Reynolds Family Correspondence (Ms.Reynolds Family)

Biographical note

The Reynolds family lived in Valatie, New York (Columbia County). Charles E. Reynolds and his brothers Alfred and James were likely born in Valatie during the 1840s. Through internal evidence of the letters, the birth date for James can be established as March 8, 1840.

Charles Reynolds joined the 128th Regiment, New York Volunteers (infantry), sometime during July and August of 1862. He was assigned to Company E as a Private. Later, he was attached as a clerk to the Headquarters Staff in the Baton Rouge District, with the HQ of the Engineer Brigade at Vicksburg, White River, Arkansas, and Morganza and New Orleans, Louisiana, with the HQ for U. S. forces at Mobile, and finally with the HQ for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division of the 19th Army Corps and the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, of the 10th Army Corps in Savannah, Georgia.

James Reynolds also enlisted, serving as a Private in the Federal army in the 11th New York Battery, Artillery Battalion ("Whipple's Division"), 3rd Army Corps. His service record is less clear than Charles', but he was attached to the office of the Assistant Quartermaster in Louisville, Kentucky and North Carolina in 1864-1865.

Alfred Reynolds does not seem to have entered military service (indeed, he may have been too young to serve) -- at least the information that can be gleaned from the letters suggests as much. However, in 1864 he traveled to Washington, D.C. After the war ended, he went to Galveston and New Orleans, via Key West, apparently to seek his fortune.