| Reynolds was dismissed from the U.S. Army on October 8, 1855, following the disappearance of $126,307 USD from Reynolds' office. When the funds were later accounted for, he was restored to his previous rank of captain as of March 29, 1858. During the American Civil War, Reynolds chose to follow his home state and the Confederate cause. He went AWOL from the U.S. Army and entered the Confederate States Army in 1861. He was appointed a captain in the Confederate Infantry on March 16, and promoted to colonel of the 50th Virginia Infantry on July 10. His soldiers called him "Old Gauley." Reynolds then was sent to the Western Theater. He joined Edmund Kirby Smith's command in the Army of Kentucky throughout the rest of 1861 and most of 1862. After the Kentucky Campaign failed in its object, Smith's army joined Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee for reorganization. On December 16, 1862, Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered the transfer of Maj. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson's division to Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's army. Reynolds, commanding a brigade in Stevenson's division, went with his troops to Vicksburg. Unlike the other three brigades of Stevenson's division, Reynolds' brigade suffered only lightly at the Battle of Champion's Hill. During the Siege of Vicksburg his brigade held a portion of the southern-most sector near the "Salient Work”. His brigade lost 14 killed, 25 wounded, and 14 missing during the siege. Reynolds' brigade was part of the garrison that surrendered on July 4, 1863. Reynolds was exchanged on October 13, 1863, and promoted to brigadier general on September 14. He took part in the Chattanooga Campaign fighting an ill-fated action at Missionary Ridge. He also took part in the Atlanta Campaign and was wounded at the Battle of New Hope Church. Late in the war he was appointed Assistant Inspector General of the District of Georgia a position he held until the surrender, being paroled on 8 May, 1865. Reynolds entered the service of Egyptian Khedive in 1869 as a colonel in the Egyptian Army. Egyptian chief of staff, Charles Pomeroy Stone assigned Reynolds to serve as Quartermaster, Commissary officer, and Paymaster General. He and his wife (whom he referred to as duchess), and his son Frank, and Frank's wife and son took up residence in Alexandria, Egypt. They became friends with a small circle of American expatriates that included Stone, William W. Loring, and Raleigh E. Colston. It was at this time that Reynolds had a hand in the gunfight that took place on the streets of Cairo between three former Confederate officers in Egyptian service and the United States Consul-General. Tragedy struck the family in 1875. The previous year Frank Reynolds had returned to the United States with his wife and son to buy Remington rifles for the Egyptian government. In 1875, Frank became sick and died in Ilion, New York. After this, Mrs. Reynolds returned to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she soon died. At this time, Reynolds lost his support group of expatriates when most of the American officers left for the war against Ethiopia. With his pay from the Egyptian government in arrears and owing his creditors money, he was forced to move into a seedy boarding house. He died in bed there on May 26, 1876. Alcoholism may have been a contributing factor. The exact whereabouts of Reynolds' remains are not known; they could be in an unmarked grave in Alexandria or in the Patton Tomb located in Lewisburg, West Virginia, at the Old Stone Presbyterian Churchyard. In his memory a cenotaph was erected in St. James the Less Cemetery located in Philadelphia. Cabinet Photograph L. Fiorillo - Photographer Alexandria, Egypt c. 1870's |
