Background
Thomas Caute was born on October 11, 1821, in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Little is known about his early life.
Charlottesville, VA, United States
Reynolds graduated from the University of Virginia in 1838.
69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Reynolds graduated from Heidelberg University in 1842.
Thomas Caute was born on October 11, 1821, in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Little is known about his early life.
Reynolds graduated from the University of Virginia in 1838 from Heidelberg University in 1842.
Thomas Caute Reynolds was admitted to the bar in 1844, after traveling in Europe and studying at Heidelberg. In 1846, he was appointed secretary of the United States legation at Madrid.
From 1853 to 1857, he was a United States district attorney for Missouri. A leading spirit of the secessionist movement in Missouri and an ally of Claiborne Jackson, Reynolds was elected lieutenant governor in 1860, and he quickly called for the organization of state troops to serve the Confederacy. In January 1861, he printed a private circular in favor of secession.
After Governor Jackson's death, the Confederate troops in Missouri made Reynolds governor for the remainder of the war. He gave Confederate generals almost absolute power over Missouri troops and the right to whatever provisions were necessary to pursue the war. Since Missouri was largely under federal control, he was unable to perform many of the political duties of the governorship.
Reynolds was also a volunteer aide to General Joseph Shelby during Sterling Price’s Missouri Raid of 1864. After the war, Reynolds fled to Mexico and became a counselor to Maximilian. In 1868, he returned to Missouri, where he was elected to the legislature in 1874.
Two years later, he was a member of a United States commission to visit South and Central America. He took his own life on March 30, 1887, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Reynolds was a secessionist and an anti-Benton Democrat clashed and dueled with the Benton Democrat B. Gratz Brown over Reynolds’s support of Know-Nothingism.
Reynolds spoke French, Spanish, and German fluently.
Reynolds was married to Heloise Marie Sprague.