Jesse Lee Reno

He served in the Mexican War following graduation form West Point. He was seriously wounded at Chapultepee, where he commanded a howitzer battery. After Mexico he was assistant professor of mathematics at the military academy from January till July, 1849, secretary of a board to prepare a "system of instruction for heavy artillery in 1849-50, assistant to the ordnance board at Washington Arsenal, D. C. in 1851-'3, and on topographical duty in Minnesota in 1853-'4. He was chief of ordnance in the Utah expedition in 1857-'9, and in command of Mount Vernon Arsenal, Alabama, from 1859 until its seizure by the Confederates in January, 1861.

On 1 July, 1860, he was promoted captain for fourteen years' continuous service. From 2 February till 6 December, 1861, he was in charge of the arsenal at Leavenworth, Kansas. He was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers on 12 November, 1861, and was in command of the 2d brigade during General Ambrose E. Burnside's expedition into North Carolina.

From April till August, 1862, he was in command of a division in the Department of North Carolina, and on 18 July he was commissioned Major-General of volunteers. In the campaign in northern Virginia, in the following month, he was at the head of the IX Army Corps, and took part under General John Pope in the battles of Manassas and Chantilly.

He was in command of the Ninth (IX) Corps on the campaign and was killed attempting to re-start his Corps' stalled assault in person at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on the evening of the 14th.

Reno, Nevada and a number of other places were named for the fallen general.

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889.

4/20/1823; Wheeling, VA

09/14/1862; Fox's Gap, MD