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April 26, 1816: General Alexander Welch Reynolds Born in Lewisburg

Alexander Welch Reynolds
e-WV Encyclopedia

General Alexander Welch Reynolds was born in Lewisburg on April 26, 1816. After graduating from West Point in 1838, he served as an army officer in the Seminole War, the Mexican War, and in the West. 

When the Civil War began in 1861, Reynolds joined the Confederate army and saw considerable combat. 

In September 1861, he led a regiment at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry in Nicholas County. The battle, which was fought on the banks of the Gauley River, left him with the nickname “Old Gauley.”

He quickly rose to the rank of brigadier general and led brigades at the Siege of Vicksburg, where he was captured, and in the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns.

After the war, on the recommendation of fellow West Virginian and Confederate general John McCausland, Reynolds accepted a commission as a colonel in the forces of the khedive of Egypt, which ruled the country under the Ottoman Empire.

Reynolds served in various posts in Egypt, including adjutant general from 1870 until his death in 1876 at age 60. Alexander Welch Reynolds is buried in Egypt and is honored with a monument in Lewisburg.


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