The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1879-01-02
Frrm the Miami ohio Democrat
REYO'S FATE.
The General Killed by One Of His Own
Hen-An Account OF the Tragedy Re-
lated by an Eyewitness.

Major General Jesse l.. Reno was
killed At South Mountain. Nd, on the
18th day % september, 1892 He was
IN temporary command Of the Ninth
. Corps, Army Of the Potomac. in the
absence nf Major General y. f. Burn
side. The tragic manner Of his death,
though kept from the public ear at the
time. WJS the theme Of The campfire
conversation for many u night after.
! Within the past two or three months
somebody with fUndneSs for relating
B "reminiscences OF army life. has revived
the story Of General RenO'S death. and
. IL has got int" The newspapers in Sev-
eTal forms.
y late ISSUE OI the Chicago Tri5Has
contained letter from General :. ID.
/ SturgiS, Of the regular army, i'll which
[ he says General Reno was accidentally
killed by vOllcy from a Massachu-
SettS regiment.
] was an eyewitness 10 RenO's
death. and am positive he was killed
neither by accident nor a MasSachu-
setts regiment. The shot that closed
his life came from the TWenty-third
Ohio Volunteers. Col. Il. B. Hayes
command, and WaS not fired at raI-
dom. l was member Of the Eleventh
Ohio, hanawhd division, which was
composed Of the Eleventh. Twelfth,
Twenty-third, TWenty-eighth, Thirty
sixth and FOTty-seyenth Ohio Infan-
try, and commanded by Major j. ID.
Cox. Before the engagement at South
Mountain became general. my regi-
ment and the Twenty-third were or
dered 10 the skirmiSh line. Shortly af-
ter We arrived there General Reno and
his staff came out and rode along in
front Of us. There was but little fir
ing going on, and that was very iTrpg-
ularly. The Twenty-third was on our
right, and when he was shot General
Reno was Immediately in front of
HAYES regiment. riding forward and
with his back toward them. Here ii
was that he was shot through the
body, the ball coming out in front.
He threw mp his hands and exclaimed,
I'm shot by my own men," He was
not more than SeYenty-iiYe or one hun
dred yards from us, and the enemy
more than mile away. Previous TO
our regiment and the Twenty-third
being ordered TO the skirmish line, and
while our brigade was lying along the
foot of the hill, General Reno passed
along by us and seemed TO be il a ter
rible rage about something. and re-
marked in 4 voice loud enough 10 be
heard by almost the whole brigade:
"The kanaWha division are d-d Wes-
tern SIS of b-s, and can't fight I
heard these words as plainly as | ever
heard any in my life, and there are
hundreds Of the boys who served in
our brigade who will remember them.
| have learned since that General Reno
was very abusive to the Twenty-third
the night before, because they used
some wheat straw for bedding pur-
poses. or this, however, | cannot
speak from personal knowledge. OF
the other can and do. After the bat
tie of South Mountain was over, it was
the common talk of our camp that a
soldier of the Twenty-third had killed
Reno. The matter Was kept quiet
officially for many reasons, but as to
the facts as / have narrated, / think
there can be no reasonable doubt. /
mean that the killing was purpOsely
done. All the attending circumstances
sustained this statement.
General Reno was not Il popular Of
ficer with the volunteers. He was an
old regular army man, naughty and
tyTannical i'll disposition. He was a
good officer, speaking in military
sense, but his death did not occasion
much regret among the men. Ii, as
General Sturgis says, his last words
were: Il can no longer be with my
men; let them know | will still be
with them in spirit" l think he ex-
pressed 4 sentiment not generally
shared by the Kanawha division at the
time. CIV. B.
PIQUA. o., December ), 1873.