Thomas Caute Reynolds
Thomas Caute Reynolds | |
---|---|
Willard P. Hall | |
Personal details | |
Born | Suicide by jumping | October 11, 1821
Resting place | Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. 38°42′12.2″N 90°14′17.4″W / 38.703389°N 90.238167°W |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Heloise Marie Sprague |
Alma mater | University of Virginia (LL.B.) Heidelberg University (LL.D.) |
Thomas Caute Reynolds (October 11, 1821 – March 30, 1887) was the
Reynolds was elected lieutenant governor in 1860 as a
Early life and education
Reynolds was born in
Reynolds was fluent in
Reynolds challenged Brown to a duel in March 1855. This duel never happened, however, as Brown chose "the common American Rifle with open sights, round ball not over one ounce, at eighty yards." Reynolds refused the terms because his short-sightedness would have put him at a severe disadvantage in making an accurate shot. The public attacks continued and Brown, chafing under Reynolds' accusations of cowardice for his manipulation to avoid the original duel, finally issued a challenge. Reynolds chose the more traditional dueling pistols and on August 26, 1856, the duel occurred on Bloody Island. Brown was shot in the leg (and was to walk with a limp for the rest of his life) while Reynolds was unscathed. Both returned to the political fray[2] and Brown would serve as Governor of Missouri from 1871 to 1873.
Lieutenant Governor of Missouri
In 1860, Reynolds was elected as lieutenant governor, serving along with Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, and assuming office in early 1861. The team, aware of the strong free soil sentiments of important factions of the Missouri electorate, had run as Douglas Democrats.[3]
Reynolds was an early leader of the secessionists in Missouri. On January 4, 1861, soon after his native South Carolina seceded, he called a meeting of secessionists in Jefferson City and began to help organize the
At the beginning of the American Civil War, Missouri adopted a position that it would remain in the Union, but would not send troops or supplies to either side. Governor Jackson refused the call from
However the next day, Federal authorities under
Unionists such as Frank Blair also opposed the truce, and President Lincoln authorized Blair to overrule the agreement and relieve Harney of command. Harney's successor, Nathaniel Lyon, accompanied by Frank Blair, met with Governor Jackson and Price on June 11. Lyon demanded that the state government cooperate in suppressing the Southern rebellion, and that it permit federal military activities beyond the city limits of St. Louis.[5] Jackson and Price would only agree to preserve order in the state and resist any Confederate incursions into the state as long as Lyon agreed to disband loyal Home Guards organizations (including the 1st-5th U.S. Reserve Corps) and restrict Federal troops to metropolitan St. Louis. No agreement was reached. Jackson and Price left immediately for the state capital and the next day Jackson issued a proclamation describing the meeting and calling for fifty thousand volunteers to defend the state. Lyon’s reaction was to move immediately against the forces of Governor Jackson.
On June 3, Reynolds had sent a letter to President Davis requesting that a Confederate army be sent to occupy Missouri, and on June 21 Reynolds and
I think General Lyon acted very unwisely in not accepting Governor Jackson’s proposals, and Mr. Lincoln may send him orders to accept them. Governor Jackson in his proclamation makes a merit of having proposed them; now if I agree to send Confederate troops into Missouri at your request, can you give me any guarantee that Mr. Lincoln may not propose and Governor Jackson assent to the agreement rejected by General Lyon, and compel those troops to retire before their joint forces?
Davis did, however, authorize Benjamin McCulloch to provide any necessary military assistance to Missouri consistent with protecting Arkansas and the Indian Territory.[5]
Lyon occupied the state capital in
Jackson and Reynolds, along with other pro-secession politicians such as David R. Atchison, maintaining they were still the elected government of the state, fled to the southwest corner of the state by Springfield, Missouri where Lyon was killed in the Battle of Wilson's Creek.[6] Jackson and Reynolds convened the pro-South elected government in Neosho, Missouri and voted the Missouri secession to secede from the Union. Unable to defend themselves in the state, the government eventually moved to Marshall, Texas.
American Civil War
By December 1861 President Davis was trying to select an overall leader for Confederate forces in Missouri, Texas, and Arkansas. Jackson, Reynolds, and the Missouri Congressional delegation all lobbied for Sterling Price. Davis had concerns about Price based on his misunderstandings with McCulloch and his early support for neutrality. Davis was also unwilling to place in command of the area any general from the states of Missouri, Texas, or Arkansas—fearing that their objectivity for the entire Confederate war effort would be blinded by local concerns. After first offering the position to Henry Heth and Braxton Bragg, Mississippian Earl Van Dorn was eventually selected. The issue of local versus national control of Missouri troops did materialize after the Battle of Pea Ridge when Price’s troops, over the troops' and Price’s objections, were ordered across the Mississippi – Price would eventually return to fight for Missouri but his troops would not.[7]
Reynolds returned to Richmond to work with its Congressional delegation but eventually became frustrated with his inability to contribute. In April 1862 he returned to his family estate in Winnsborough, South Carolina. His active role in the war resumed and took on new importance, however, when he learned in December 1862 that Governor Jackson had died and that he was now governor.
After the
From this point on, despite an outwardly cordial appearance, the relationship between Reynolds and Price would deteriorate. In September 1863 forces under Price abandoned Little Rock, Arkansas, and Reynolds noted that "General Holmes and all the general officers under Price at Little Rock, except General Frost, considered the evacuation a blunder, and that Steele could have been beaten back with great disaster to him.".[9] He did support and encourage the replacement of Holmes but he lobbied with the President to replace him with Simon B. Buckner rather than Price whom he considered (in Castel’s words) "devious, insincere, petulant, and arrogant" and "impulsive, tactless, and prone to indiscreet and exaggerated language."[10]
Reynolds tried to exert his influence, backed up by his personal relationship with Jefferson Davis, over the civil and military decisions in the Trans-Mississippi Department. He brought some order to the records of the government which he had inherited from Governor Jackson but early on had differences with Price over the disbursement of the dwindling state treasury. The split became open and public when Reynolds appointed Colonel L. M. Lewis to the Confederate Senate to replace Price favorite and Davis critic, incumbent John B. Clark.[11]
As long as Missouri remained in Union hands, Reynolds remained a governor without an actual state to govern. Reynolds' final chance to become governor in fact occurred in October 1864 when he accompanied General Price in
Finally, neither Kirby Smith nor Price mentioned that the expedition failed to seize St. Louis or occupy Jefferson City and install a Confederate government, failed to bring about a mass uprising of Southern sympathizers, failed to influence state elections except probably to increase the Republican vote, and failed to do any damage to the Union military installations in Kansas. In fact Price failed to achieve a single one of his objectives other than obtain recruits, and he did that only in the imperfect fashion described.[12]
Reynolds was proud of his own participation in the raid, claiming he had "been among the bullets on the battlefield, shared mule meat with the starving, and walked in the retreat".[13] At the same time he blamed Price for the raid’s failures which he characterized as nothing but "a weak and disgraceful plundering raid." He was especially incensed at the failure to capture Jefferson City which would have allowed Reynolds to be officially installed as the state’s governor. Reynolds complained to Smith in October and in a December 23, 1864, published letter to the Marshall Texas Republican newspaper he thoroughly lambasted Price in the guise of defending two other officers that Reynolds claimed Price was using as scapegoats for his own failures. Reynolds followed this up by sending a copy to Price and asking him to resign from the military. Price responded by requesting that Smith conduct a formal investigation of Price’s charges and in a published letter to the Shreveport News denied Reynolds’ charges while referring to him as someone "who pretends to be, and styles himself in it [the Texas Republican letter], the Governor of the State of Missouri.[14]
A court of inquiry was held in late April 1865, but it was never concluded due to the end of the war. For the most part, Castel concludes that Reynolds’ specific charges were not supportable and notes that Reynolds in 1887 effectively recanted the most serious charges. Referring to his public charges, Reynolds wrote, "It is against all the canons of history that, made in a heated controversy, they should be used, or even referred to, in stating ‘’facts’’ of that campaign itself."[14]
Later life
Reynolds and a group of refugees including Kirby Smith, Sterling Price,
Death
Reynolds killed himself in 1887 by jumping down an elevator shaft at the Customs House in St. Louis. A note with his body indicated he was afraid that he was losing his mental capacity.[16] He is buried at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.
Bibliography
- General Sterling Price and the Confederacy (1867)
See also
- List of Heidelberg University people
- List of people from South Carolina
- List of suicides
- List of University of Virginia people
Notes
- ^ Gerteis p. 66-68
- ^ Gerteis p. 69-71
- ^ Gerteis p. 66
- ^ Castel p.9
- ^ a b Castel p.30-32
- ^ Monaghan p. 158
- ^ Castel p.66-83
- ^ Castel p. 133-137
- ^ Castel p. 159
- ^ Castel p. 166
- ^ Castel p. 159-170
- ^ Castel p.251-252 Similarly Prushankin p. 204 notes "But the raid had not been a success and [Kirby] Smith knew it. Upon Price’s return to Shreveport, Smith refused to receive him.
- ^ Castel p.256
- ^ a b Castel p.257-261
- ^ Castel p. 273-274
- ^ Castel p. 278-279
References
- Castel, Albert, General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West, Louisiana State University Press, 1968, ISBN 0-8071-1854-0. – Castel notes in his introduction that "Because of his importance and because of the need to rely heavily on his papers as a source, Reynolds looms large in this book, which to a degree at least can be considered a study of him as well as of Price" p. viii.
- Gerteis, Louis S., Civil War St. Louis. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2001. ISBN 978-0-7006-1124-9.
- Monaghan, Jay, Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865, University of Nebraska Press, 1955, ISBN 0-8032-8126-9.
- Prushankin, Jeffery S., A Crisis in Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor and the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, Louisiana State University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8071-3088-5.
- Reynolds, Thomas C. General Sterling Price and the Confederacy, edited by Robert G. Schultz. Missouri History Museum, 2009, ISBN 978-1-883982-68-3. This is the transcribed, annotated publication of Reynolds' unpublished memoir of the same name.