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J.P. Reynolds, Jr.

J.P. Reynolds, Jr.

Federal (USV)

Lieutenant

John Perkins Reynolds, Jr.

(1840 - 1919)

Home State: Massachusetts

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 19th Massachusetts Infantry

Before Antietam

A 21 year old clerk from Salem, he enlisted 15 April 1861 as Corporal, Company I - the Salem Zouaves - 8th Massachusetts Infnatry for three months. They served at Annapolis, guarding the USS Constitution, at Relay House, MD (May 11-June 26), and at Baltimore (June 26-July 29). He mustered out 1 August 1861. He was among 5 men from the Salem Zouaves who were drillmasters for the new 19th Regiment as it was forming, and he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Company D, 19th Massachusetts Infantry on 22 August 1861. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 29 November 1861, transferred to Company G, and was acting Adjutant.

On the Campaign

He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

At an early part of the fight Lieut. Reynolds was wounded in the ankle and was ordered to the rear by Lieut. Col. Devereux. He hobbled back to his company, however, and stayed long enough to receive another wound, this time in the elbow of his sword arm. Col. Devereux said later, jokingly, that "it served him just right for disobeying his commander," but complimented him at the time in his official report [?].

The rest of the War

He was commissioned Captain on 27 February 1863, but did not muster at that rank, due to being absent, wounded. He was transferred to Company E, date not given. He was discharged for wounds 5 November 1863. He was appointed Captain in the Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC) on 5 March 1864 and was discharged on 30 June 1866 from the 13th Regiment, VRC.

After the War

He returned to Salem and manufactured escutcheons [see his patent] - plates to honor veterans, and was a clerk in the office of the Massachusetts Adjutant General, in the State House, Boston.

References & notes

Service information from Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines1 and the History,2 source of the quote above. Further details, his patent, and his picture, from one at the US Army Military History Institute, all from a brief bio posted online by family genealogist Lea Ann Cunningham Kaplan. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His 1861 journal is in the Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor [finding aid].

Birth

06/01/1840; Salem, MA

Death

06/19/1919; burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, MA

Notes

1   Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Adjutant General, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, 8 Vols, Norwood (MA): Norwood Press, 1931-35, Vol. 1, pg. 538; Vol. 2, 439; Vol. 7, 249  [AotW citation 17778]

2   Waitt, Ernest Linden (compiler), History of the Nineteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865, Salem (MA): The Salem Press Co., 1906, pp. 4, 42, 141, 222  [AotW citation 17779]