oregon and Washington Territory owe their respite from Indian wars, and to him as much as anyone else under Providence do we owe our present state of peace, quietness and prosperity. In my next, I will endeavor to do justice to the hero of Gettysburg, the lamented Major General J. F. Reynolds.
Sacramento Daily Union, July 22, 1864, page 2

    The subject of our chronicle of today, John Fulton Reynolds, graduated on the 1st of July, 1841; was promoted first lieutenant Third Artillery in Jun 1846; brevet captain for gallantry and meritorious conduct in the battle of Monterey, September 23, 1846; brevet major for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Buena Vista, February 23, 1847; and captain of Company H, Third Artillery, March 3, 1855, vice Edward J. Steptoe, promoted major of the Ninth Infantry. The breaking out of the Indian war of 1856 found him with his company at Fort Orford, whence he took the field with Captain Augur and with him joined Colonel Buchanan's battalion. During that campaign, in which he took a very active part, being on several occasions detached under Captain Augur, he was distinguished for his skill as an artillerist, making his howitzers give a good account of themselves and not wasting a single shot; by his intrepidity whenever Indians would stand [and] fight, and by his unvaried kindness to men who became exhausted by the severe marches through a country where the surveyors had not yet made their appearance. Often have I seen him dismount from his horse and gently assist upon it some worn-out soldier who otherwise would have been left behind, and would have met with a cruel death at the hands of the relentless Indian. At the close of the war he was ordered to the East to take command of Light Battery Company C, which he brought out to Vancouver via Salt Lake in 1859. His services since the breaking out of the rebellion until he met with a glorious death at Gettysburg have become a matter of history, but his kindness to the humble soldier, blended with a strict observance of all military rules is, perhaps, one of his greatest titles to the gratitude of the American people, for he was not one to waste uselessly the energies of his troops, nor to lead them heedlessly to be slaughtered where nothing could be gained by the sacrifice. His regiment, while pointing with pride to Reynolds, Ord, Hardee, Kip and to our distinguished Deputy Provost Marshal, General Mason, must ever regret that it did honor Bragg and Ransom, and regret it the more that as with the Fourth Infantry the majority of its officers remained loyal and true.
Sacramento Daily Union, July 28, 1864, page 6


    Reynolds' career was a poem from beginning to end--from his cadet days to the hour of his tragic death in McPherson's woods at Gettysburg. It would not be at all far fetched to make him the hero of a lofty war epic, tracing his development from a gentle, well-bred youth of noble mien through his tutelage as a soldier, earning spurs under gallant chieftains until the hour called him to rally his clansmen, go forth to meet the enemy, and, driven back to his native heath, die a martyr to victory. Unlike that of most all battlefield martyrs, his loss does not seem to have been wholly a sacrifice. He had risen to the top. Certain peculiarities of his own temperament and of the service where fortune placed him made it extremely improbable that he should have gone higher. He yearned for independence in command. Fate gave it to him at Gettysburg, and he died upon a field where he was master just when the grand stroke had been made and his subordinates could not fail to grasp his purposes and put them into execution. Then all was done except to hear his own praises, but in dying he earned immortal fame and eternal glory.
    Reynolds' face is a picture in itself. Stripped of all accessories it would be a classic on canvas, and his statue would cause strangers to declare that for once creator and creature had wrought a good work together--a model man and a model life. General Reynolds was born at Lancaster, Pa., in 1823, of Scotch-Irish blood mingled with Huguenot. His elder brother, William, became an admiral in the navy. Both boys went to school at Litiz, where the Bethlehem Moravians conducted a famous institution. They studied classics in the old colonial mansion of the Carrolls near Baltimore and finished at the Lancastrian school in their native town. The future general entered West Point at 17, under the patronage of James Buchanan, and graduated in 1841. Among his classmates were Lyon, killed at Wilson's Creek; Garesche, killed at Stone River; Whipple, killed at Chancellorsville; Rodman, killed at Antietam, and Garnett, killed two days later than Reynolds at Gettysburg. As a school fellow he was just the kind to be forever remembered--a handsome, happy, sympathetic, hard-working, hard-playing boy, the pride of his tutors and the exemplar of his mates.
    Young Reynolds began taking brevets the moment he met the enemy. He served in Mexico in Captain Thomas W. Sherman's regular battery. George H. Thomas was a fellow officer in the battery. He was brevetted captain for Monterey and major for Buena Vista. After the Mexican War he served against the Rogue River Indians in Oregon and against the Mormons in Utah. At the outbreak of the war in 1801 he was lieutenant colonel of the Fourteenth Infantry, and Governor Curtin asked for his transfer to the generalship of the First Brigade of Pennsylvania reserves. Then began the second act in the life drama of which the third and closing act was to deal with Gettysburg.
    The Pennsylvania reserves were a unique body of men, a sort of legion and the only one on a grand scale to see the war through. It constituted a division in the Army of the Potomac, was led by a Pennsylvanian, General McCall, and Meade and Ord, both Pennsylvanians, were Reynolds' associates in command of brigades. Read forward one year and see Meade and Reynolds with their brigades fighting side by side in Fitz John Porter's marvelous and magnificent battle at Gaines Mill; six months later still, and Meade commands the Pennsylvania reserves in Reynolds' corps at Fredericksburg; six months later still both are corps commanders at Chancellorsville soon to be, unknown to themselves, rivals in the eyes of the ruling powers for the leadership of the Army of the Potomac, then to be friends and coplanners of that first day to campaign for the seizure of Gettysburg. Reynolds' career, and especially that part of it which crossed lines with Meade's, has meanwhile been a romantic one.
    The Pennsylvania reserves formed part of McDowell's corps, which in the spring of 1862 was ordered to march overland across the Rappahannock to Richmond and went as far as Fredericksburg. Reynolds was appointed military governor of the city while the army was encamped nearby. In June the division embarked on transports and sailed to the peninsula. joining Potter's corps on the eve of the battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines Mill, June 26 and 27. At Mechanicsville there were two brigades of reserves--one of them, Reynolds', stationed in defenses along Beaver Dam Creek--and they held Lee's army at bay from noon until dark, causing the Confederates a frightful loss to gain what was merely an outwork of Porter's stronghold at Gaines Mill. The two brigades withdrew at nightfall and the following day lay in reserve on the field of Gaines Mill until the fight waxed hot, then moved to the front line. Reynolds' men were engaged the whole after noon, and at sundown the Union line at their flank was broken. Reynolds and part of the men were cut off from the remainder and lay in hiding all night.
    Next morning they saw that Porter's corps had left the field and crossed the Chickahominy, destroying the bridges behind them. There was nothing to do for the isolated band but surrender. Reynolds was imprisoned at Richmond, and as soon as the news reached Fredericksburg a deputation of prominent men went to the capital to secure his release. He was exchanged for General Barksdale, who had been captured by Porter at Gaines Mill. Singularly enough, Barksdale was killed at Gettysburg the day after Reynolds met his fate. Reynolds was back in his old camp within a month after his capture, and General McCall, commander of the reserves, having been taken prisoner meanwhile, Reynolds stepped into his shoes. The reserve division under Reynolds were the first troops from McClellan's army to reach Pope's army at Manassas in the famous second Bull Run campaign. It was still in Fitz John Porter's corps. In marching by Pope's orders to attack Stonewall Jackson on the Warrenton pike, Aug. 29, Reynolds encountered Jackson's column moving in the opposite direction. Reynolds' line faced east, and while forging ahead down the pike he was assailed from the north by fresh troops. Forming a new line to meet that blow, he was assailed by another body of fresh troops from the west. He threw out a third line to the west and gave battle on three fronts until dark. The next day, Aug. 30, the reserves fought in the main line at Groveton. After the battle they were assigned to the First Corps again. During Lee's invasion of Maryland Reynolds was sent home to Pennsylvania to organize the militia, and missed the fighting at South Mountain and Antietam. On his return he was appointed to command the First Corps, and so became the superior of Meade, who still clung to the reserves and was leader of the division. At Fredericksburg Reynolds and Meade made a brilliant dash with the reserve division and broke through Stonewall Jackson's line on Lee's right flank, while the Second Corps stormed the Confederate right at Marye's Heights. The loss was heavy, the success brilliant, but ephemeral, and the final result nothing. When Burnside lost favor at Washington and the authorities were casting about for a successor, the choice lay between Reynolds, Meade and Hooker. Secretary Stanton and General Halleck opposed Hooker and were afraid of Meade because he was a friend of McClellan.
    Secretary Chase supported Hooker. Reynolds was consulted and bluntly avowed that he would not accept without assurance of untrammeled freedom of action in handling the army. That settled him, and Hooker's friends worked their last card, which was that Hooker was free from McClellanism. Hooker got the prize and made Reynolds virtually second in command by placing Three Corps under him as marshal of the left wing. When Hooker was supplanted by Meade at Frederick, Md., in June, 1863, Reynolds, with his Three Corps, was at the head of the Union column in pursuit of Lee's invading army. The first congratulations for the new leader came from Reynolds. Meade said he would rather the lot had fallen on Reynolds, and the two locked arms for a friendly stroll. The result was the famous plan to forestall Lee in the seizure of Gettysburg. Reynolds hurried off to carry out the programme and spread his troops across the turnpikes and the railroad north and west of the town. The sound of skirmishing drew him in person to McPherson's woods on the Chambersburg pike, and after sending off couriers to Meade and to his corps leaders to hasten forward the troops he personally led regiments and brigades to the scene of fighting on the low banks of Willoughby Run where it ran through a tongue of McPherson's woods. General Archer's Tennesseeans dashed across the stream to attack the Iron Brigade line just as it was forming in the woods under Reynolds' direction.
    A countercharge of the Iron Brigade, also directed by Reynolds, cut Archer's line in two, and the leader and several hundred of his men were captured. Like an avenger of that catastrophe, one of Archer's sharpshooters sprang into a tree and shot Reynolds as he sat on his plunging war horse near the center of the grove. The horse started to run for the open, and Reynolds soon pitched headlong to the ground, dead. Two soldiers quickly improvised a stretcher by fastening blankets upon their bayonets, and on this rude bier he was carried back toward Gettysburg side by side with Archer and his captive band. The body, wrapped in a flag, was slowly borne back on the line of march to Emmitsburg, meeting on the road the remaining soldiers of the First Corps and those of the Third and Eleventh Corps pressing forward at double quick to carry out the orders of the dead chieftain. How well they carried them out the world knows. Reynolds living could not have added one jot or tittle to the glory won by Reynolds dead.
    Reynolds has been accused of rashness in opening the fight on July 1. Critics who take that view say that he was sent out to reconnoiter--or, in other words, to skirmish. When Meade gave Reynolds his cue to march on Gettysburg, he had six army corps, aggregating 60,000 men,within a day's march of the enemy. It was a strange proceeding if he sent his second in command with half of his available troops on a mere scouting trip. Reynolds was the wrong man to turn loose in the presence of the enemy with 30,000 fighting men unless a battle to the death was desirable. His warlike vim was no secret at army headquarters. When the council of war was held at Chancellorsville to decide whether to stay on the ground and fight or retreat, he gave his voice in advance for immediate battle, and being very tired lay down and went to sleep while the discussion was going on. He said that he marched his men 40 miles to get into the fight and would march back again if so ordered, but would prefer to have it out then and there. That was the spirit which controlled the destinies of the army at Gettysburg, and its lurking place was in the breast of John Fulton Reynolds.
The Baccus Marsh Express, Victoria, Australia, October 28, 1893, page 1


    Army officers are like pawns moved over the checkerboard of this country by the Secretary of War, the chief of staff and the other chess players at the national capital. It is rather surprising to look over the list of officers who have achieved distinction and find how many of them have served at one time or another in Oregon, Washington or elsewhere on the Pacific Coast. Some of them have left permanent memorials of this in the way of counties, cities, mountains or streams named for them. For example, Harney County is named for General William Selby Harney; Crook County for Major General George Crook; Grant County for General U. S. Grant; Gilliam County for Colonel Cornelius Gilliam; Lane County for General Joseph Lane; Sherman County for W. T. Sherman; Baker County for Colonel E. D. Baker, Oregon's United States Senator who was killed at Ball's Bluff in the early days of the Civil War. Many of our cities are named for early-day army officers, such as Sheridan, Canby and Meacham.
    General  William  Selby Harney, for whom Harney County was named, was a Tennesseean, having been born at Haysboro on August 27, 1800. His father, Thomas Harney, was an officer in the Revolutionary War. William S. Harney was appointed a second lieutenant in the First United States infantry from Louisiana in 1818. He was a major in the Black Hawk War and also served in the Florida War. He commanded an expedition into the Everglades, and during the Mexican War he was brevetted brigadier general for gallantry. At the battle of the Sand Hills on the Platte River, in the fall of 1855 he defeated the Sioux Indians. In the summer of 1858 he was made brigadier general and was assigned to command all the departments of Oregon. While here he took possession of the island of San Juan to protect American interests from Great Britain. In 1861, while en route to Washington, D.C., he was captured at Harpers Ferry, Va., and taken as a prisoner of war to Richmond. General Lee urged him to take a commission in the Confederate army, as he was a Southerner. He refused, and was released, but took no prominent part in the Civil War.
    George Edward Pickett was another officer well known to early-day Oregonians. He was born at Richmond, Va., January 25, 1825. He moved to Illinois, from which state he was appointed to West Point, graduating in 1816. He served in the Mexican War and was brevetted lieutenant for gallant conduct. He was once more promoted for gallantry, becoming a captain on September 13, 1847. He was a captain while stationed in the Pacific Northwest. In 1856 he was ordered, with 60 men, to San Juan Island. In spite of the overwhelming British force he notified the British government that he would resist the landing of the British troops to the death. He was commended by General Harney for his cool judgment, ability and gallantry. He was voted a resolution of thanks by the legislature of Washington Territory. Immediately upon the breaking out of the Civil War he became a major in the Confederate army and shortly thereafter was promoted to colonel, and on January 14, 1862 was made brigadier general in command of Virginia troops.  His brigade soon won the title of the "Gamecock Brigade." On October 10, 1862 he was severely wounded. He recovered from his wound and was made major general and commanded a division of Longstreet's corps. Pickett's charge at Gettysburg will go down in history as one of the most heroic and desperate exploits of the Civil War. He died at Norfolk, Va., in the summer of 1865.
    Another army officer of whom I have heard many old pioneers speak is General Benjamin Alvord, a native son of Vermont. He was born at Rutland, August 18, 1813. He graduated from West Point in 1833, served in the Seminole War, later became an instructor in mathematics at West Point, participated in the military occupation of Texas in 1846 and fought through the Mexican War, being brevetted major for gallantry. In 1854 he came to Oregon, serving in this state till 1862, when he was made brigadier general of volunteers. He later became brigadier general and served from 1872 to 1881 as paymaster general of the army with headquarters at Washington, D.C. He was the author of numerous abstruse mathematical works, such as on the "Tangencies of Circles and of Spheres" and "The Interpretation of Imaginary Roots in Questions of Maxima and Minima."
    General John Ellis Wool, who was born at Newberg, N.Y., in 1784, and whose father was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, was another army officer who served in Oregon. He raised a company of volunteers and served through the War of 1812. He was badly wounded at the battle of Queenstown Heights. On October 13 he became a captain of the 13th Infantry and on April 13, 1813 was made a major in the 13th Infantry. In 1816 he became a colonel and was made inspector general of the army. In 1826 he was brevetted brigadier general, receiving his commission as brigadier general in 1841. In 1832 he was sent to Europe, where he witnessed the siege of Antwerp by the French army. In 1836 he was put in charge of the removal of the Cherokees to their new agency. At the breaking out of the Mexican War he was given the task of equipping 12,000 volunteer troops. He was made second in command to General Taylor. With 3000 men he marched from San Antonio to Saltillo. For leading the assault in the battle of Buena Vista he was brevetted  major general and was voted a sword and a vote of thanks by Congress. He was also given a sword by the legislature of the state of New York. In 1854 he took the field against the hostile Indians in Oregon. His criticism of volunteer officers in the Cayuse War led to much friction. His quick action in reinforcing Fortress Monroe in the spring of 1861 saved that fortress to the Union. In May 1862 he occupied Norfolk, Va., and Portsmouth, and a few days later was commissioned major general. To him was assigned the task of suppressing the draft riots in New York. He died in the fall of 1869.
    Thomas Lincoln Casey, who was born in New York in 1831 and whose brother, Silas Casey, was in the United States navy and whose father was a general in the United States army, commanded the engineering corps on the Pacific Coast from 1859 to 1861. He became a brigadier general and chief of engineers of the United States army.
    If you will check over the list of the officers who have distinguished themselves in the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the World War, and in  our numerous Indian wars, you will be surprised to see what a large proportion of these men hailed from the West or have seen service in the West.
Oregon Journal, Portland, December 9, 1924, page 12