The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1906-01-18
GEMS. REYNOLDS AND BRAGG.
Two Omcers Of the Sd u. s. Art. WI
Rose to Great Prominence.


Editor National Tribune: I served
in Light Co. c, Sd Art. from December,
1852 to December, 1857, the first four
years under Capt. and Brevet Lieut.
Col. Braxton Bragg. He resigned in
| 1856, and John F. Reynolds became our
Captain. Will you please give a small
biography Of these two officers; when
they graduated from West Point. and
who Of their classes they graduated
with played any prominent part in the
war of the rebellion, North or South
and oblige your old subscriber-John
M. Geissler. Twin Lakes. Mimi
Gen. John F. Reynolds was born in
Point from that State. He graduated
26th in the class Of 1841, of which Gen.
Jealous B. Tower was the head and
Gems. H. G. Wright, A. w. Whipple. T.
]. Rodman, A. P. Howe. Nathaniel
Lyon, ]. B. Plummer, John M. Bran
nan, Schuyler Hamilton, James Totten,
Don Carlos Buell., Alfred Sully, ]. B.
Richardson and w. T. H. Brooks of the
Union army, and Gems. Samuel Jones,
Robert S. Garnett, Richard B. Garrett,
John M. Jones, and A. Buford, of the
Confederate army. were members. Gen.
Reynolds was appointed to the Sd L.
S. Art and served in the Mexican War
being engaged at Fort Brown, Monterey
and Buena Vista. He received a brevet
of Major for the latter battle. He served
as Aid on the staff of Gen. Twiggs. and
afterward saw much Indian fighting.
He became Lieutenant-Colonel of the
14th U. s., May IA, 1861; was COM
missiOned Brigadier-General of Vol
unteers Aug. 20, 1861, and commanded
a brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves
on the Peninsular Campaign and was
captured. Upon being exchanged he
was promoted to Major-General of Vol
unteers and assigned to the command
Of the First Corps, Army Of the Poto-
mac, Nov. 20, 1862. He took part in
the battles at Fredericksburg and
Charlottesville. and was in command
Of the right wing Of the army when he
was killed on the first day of Gettys-
burg. He was then AZ years old, and
his death was intensely regretted by
every soldier in the Army of the Poto-
mac
Gen. Braxton Bragg was born in
North Carolina and graduated from
West Point fifth in the class Of 1887,
of which Gen. Henry w. Benham was
the first, and Gems. A. B. Dyer, E. p.
scammon, I. Wedges. Thomas Williams.
E. D. Townsend. w. H. French, John
Sedgwick, ]. III. Bates and Joseph
Hooker, Of the Union army, and Gems.
W. w. Mackall, Robert T. Jones, Jubal
A. Early, John c. Pemberton, Arnold
Elzey and W. H. T. Walker of the Con-
federate army. were members. Gen.
Bragg was commissioned Second
Lieutenant in the Sd u. S. Art. and
served in the Mexican War as a First
Lieutenant, receiving brevets for Fort
Brown, Monterey and Buena Vista. At
ter the Mexican War he was Assistant
Inspector General, Western Division,
and on garrison and frontier duty in the
Indian Territory until 1856, when he
resigned to become a sugar planter in
LafOurche Parish. La, where he was
at the outbreak of the war. He went
into the rebellion with great enthu-
siasm and was Immediately appointed a
Brigadier and then a Major-General by
Jefferson Davis, with whom he was a
great favorite. He was in command in
Louisiana and at Pensacola in the early
part of the war, and came with his Pen.
sacola troops to Albert Sidney Johnston
for the battle Of Shiloh. Later jeff
Davis promoted him to Lieutenant
General and then to General, and as
signed him to the command Of the
Confederate Army of the Tennessee,
with which he fought the battles Of
Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga
and Mission Ridge. After the latter he
was superseded by Gen. Joseph E.
Johnston and went to Richmond, where
he acted as military adviser to jeff
Davis until the latter part Of the war.
when he was assigned to command in
North Carolina. He died Sept. q,
1876-EditOr National Tribune