Gen. John Reynolds Monument

Description

Sculpted by Gary Casteel
Size:  4 ½” x 4 ½” x 7 ¼”
Weight:  3lbs
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
Major General John Fulton Reynolds commanded a wing of the Army of the Potomac, including his own First Army Corps, during the June 1863 march from Falmouth, Virginia, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On the morning of July 1, Reynolds arrived in the farm fields west of Gettysburg with the 1st and 11th Corps.
“Forward, men, forward for God’s sake, and drive those fellows out of the woods,” shouted General John Reynolds as he positioned the men of the Iron Brigade on July 1.  While leading the 2nd Wisconsin against the attacking Confederates of General Henry Heth’s Division, General Reynolds was shot and killed in the “woodlot” (Herbst Woods) neighboring the McPherson Farm.  As he turned to direct the men of the First Corps' Iron Brigade in their efforts to drive the advancing Confederate soldiers back from the grounds around the McPherson Farm, a minie ball slammed into the back of his head.  Union men rushing to his side noted that he died instantly as he fell from his horse.
“When near the town I met Captain Mitchell with an ambulance, and General Reynolds’s body.  I felt very badly indeed about his death, as he had always treated me very kindly, and because he was the best general we had in our army.  Brave, kind-hearted, modest, somewhat rough and wanting polish, he was a type of the true soldier.  I cannot realize that he is dead.  The last time I saw him he was alive and well, and now to think of him as dead seems an impossibility.”
- Captain Steven M. Weld
Sergeant R.B. Clevenger, Company F, Eighty Eighth Pennsylvania, attached to the Ambulance Department of the Second Brigade, Second Division, of the First Army Corps, who escorted the remains of Maj. Gen. Reynolds home for burial, provided the following information to a correspondent for the Baltimore Sun.  The reporter wrote:
"From Sergeant Clevenger we learned that the fight at Gettysburg commenced about 9 o'clock on Wednesday morning, and that about ten o'clock Gen. Reynolds was shot while cheering on his men. He was on the left wing of his forces, and the ground where he fell lies somewhat to the left of the convent [Lutheran Theological Seminary], near the boundary of the town. The ball (which was from a Minie rifle) struck him in the back part of the neck and passed into the front part of the brain. He fell from his horse, considerably bruising his face. His death was almost instantaneous. He did not speak after being shot. The body was immediately conveyed to the rear, and given in charge of Sergeant Clevenger, who will convey it to the residence of the General's mother, which is in Lancaster [C]ounty, Pennsylvania, where he was born."
Maj. Gen. Reynolds was buried on July 4, 1863, in Lancaster Cemetery.  A tall stone obelisk marks the grave site of the highest ranking soldier to perish during the Battle of Gettysburg.
The monument was dedicated on July 1, 1886 and is located in Herbst Woods on Reynolds Avenue.
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