Medical Information on General Officers: John Fulton Reynolds

From eHistory.com

General John F. Reynolds fell defending his native state of Pennsylvania in command of the Left Wing of the Army of the Potomac.

Reynolds was born on September 20, 1820 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and graduated from West Point in 1841. Before the War, he suffered from at various times bilious fever, yellow fever, and malaria.

On the morning of July 1, Reynolds was shot through the back of the head by a rifle ball. The bullet entered behind the right ear and passed through the brain. He fell face down from his horse. No obivious bleeding was present. When his aides turned him onto his back, he smiled, gasped once, and apparently died. He apparently died within a minute or two of being shot.

Posted in: Civil War Wounds