Reynolds in Command

weasel

Private
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Location
West Michigan
Much has of course been made of the fact that Meade took command of the AoP shortly before the battle, and also that he was not the first in line for it. Couch passed (by taking a different command), and three or four others also were not chosen for various reasons. John Reynolds was ahead of Meade in line, but he declined the command, instead remaining as the I Corps commander. I'm curious what people think specifically about the start of the battle on that Wednesday.

If Reynolds is commanding the army I would imagine he'd no longer be with the I Corps physically.

Would Reynolds have acted similarly to Meade in terms of dumping the rest of the army into Gettysburg in support of I Corps or told them to fall back?

Have a good day all, I'll hang up and listen.
 
Much has of course been made of the fact that Meade took command of the AoP shortly before the battle, and also that he was not the first in line for it. Couch passed (by taking a different command), and three or four others also were not chosen for various reasons. John Reynolds was ahead of Meade in line, but he declined the command, instead remaining as the I Corps commander. I'm curious what people think specifically about the start of the battle on that Wednesday.

If Reynolds is commanding the army I would imagine he'd no longer be with the I Corps physically.

Would Reynolds have acted similarly to Meade in terms of dumping the rest of the army into Gettysburg in support of I Corps or told them to fall back?

Have a good day all, I'll hang up and listen.

Reynolds did not know it, but his declining the command of the AoP was his death sentence. He probably would have survived the war if he had taken it.
 
Maybe so on July 1, but Reynolds tended to lead from the front, so he would've been in a spot to have the same thing happen later on as army command.

On the Confederate side, there are a few instances where Lee tried to lead from the front and the troops swarmed him (for lack of a better word) and collectively said "You head to the rear or we won't go forward". I imagine the Federals would have had a similar mindset for their army commander. Of course, Winfield Scott Hancock once famously rode up and down his line at Gettysburg, and, when his staff tried to get him to take cover said (paraphrased) "There are times when a corps commander's life doesn't count".

If Reynolds had accepted command would he have been back at Westminster or is that where Meade just happened to be at the start? I assumed that he was there because there's where the headquarters unit was.
 
Perhaps if Reynolds had indicated a willingness to take the job, the triumvirate of Lincoln, Stanton and Halleck may have ousted Hooker sooner, which would have allowed Reynolds a bit more time to get a handle on just where all the Corps of the AOP were located. He may also have acted quicker to remove the likes of Butterfield. Given that the battle was fought at Gettysburg simply because that was where the armies collided, it seems to me that the battle would probably have happened somewhere else simply because Reynolds may have maneuvered in a different way, but maybe not. As I often say, we cannot know, because it did not happen that way.
 
Perhaps if Reynolds had indicated a willingness to take the job, the triumvirate of Lincoln, Stanton and Halleck may have ousted Hooker sooner, which would have allowed Reynolds a bit more time to get a handle on just where all the Corps of the AOP were located. He may also have acted quicker to remove the likes of Butterfield. Given that the battle was fought at Gettysburg simply because that was where the armies collided, it seems to me that the battle would probably have happened somewhere else simply because Reynolds may have maneuvered in a different way, but maybe not. As I often say, we cannot know, because it did not happen that way.

Possibly. I am guessing the triumvirate of who you mentioned was probably the reason he didn't take it.
 
Maybe so on July 1, but Reynolds tended to lead from the front, so he would've been in a spot to have the same thing happen later on as army command.

As the Commander of the Army of the Potomac? You don't lead the whole army from the front. It's not practical. I seriously doubt that he would have been killed. Does anyone know of an example of an army commander who was killed in action during the Civil War?
 
As the Commander of the Army of the Potomac? You don't lead the whole army from the front. It's not practical. I seriously doubt that he would have been killed. Does anyone know of an example of an army commander who was killed in action during the Civil War?

Albert Sidney Johnston. Being somewhere an army commander should not be, too far to the front.
 
No place is entirely safe on a battlefield, as Pender and Sickles (among others) learned. At Gettysburg Meade had a few close calls with Confederate marksmen near the Cemetery, and Lee's hat was reportedly knocked off his head on one occasion.
 
Getting back to @weasel's original question, would the battle have evolved any differently under Reynolds, my first thought is probably not. He'd want to bring the rest of the corps forward, reinforce the troops already in action, and unite the army. They had been pursuing the ANV with the intent of bringing it to action, so I don't see Reynolds falling back except as circumstances on the battlefield dictated. I envision the battle going about as it did historically.

Any thoughts on what Reynolds might have done differently from Meade?
 
Johnston and James B. McPherson are the two officers listed who were killed while commanding an army during the war.

Even though he technically wasn't an army commander you can add General Zollicoffer's death at Mill Springs to that list. His death pretty much demoralized the Confederate forces during the battle.
 
Last edited:
Any thoughts on what Reynolds might have done differently from Meade?

Who knows? With another man in command there might not have even been a battle of Gettysburg. In a fantasy where things begin to play out as they did the first day, minus Reynolds, more would depend on whoever commanded the 1st Corps than on who commanded the army.
 
Who knows? With another man in command there might not have even been a battle of Gettysburg. In a fantasy where things begin to play out as they did the first day, minus Reynolds, more would depend on whoever commanded the 1st Corps than on who commanded the army.

I can only imagine how Doubleday would of treated those first few hours. Reynolds drove his men to relieve Buford. Saw to their disposition and pretty much delayed the Confederates enough that they weren't able to take the heights.

Now put Doubleday in that exact situation... I just don't know.
 
Possibly. I am guessing the triumvirate of who you mentioned was probably the reason he didn't take it.

Sears certainly makes this case. It appears to me that, at least in part, Reynolds bought the McClellan line that everything bad was due to "interference" from Washington. Of course later Lincoln claimed that all he ever wanted was someone who would take the army and fight the Confederacy. When he finally got one, in Grant, he left strategy to the generals, to the extent that his occasional suggestions are couched in almost apologetic terms.

Reynolds was apparently willing to accept the responsibility but not if, as he assumed, Stanton and Lincoln were calling the shots. So did Reynolds misread the situation or did Lincoln get religion late? We just don't know.

As for Gettysburg, as someone mentioned above, I too wonder if the battle would even have been fought if Reynolds was in charge.

We all know that it was the pugnacious, hated backing down and loved a fight John Buford who got into it with the idiot Henry Heth which started the ball.

But many people have said that Buford, one of the few AotP hard core fighters, knew that the closest infantry support to him - and the only units who could get there before he was forced to start backing away - were Reynolds corps, and Reynolds was as prime for a fight as he was. He knew the Pennsylvanian would come running, as indeed he did.

If it had been, say, Slocum (who apparently ignored calls for help) or Sickles, or Howard or most anyone else besides Hancock, it's highly debatable whether Buford would have chosen to stand and fight. He knew good and well that his horsemen couldn't stand up to a full corps of the ANV. He only did it because he knew Reynolds had his back.

If Reynolds had been way in the rear someplace, he probably wouldn't have been as eager to risk his unit.
 
If it had been, say, Slocum (who apparently ignored calls for help) or Sickles, or Howard or most anyone else besides Hancock, it's highly debatable whether Buford would have chosen to stand and fight. He knew good and well that his horsemen couldn't stand up to a full corps of the ANV. He only did it because he knew Reynolds had his back.

If Reynolds had been way in the rear someplace, he probably wouldn't have been as eager to risk his unit.

Love this point you made and I totally agree.
 
Possibly. I am guessing the triumvirate of who you mentioned was probably the reason he didn't take it.
I would have to agree at least in part. Personally, I would never want to work for Halleck. In addition, Reynolds may also have been thinking about the Congressional Committee on Conduct of the War, which second guessed every commander of the Army of the Potomac.
 
I'm always surprised Halleck lasted until '64 given the amount of complaints lodged against him.
 
Not trying to be a smartdonkey, but does it even matter? There are so many what-ifs. I don't think Reynolds survives the war. His instinct was to lead from the front and take risks. Heck, even Meade is almost captured or worse during the Overland Campaign.
 
Not to compare the awful waste of life in war to sports but I think the what-ifs helps your analysis of an event. ESPN and others have created a billion dollar industry on sports analysis.

Many scholarly books have attempted to answer these questions: What if Ewell captured Cemetary Hill? What if Sickles stayed put? What if Longstreet didn't order the countermarch and so on and so on.

I think Reynolds would have had a better chance to survive but like you I also believe that he was bound to die during the war. Like Sedgewick and Phil Kearney
 
Back
Top