Jesse L. Reno

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Jesse L. Reno
April 20, 1823 – September 14, 1862
Jesse L. Reno
Place of birth	Wheeling, Virginia
Place of death	near Boonsboro, Maryland
Allegiance	United States of America
Years of service	1846 to 1862
Rank	Major General
Commands	Mount Vernon Arsenal, IX Corps
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War American Civil War North Carolina Expedition Maryland Campaign

Jesse Lee Reno (April 20, 1823 – September 14, 1862) was a Union general during the American Civil War, killed at the Battle of South Mountain.

1 Early life
2 Mexican-American War
3 The Civil War starts early
4 In memoriam
5 References
6 Notes
7 Further reading
8 External links

[edit] Early life

Reno was born in Wheeling, Virginia (present day West Virginia), the third oldest of eight children of Lewis Thomas and Rebecca (Quinby) Reno. His ancestors, who came from France in 1770, changed the spelling of their surname 'Renault' to the simpler 'Reno' when they arrived in America.^[1] His family moved to the Franklin, Pennsylvania, area in 1830, and Reno spent his childhood there.

Reno was admitted to the United States Military Academy in 1842 and graduated eighth in his class of 59 cadets in 1846, initially commissioned a brevet second lieutenant of Ordnance.^[2] Reno and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson became close friends while at West Point. Other classmates and friends included George B. McClellan, George Pickett, Darius N. Couch, A.P. Hill, and George Stoneman.

[edit] Mexican-American War

During the Mexican-American War in 1847, Reno commanded an artillery battery under General Winfield Scott and fought in the Siege of Vera Cruz and other battles in Mexico. Reno was brevetted twice during the war—once for "gallant and meritorious conduct" at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, and later for bravery at the Battle for Mexico City and the Battle of Chapultepec, where he was seriously wounded while commanding a howitzer battery.^[3]^[4]

After the Mexican-American War ended, Reno served in several locations, including as a mathematics instructor at West Point, as the secretary of a group assigned to "create a system of instruction for heavy artillery,^[5] and at the Ordnance Board in Washington, D.C. He was promoted to first lieutenant, in 1853, and sent to conduct a road survey from the Big Sioux River to Mendota, Minnesota. When he returned to Washington, he married Mary Blanes Cross, and the couple would go on to have five children.

Reno's next assignment was as ordnance officer at the Frankford Arsenal, northeast of Philadelphia, where he spent the next few years. In 1857, Reno was assigned to go with Brig. Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston as chief of ordnance on a two-year expedition to the Utah Territory.^[6]

[edit] The Civil War starts early

When he returned from Utah in 1859, Reno was promoted to captain for fourteen years of continuous service.^[7] Captain Reno then took command of the Mount Vernon Arsenal near Mount Vernon, Alabama, in 1859. At dawn on January 4, 1861, Reno was forced to surrender the arsenal to troops from Alabama, a bloodless transfer ordered by the governor of Alabama, Andrew B. Moore.^[8] Alabama seceded from the Union a week later.

Upon leaving Alabama with his small force, Reno was temporarily assigned to command the Fort Leavenworth Arsenal until he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in the fall of 1861. He transferred to Virginia, took command of the 2nd Brigade, IX Corps, and soon had organized five regiments. The 2nd Brigade fought in Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's North Carolina Expedition from February through July of 1862. Reno became a division commander in the IX Corps,^[2] which had become part of the Army of the Potomac. In the Northern Virginia Campaign, Reno actively opposed his friend and classmate Stonewall Jackson during the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Chantilly. Burnside became commander of the Army of the Potomac's Right Wing for the start of the Maryland Campaign in September, elevating Reno to command of the IX Corps from September 3.^[2]

Reno had a reputation as a "soldier's soldier" and often was right beside his troops without a sword or any sign of rank.^[9] On September 12, 1862, Reno's IX Corps spent the day in Frederick, Maryland. Two days later, while he was stopped directly in front of his troops as he reconnoitered the enemy's forces at Fox's Gap at the Battle of South Mountain, Reno was hit in the chest and mortally wounded; he died in the early evening of the same day. It remains uncertain if he was killed by friendly fire or by the Confederates. In his official report, D. H. Hill sarcastically remarked, "The Yankees on their side lost General Reno, a renegade Virginian, who was killed by a happy shot from the Twenty-third North Carolina."^[10]

Reno was posthumously promoted to major general, effective July 12, 1862.

[edit] In memoriam

Reno was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.. A memorial marking the location of his death was erected in 1889 by IX Corps veterans on present-day Reno Monument Road.^[11]

The United States Army named three outposts after Reno: Fort Pennsylvania in present-day Washington, D.C., was renamed Fort Reno in 1862, and the second Fort Reno was constructed near present-day El Reno, Oklahoma, in 1874, the third Fort Reno was built in present-day Wyoming on the Bozeman Trail in 1865. Reno, Nevada, Reno, Pennsylvania, and Reno County, Kansas, are also named in his honor.

[edit] References

Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 volumes in 4 series. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1880-1901.