Jesse L . Reno Jesse Lee Reno ( April 20 , 1823 – September 14 , 1862 ) was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican - American War , the Utah War , the western frontier , and as a Union General during the American Civil War . Known as a " soldier ' s soldier " who fought alongside his men , he was killed while commanding a corps at Fox ' s Gap during the Battle of South Mountain . Reno County , Kansas , El Reno , Oklahoma , Reno , Nevada , and Fort Reno in Washington , D . C . were named after him . 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 changed the spelling of their surname " Renault " to the more Anglicized " Reno " when they arrived in America from France in 1770 . 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 . 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 . 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 . During the occupation of Mexico City , Reno became an original member of the Aztec Club of 1847 . 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 , 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 had five children , two of whom had notable achievements of their own : Conrad Reno became an attorney and writer of note in Boston , Massachusetts , and Jesse W . Reno graduated from Lehigh University and invented the first working escalator . 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 ( later a senior Confederate general in the Western Theater ) as chief of ordnance on a two - year expedition to the Utah Territory . Civil War . When he returned from Utah in 1859 , Reno was promoted to captain for fourteen years of continuous service . 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 . 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 , Burnside Expeditionary Force , and soon had organized five regiments . The 2nd Brigade fought in Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside ' s North Carolina Expedition from February through July 1862 . Reno became a division commander in the IX Corps , 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 . Reno was appointed a major general on August 20 , 1862 . ( This promotion was confirmed posthumously on March 9 , 1863 , with date of rank established as July 18 , 1862 . ) 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 . Reno had a reputation as a " soldier ' s soldier " and often was right beside his troops without a sword or any sign of rank . On September 12 , 1862 , Reno ' s IX Corps spent the day in Frederick , Maryland , as the Army of the Potomac under Maj . Gen . George McClellan advanced westward in pursuit of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen . Robert E . Lee . Elements of Lee ' s army defended three low - lying " gaps " of South Mountain — Crampton ' s , Turner ' s , and Fox ' s — while concentrating at Sharpsburg , Maryland , to the west , the location of the subsequent Battle of Antietam ( September 17 , 1862 ) . In the Battle of South Mountain on September 14 , Reno stopped directly in front of his troops as he reconnoitered the enemy ' s forces advancing up the road at Fox ' s Gap . He was hit in the chest by a Confederate sharpshooter ' s bullet . He was brought by stretcher to Brig . Gen . Samuel D . Sturgis ' s command post and said in a clear voice , " Hallo , Sam , I ' m dead ! " Sturgis thought that he sounded so natural that he must be joking and told Reno that he hoped it was not as bad as all that . Reno repeated , " Yes , yes , I ' m dead — good - by ! " , dying a few minutes later . In his official report , Confederate general 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 . " In memoriam . Reno ' s body was first taken to Boston , the home of his wife , and placed in a vault in Trinity Church . On April 9 , 1867 , his remains were reinterred 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 in Fox ' s Gap at the South Mountain State Battlefield Park . A monument for Confederate Brig . Gen . Samuel L . Garland , Jr . of Virginia also killed near here was erected nearby in 1993 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Central Maryland Heritage League along with a large stone and bronze sculpture to North Carolina soldiers defending the line in 2005 . The cities of Reno , Nevada , El Reno , Oklahoma , and Reno , Pennsylvania , are all named for the general . The first two contain monuments to him in their downtown areas . The one in Reno stands along Virginia Street ; the one in El Reno stands in Youngheim Plaza on Sunset Drive . The United States Army named three outposts after Reno : Fort Pennsylvania in present - day Washington , D . C . , was renamed Fort Reno in 1862 , 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 County , Kansas is also named in his honor .