Thomas Caute Reynolds

Who was Thomas Caute Reynolds?

Thomas Caute Reynolds was Confederate Governor of the divided border-state of Missouri in the American Civil War, following the death of Claiborne Jackson.

He had been appointed as Jackson’s Lieutenant Governor, both of them running as Union Democrats in order to get elected, but privately supporting Southern Rights. When the Confederacy began to take shape, early in 1861, Jefferson Davis viewed the leaders of neutral Missouri with suspicion and initially refused to send military aid, so enabling the Union to dominate the state. Jackson fled to Arkansas, and Reynolds became demoralised and went to work in Richmond.

On Jackson’s death from cancer in December 1862, Reynolds automatically became governor-in-exile, and started planning the liberation of Missouri with Sterling Price, the top Confederate general in the northwest, with whom he maintained an uneasy relationship. The raid finally took place in October 1864, but achieved nothing, Reynolds and Price blaming each other for its failure.

After the war, Reynolds fled to Mexico, but returned to practice law in St.