Major General Jesse Lee Reno

 

Jesse Lee Reno

General Jesse Lee Reno (LOC)

 was born forty years to the day before West Virginia gained statehood, on June 20, 1823. Jesse, the third of eight children, was born in Wheeling, Virginia to Lewis and Rebecca Reno. When Jesse was seven years old, his family moved to Pennsylvania. Spending his formative years in Franklin, he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point in July of 1842 by Pennsylvania congressman Arnold Plumer.

Jesse finished eighth of fifty-nine in the class of 1846, perhaps the most renowned class in West Point history. He was a close friend of Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall) of Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). Also in this class were George McClellan, Darius Couch, George Stoneman, John Gibbon, and Samuel Sturgis, generals in the Union Army and Confederate Generals A.P. Hill, George Pickett, and Cadmus Wilcox.

Reno commanded a howitzer battery and serving under General Winfield Scott during the Mexican War.  He was cited for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Cerro Gordo and was brevetted First Lieutenant on April 18, 1847.  He was wounded at Chapultepec and cited for bravery. Reno was brevetted Captain on September 13, 1847.

After the Mexican War, Reno served as assistant professor of mathematics and named Secretary of the Board of Artillery. The primary duty of this board was to prepare a system of instruction for heavy artillery. In 1853, he was promoted to First Lieutenant and sent to Minnesota. There he was instrumental in the construction of a road, nearly three hundred miles in length, from the Big Sioux River to Saint Paul. That November he married Mary Blanes Cross in the nation’s capital.

Soon after, Reno was assigned as an ordinance officer at Frankford Arsenal near Philadelphia. In June of 1857, General Albert Sydney Johnston launched an expedition to Utah. Reno served under him as chief ordinance officer. When Reno returned from Utah in 1859, he was assigned to command the arsenal at Mobile, Alabama. On January 4, 1861, as the flames of secession grew, Alabama Governor Andrew Moore ordered the arsenal’s seizure shortly before Alabama seceded. Reno was then placed in command of the arsenal at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas until December of that year.

Now a Brigadier, Reno accompanied General Ambrose Burnside on an expedition to North Carolina that February. Commanding the Second Brigade, General Reno led a successful attack on Fort Bartow in February. When his units were attached to the Army of the Potomac as the Ninth Corps, Reno was given command of the Second Division of the Ninth Corps. At Second Bull Run, Reno’s division fought against the forces of his West Point classmate Thomas J. Jackson, now known as “Stonewall”. When Lee launched his Maryland campaign, Reno was promoted to command of the Ninth corps, following the elevation of Burnside to command of the right wing of the army (I and IX Corps). On September 13, 1862, prior to the Battle of Antietam, the Ninth Corps moved into position to block the path of the Confederates. A battle ensued at South Mountain on September 14, 1862. Late that afternoon, as the Confederates were being driven from Fox’s Gap, the advance slowed. While riding along his line to investigate, Reno stopped to observe the Confederate position. As he observed, a confederate sharpshooter shot him through the chest.  He fell, mortally wounded. While being taken to the rear, he saw his friend General Sturgis. Reno said, “Hallo Sam, I’m dead.”  At 7 pm, Reno said, to surgeon, Dr. Calvin Cutter, “Tell my command that if not in body, I will be with them in spirit” and with that, he expired.  Reno’s officers and men were grief-stricken.  A correspondent for the Herald observed:

Grief at any time is heart-rending; but such grief as was manifested by the staff officers and those about him it has never before been my lot to witness. The old soldier, just come from the scene of carnage knelt and wept like a child. No eye was dry among those present, and many a silent and spoken resolution was made that moment that Reno's death should be amply avenged. Thus died one of the bravest generals that was in the service of his country, one of the bright gems in the crown of Burnside, and a man whom all respected and loved.

General Ambrose Burnside issued General Order No. 17 to the IX Corps announcing the loss of Reno shortly after his death:

"The commanding general announces to the corps the loss of their late leader, Maj. Gen. Jesse L. Reno. By the death of this distinguished officer the country loses one of its most devoted patriots, the army one of its most thorough soldiers. In the long list of battles in which General Reno has fought in his country's service, his name always appears with the brightest luster, and he has now bravely met a soldier's death while gallantly leading his men at the Battle of South Mountain. For his high character and the kindly qualities of his heart in private life, as well as for the military genius and personal daring which marked him as a soldier, his loss will be deplored by all who knew him, and the commanding general desires to add the tribute of a friend to the public mourning for the death of one of the country's best defenders".

On September 17, at the Battle of Antietam, the soldiers of the Ninth Corps shouted “Remember Reno” as they went into battle.

This marker is found on the National Road near the entrance to Wheeling Park in Wheeling, WV.  Nearby is the Madonna of the Trail Monument. (P. Chacalos)

In 1889, the veterans of the Ninth Corps placed a memorial to Reno on South Mountain at Fox’s Gap. Reno Road in Washington D.C., El Reno, Oklahoma, Reno County Kansas and Reno, Nevada all were named to honor the memory of Jesse Reno. He is interred in Washington D.C. at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown.

The Athenaeum

 The Athenaeum was a four-story structure located at the corner of what is now Sixteenth and Market streets. The first and second floors was intended for use as a warehouse for the Crescent Manufacturing Company, a producer of materials for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. The depot of the Baltimore and Ohio was a short distance to the south on Market Street. The top floors were occupied by The Athenaeum.

Edwin Booth

The theater, considered the finest between Alleghenies and Chicago, had a separate entrance accessible by an iron staircase. The debut show of the Athenaeum, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, occurred on November 24, 1856. The show ran for an entire week, including a Saturday Matinee. Many great performers graced the stage of the Athenaeum. None, however, were more renowned than Edwin Booth, an acclaimed Shakespearean actor. Five weeks after Uncle Tom’s Cabin had concluded, Booth was at The Athenaeum for five performances. Booth had a brother, also an actor, albeit not quite as well received, who in a few years would become the more famous of the brothers. He was none other than John Wilkes Booth.

1858 saw no performances at the Athenaeum. The Athenaeum re-opened for one month (May) before closing and re-opening again. There was a limited run as a theater in mid-1861, but   with the beginning of hostilities between North and South, the use of the Athenaeum as a theater was over. It would, however, become very useful as a prison.

As the Civil War began, Confederate prisoners were held at Camp Carlile on Wheeling Island. As more prisoners arrived, it was deemed necessary to find another location in which to house them. The Athenaeum fit the bill, thus began its use as a prison. The new prison was primarily a holding area, as most prisoners would soon be transferred to Camp Chase on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. As the year drew to a close, the number of prisoners housed at The Athenaeum was nearing one hundred.  As the summer of 1862 approached, many prisoners began arriving with greater consistency. The number of arriving prisoners was much greater than Lincoln’s Bastille, as the Athenaeum was referred to by many, could accommodate. Therefore, the prisoners were sent to Camp Chase almost as fast as they arrived.

The whole building: The Athenaeum, as well as the floors used by Crescent Manufacturing were rented to the government for use as prison in the fall of 1863. Major Joseph Darr of the First West Virginia Cavalry was assigned to command of the prison. The prison would soon become self-sufficient with the addition of a vacant lot next to the building that was taken over by authorities. A twenty-foot-tall fence was constructed around the lot. Within the fence a barracks, a bake house, a kitchen, and a hospital were constructed. Part of the lot was used as an exercise yard. next to the building, the prison would soon becomeKitchens, barracks, and a hospital were added.

Now, more than just Confederate soldiers could be held. Court martialed Union soldiers and spies were sent to Lincoln’s Bastille. Also held, were many locals who would not sign an oath of allegiance. The sick and wounded were tended to by The Sisters of Saint Joseph, from nearby Wheeling Hospital, cared for the sick and wounded. However, the prison hospital soon became overcrowded. The sick and wounded were moved to the newly constructed Wheeling Hospital and the prison hospital was simply used to house the additional prisoners. 

As hostilities ended, the prison was closed. Over the next three years, the building housed a malt business and an agriculture store. An historic fire (the largest in the city’s history) consumed the building in October of 1868. Only one of the units that responded was able to reach the upper floors and the fire burned out of control. The firefighters concentrated their efforts at preventing the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings. This event resulted in the establishment of the Wheeling Fire Department.

Former site of The Athenaeum, currently quadrangle for West Virginia Northern Community College.  WVNCC building in the background is the former B&O railway depot.  Just across sixteenth street on the left is West Virginia Independence Hall, the former Custom House.  Much history at this intersection!  (P. Chacalos)