Thomas Caute Reynolds

About

Thomas Caute Reynolds (October 11, 1821 – March 30, 1887) was the Confederate governor of Missouri from 1862 to 1865, succeeding upon the death of Claiborne F. Jackson after serving as lieutenant governor in exile. In 1864 he returned to the state, but was forced back into exile after the Battle of Westport.

Reynolds was elected lieutenant governor in 1860 as a Douglas Democrat, privately supporting the right to own slaves. When the Confederacy began to take shape in 1861, President Davis viewed the leaders of neutral Missouri with suspicion and initially refused to send military aid, so enabling the Union to dominate the state. Missouri's Confederate government fled to Arkansas, and Reynolds became demoralized and went to work in Richmond. Upon Governor Jackson's death from cancer on December 6, 1862, Reynolds started planning the liberation of Missouri with Confederate Major-General Sterling Price. The planned expedition took place in 1864, but achieved nothing. After the American Civil War Reynolds fled to Mexico, returning to St. Louis in 1869. He jumped to his death there in 1887.