| Notes |
Lieutenant Thomas Reynell was the senior subaltern in the 62nd Regimen
t of Foot and was killed in the Battle of Freeman's Farm at Saratoga
, New York, on 19 September 1777 during the American War of Independen
ce. The tragedy was later recorded by Ensign Thomas Anbury (24th Regim
ent) in his Travels Through the Interior Parts of America (London, 178
9): You will readily allow that it is the highest test of affection i
a woman, to share with her husband the toils and hardships of the ca
mpaign, especially such an [sic] one as the present. What a trial of f
ortitude the late action must have been, through a distressing interva
l of long suspense! The ladies followed the route of the artillery an
d baggage, and when the action began [on 19 September 1777], the Baron
ess Reidesel, Lady Harriet Ackland, and the wives of Major Harnage an
d Lieutenant Reynell, of the 62d regiment, entered a small uninhabite
d hut, but when the action became general and bloody, the surgeons too
k possession of it, being the most convenient for the first care of th
e wounded; in this situation were these ladies four hours together, wh
en the comfort they afforded each other was broke in upon, by Major Ha
age being brought in to the surgeons deeply wounded! What a blow mus
t the next intelligence be, that informed them Lieutenant Reynell wa
s killed! Madame de Reidesel and Lady Harriet could afford but littl
e consolation to their companions, through an anxiousness they knew no
t how to smother, lest it might be soon, very soon, their own situatio
s. Baroness Frederika von Riedesel also recorded the sorrowful scen
e (Baroness von Riedesel and the American Revolution, journal and corr
espondence of a tour of duty 1776-1783. Marvin Brown, trans. Universit
y of North Carolina Press: 1965): On September 19 there was a battle
, which, although it resulted in our favor, forced us to halt at a pla
ce called Freeman's Farm?. I saw a number of wounded men, and, what wa
s even worse, three of them were brought to the house where I was. On
e of them was Major Harnage, the husband of one of the ladies of our p
arty, the second a lieutenant [Thomas Reynell], whose wife was also a
acquaintance of ours, and the third was a young English officer name
d Young. A publication titled Once a Week: An illustrated miscellan
y of literature, art, science, & popular information by Eneas Sweetlan
d Dallas (Bradbury and Evans: 1880) retold the experiences of the Brit
ish ladies and their families present with the army during the cours
e of the Northern Campaign of 1777. According to this volume, "?Lieute
ant Reynell had been shot through the head and killed on the spot.
" The originating source of this specific description is unknown. Th
omas Reynell was born into a prominent English family as the second so
of Sir Thomas Reynell, 3rd Baronet (1697-1775). His older brother, R
ichard (c1735-1798), never married and therefore upon his death, the b
aronetcy would have fallen to Thomas had he not been killed at Freeman
's Farm.
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Abt 1746 - 1777 (31 years)
