Critic’s Corner Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fight

By Stephen Davis · Originally published March-April 2026 · pp. 62–63

Critic’s o r n Worthy Of The Cause For Which They Fight e By Stephen Davis

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How many Northern or Southern general officers kept diaries? Not too many. And of these, we can assume that most have long since been published. That’s why Robert Patrick Bender, ed., Worthy of the Cause For Which They Fight: The Civil War Diary of Brigadier General Daniel Harris Reynolds, 18611865 caught my attention. Published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2011—just a half-dozen years ago—it’s the journal kept from May 1861 to June 1865 by Daniel Reynolds, an Arkansan who rose from captain to brigadier general in the Confederate army. He fought from Wilson’s Creek to Bentonville, itself a rather astonishing feat. More, Reynolds served in the Army of Tennessee from Chickamauga on. Publication of his diary is thus a notable event in the still-growing literature of the Confederacy’s second-most famous army. The title thus appropriately fits into “The Civil War in the West Series” of the University of Arkansas Press (series editors are T. Michael Parrish and Daniel E. Sutherland). The story of how such an important manuscript came to light is in itself interesting. Dr. Bender, who teaches at Eastern New Mexico University in Roswell, most kindly shared it with me. A descendant of General Reynolds, living in South Carolina, donated the typescript of Reynolds’ diary to the University of Arkansas in 1956. The original manuscript, if extant, remains in private hands somewhere; Bob could not track it down. He was a history graduate student at Arkansas, working in the university library when he learned of the Reynolds diary. He secured permission for publication and set to work editing. I’ll say he did; Bender meticulously identifies all manner of individuals and places referred to in the

text. His conscientious notes run almost a hundred pages of the book. With good reason, Series Editors Parrish and Sutherland claim that Bender’s edition of General Reynolds’ Civil War diary is “the closest thing to a biography that we are likely to have” of this Confederate brigadier. I emailed Dr. Bender—he’s a most cordial gentleman—asking if he were aware of the Reynolds typescript having been used by scholars before he brought it to publication; he told me no. “That was part of what drew me to the project,” he added; “it seemed like a manuscript that should be made more available to research.” Corroboration came when I contacted Dr. Lawrence L. Hewitt of Chicago, who wrote the biographical article on Reynolds for the National Historical Society’s six-volume The Confederate General (1991). He did not know about it when he was writing, though of course, he wishes that he had. “Obviously,” Larry wrote me, Reynolds’ published diary “will forever remain the capstone of the Daniel Harris Reynolds bibliography.” (Coincidentally, at the time of this writing, I notice that Gary Ecelbarger cites Bender, ed., Worthy of the Cause For Which They Fight in his new history of the Battle of Ezra Church.) Descended from colonial Virginians, Reynolds was born in Ohio in December 1832. He was raised on the family farm, but both parents died before he turned eighteen. He resolutely pursued an education at Ohio Wesleyan and at law school. He moved to Lake Village, Arkansas, a town in the southeastern part of the state near the Mississippi, and set up his law practice. He bought land (but no slaves) and rose as a local political leader. In early 1861 he announced as a staunch secessionist. When war loomed, Reynolds helped recruit a company of mounted rifles, which elected him captain. His diary opens on May 25, 1861, as Reynolds and his company set out for mustering in at Little Rock.

With the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles, Reynolds rode in Ben McCulloch’s brigade and saw his first action at Springfield/Wilson’s Creek. Ensuing camp life brought its customary boredom; on Christmas Day 1861 Captain Reynolds noted in his diary, “all the boys distressingly sober.” After fighting at Pea Ridge, the Arkansawyers* were ordered across the river, none too cheerfully. They were further displeased when ordered in April 1862 to give up their horses and serve dismounted. Reynolds rose through the ranks: major in April 1862; lieutenant colonel on May 1. The 1st Arkansas in July was ordered to Kirby Smith’s force in East Tennessee. In the Smith-Bragg raid into Kentucky, Reynolds led the regiment in the Battle of Richmond on August 30, calling the Confederate victory there “a fine day’s work.” They were not at Perryville, but afterward joined in the retreat back to Tennessee. In the spring of 1863, Reynolds and his comrades were sent to Mississippi as a relief column as Grant neared Vicksburg. “June 11,” he recorded, “can distinctly hear cannonading at Vicksburg. We are anxious to move forward and relieve the place as soon as possible.” As we know, that was not to be. After the fall of the river fortress, the Arkansawyers joined Bragg’s army just in time for Chickamauga. On the second day, September 20, as part of Evander McNair’s brigade, they participated in the Confederate attack which swept the Federal right and center from the field. After the battle, McNair’s brigade was sent to Mississippi. There Reynolds’ fellow officers began calling for his promotion to brigadier general, and so signed a petition in mid-December 1863 to Secretary of War Seddon, which General McNair himself warmly endorsed. On the last day of 1863, Reynolds penned in his diary his hope that “our cruel enemies will cease a hopeless war and acknowledge our independence.” “Our independence once gained,” he commented, would lead to a “glorious and prosperous” future for the Southern people. “If we are true to ourselves,” Reynolds added, “we will be a beacon light to guide the oppressed of other nations in future times.” In March 1864, a brigadier’s commission was granted, and Reynolds took command of what came to be called “Reynolds’ Arkansas brigade.” In early May, the unit was transferred to North Georgia and joined Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee. From then on Reynolds and his troops fought to hold Sherman’s armies at bay in North Georgia. Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, and Kennesaw Mountain followed. The Arkansawyers kept their spirits during Johnston’s retreats; “my men can bear almost anything and be cheerful,” Reynolds recorded in his diary on June 4. After the Confederates withdrew into the defenses of Atlanta, the Arkansas brigade saw action at Peachtree Creek, July 20. His command “as usual acquitted itself with credit” in their attack late that afternoon, albeit failing to carry the enemy works. After John B. Hood replaced Johnston, he set the troops

to fortifying around the city. “The whole army is busy at work,” Reynolds noted on July 24. Five weeks later Atlanta fell when Sherman cut Hood’s last railroad into the city. Reynolds recorded no words of lament at the loss. Indeed, several days later, he entered in his diary on September 4 his satisfaction that the Democrats’ Chicago Platform still offered some political hope for the Confederacy. Indeed, Daniel Reynolds commendably maintained his morale through the war’s final months. “All with us are in fine spirits,” he wrote on Oct. 16, 1864, adding somewhat remarkably, “Hood is becoming more popular daily.” Indeed, even after the disastrous Tennessee Campaign, Reynolds clung to the colors, traveling with the remnants of Hood’s army into North Carolina. At Bentonville, March 19, 1865, he caught a shell fragment in his left leg; amputation above the knee resulted. In hospital at Charlottesville, he received his parole. General Reynolds limped home to Lake Village. In his last diary entry, June 15, 1865, he reflected on his four years’ service and sacrifice. “The war is over and we failed,” he acknowledged. I have many things to regret and many things to be proud of, but of none am I prouder than that of having commanded “Reynolds’s Arkansas Brigade” and nothing do I regret so much as the loss of our cause. We lost many brave men, but those who did their duty like men will ever be held in grateful remembrance by their relatives and friends, and by the friends of constitutional liberty everywhere. Peace to their ashes. Daniel Reynolds thus furled the colors of his country’s cause as he closed his diary. We owe great thanks to Robert Bender and the University of Arkansas Press for having brought this valuable document into print. *I know we usually call residents of the 25th state ArKANsuns, but Dr. Bender uses Arkansawyers. He explained to me that both terms are used by people of the state. Citizens preferring Arkansawyers do so because it sounds more like the state’s name, as opposed to—KANsans

Stephen Davis has been writing about the Civil War

for a long time—“since Jesus was in third grade,” he contends. from 1985 to 2005 worked as Book Review

Editor for Blue & Gray Magazine. He is author of Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood (2019) and Into Tennessee & Failure: John Bell Hood (2020). With Bill Hendrick he wrote The Atlanta Intelligencer Covers the Civil War (2022). His book, The National Tribune Remembers the Atlanta Campaign: Battles, Skirmishes, Marches and Camp Life as Recalled by the Union Veterans Themselves, was published by Savas Beatie in 2025.