Reynolds, John P., b. ca.1841

Journal, 1861 June 6-July 14
239 pp.

Reynolds, John P., b. ca.1841
Rank:	Corporal
Regiment:	8th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment (Salem Zouaves). Co. I (1861)
Service:	1861 April 15-August 1

Background note:

The Salem Light Infantry, also known as the Salem Zouaves, was among the first units to respond to Lincoln's call for volunteers in 1861. On April 18th, just three days after Lincoln's call, the regiment left Massachusetts and was deployed at Annapolis, Md., and Washington, D.C. The Zouaves were attached as Company I of the 8th Massachusetts Regiment (the "Minute Men"), under the command of Captain Arthur F. Devereux, son of a former Adjutant General of the state, George H. Devereux. The Zouaves were formally mustered into the U.S. service as a three months regiment on April 30th and during the three months' campaign, they served at Annapolis, guarding the U.S.S. Constitution, at Relay House, Md. (May 11-June 26), and at Baltimore (June 26-July 29).

Scope and Contents:

John P. Reynolds, Jr., was a 19 year old corporal from Salem. His journal is an unusually literate and well-written account of life in the army during the opening stages of the war, and includes long, detailed passages describing drills, parades, ceremonies and celebrations, and the ways in which soldiers chose to entertain themselves. It is an example of a superb Civil War journal containing almost no reference to military activity. While nostalgically reviewing the events since the unit was called, Reynolds himself noted that "the pastimes we had experienced...combined together presented more the aspect of a pleasure excursion or mammoth pic-nic, than a military campaign during the period of actual warfare" (p. 90). Such was not always to be his fortune, however. After the Zouaves mustered out, Reynolds enlisted in the 19th Massachusetts Infantry, a three-year regiment, and took part in most of the great battles fought by the Army of the Potomac in 1862 and '63. He rose to the rank of Captain before being discharged due to wounds in November, 1863.

Particularly noteworthy descriptions include those of the camp at Relay House, of particular drills, flag-raising ceremonies, and of celebrations of the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill and of the Fourth of July. Reynolds is at his best when recounting an operation on July 3rd to capture a Rebel recruiter, Samuel Ogle Tilghman, at his home on the coast. Though no shots were fired, the atmosphere Reynolds sets provides a strong sense of what it must have been like for a young soldier on patrol. Tilghman was released on parole of honor just two weeks later, on July 26, 1861.

The Reynolds Journal appears to be the second and only surviving part of a series that probably originally contained three volumes. The first covering muster to June 6, 1861, the third, from July 14th to mustering out on August 1st.

References:

Nason, George W. Minute Men of '61. Boston, Smith & McCance, 1910. pp. 246-252.
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, ser. 2, vol. 2: 36, 226.

M-2420
Cat. 1/92 rsc

Link to subject index to the John P. Reynolds Journal

Alphabetic index to the Schoff Civil War Collections

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