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Surname: Reno, Quinby, Blanes, Cross
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From
Dictionary of American Biography
Charles Scribner & Sons, 1938
Vol. XV, p. 504
RENO, JESSE LEE (June 20, 1823-Sept. 14, 1862), soldier, was born at Wheeling,
Va., (now W. Va.), the son of Louis and Rebecca (Quinby) Reno. He was of
French descent, the family name having been originally Renault. His parents
moved to Pennsylvania and he was appointed to the United States Military
Academy from that state, graduating as a brevet second lieutenant of ordnance
in 1846. He served in the Mexican War, being brevetted for gallant and
meritorious conduct at Cerro Gordo, and captain for actions at Chapultepec.
Following the war he served as assistant professor of mathematics at West
Point in 1849, secretary of a board on heavy artillery techniques in 1849-50,
assistant to the ordnance board at the Washington arsenal in 1851-52, was
on border and coast surveys in 1853-54, and in command of the arsenal at
Mount Vernon, Ala., from 1859 until its seizure by the Confederates in
January 1861. He then commanded the arsenal at Leavenworth, Kan., until
the fall of 1961. He became permanent first lieutenant in 1853 and captain
in 1860. Already of ripe experience when the Civil War commenced, he was
commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers in November 1861. He was
given a brigade in Burnside's expedition into North Carolina the winter
of 1861 and the spring of 1862, and from April to August commanded a division
in the Department of North Carolina, taking part in the movement to Newport
News, Va., and the Rappahannock in August. He was commissioned major-general
on July 18, 1862. In the August campaign in Northern Virginia, Reno commanded
the IX Corps of Burnside's right wing and took part in the Battle of Manassas,
Aug. 29-30, and Chantilly on the first of September. In the Maryland campaign,
still commanding the IX Corps, he entered Frederick, MD., with his troops
in pursuit of Jackson and stayed in that city until the morning of Sept.
13.
Stories of a certain Barbara Fritchie, who had, it was said, kept a Union
flag waving from her dormer window while Frederick was occupied by the
Confederates, interested Colonel Reno and he stopped at her house while
his troops were marching out, talked with the aged widow and offered to
buy the flag she had kept waving. She refused to sell or give away the
flag made famous later by Whittier's poem, but presented a home-made bunting
flag to Reno which he placed in his saddle pocket. The following day he
was killed "while gallantly leading his men" at South Mountain. In an order
published on Sept. 20, Burnside eulogized him as "one of hte country's
best defenders" (War of the Rebellion; Official Records, Army I Ser., vol.
XIX, pt. 1, p. 423). His body was taken to Baltimore by his brother and
sent to Boston, where Mrs. Reno was then living. He was buried at Trinity
Church, Boston, on Sept. 20. The "Barbara Fritchie" flag, which had covered
his casket, was given to his wife and was kept by her in his military chest
for several years, and was then presented to the Boston Commandery of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. On Nov. 1, 1853,
he had married Mary Blanes Cross of Washington, D.C. The city of Reno,
Nevada (Washoe County), was named in his honor.
(G. W.Collum, Biog. Reg....U. S. Military Acad. (1891); H. C. Quinby, Geneal.
Hist. of the Quinby (Quimby) Family, vol. 1 (1915); E. D. Abbott, A Sketch
of Barbara Fritchie (1928); Henry Gannett, Origin of Certain Place Names
in the U. S. Dept. of the Interior, Bull. of the U. S. Geol. Survey, no.
197 (1902); H. H. Bancroft, Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, in Hist. of the
Pacific States of N. America, vol. XX (1890); Daily Nat. Intelligencer
(Wash. D. C. ), Nov. 4, 1853; Daily Intelligencer (Wheeling, Va.), Boston
Daily Advertiser, Sept. 6, 1862) D.Y.
(Ed. note: This biographical sketch is transcribed as it was published.
All facts, dates and places are subject to verification and revision based
on subsequent research. No guarantees of the accuracy of the information
transcribed are expressed or implied by the contributor thereof.)