Thomas Caute Reynolds
Thomas Caute Reynolds (October 11, 1821 - March 30, 1887) was the second Confederate governor of Missouri.
Reynolds was born in Charleston, South Carolina and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1842. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri was elected Missouri Lieutenant Governor along with Governor Claiborne Jackson in 1860 assuming office in 1861 as a Democrat.
At the beginning of the American Civil War, Missouri adopted a position that it would be remain in the Union but would not send troops or supplies to either side. Jackson refused an order from Abraham Lincoln to supply troops to the Union and the Missouri General Assembly established the Missouri State Guard under Sterling Price to resist attempts to force the state to comply. Following the St. Louis massacre, federal authorities under William S. Harney in the Price-Harney Truce agreed to the neutrality arrangement.
However, Lincoln was to overrule the agreement and relieve Harney of command. Harney's successorNathaniel Lyon after an unsuccessful meeting with Jackson launched a campaign to remove Jackson (and Reynolds) from office.
Lyon captured the state capital in Jefferson City, Missouri in July 1861. The state constitutional convention (which earlier under Price had adopted the neutrality position) was reconvened without the presence of pro-Southern representatives and they declared the offices of Missouri governor and lieutenant governor vacant.
Jackson and Reynolds, maintaining they were still the elected government of the state, fled to the southwest corner of the state by Springfield, Missouri where Lyon was killed in the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Price was to begin a campaign to retake Missouri in which he won most of the battles but could not hold the field.
Jackson and Reynolds convened the pro-South elected government in Neosho, Missouri and voted the Missouri secession to secede from the Union. Unable to defend themselves in the state, the government moved to Marshall, Texas. Jackson died in office in 1862 and Reynolds became the governor for the rest of the war.
Reynolds returned to St. Louis after the war and killed himself by jumping down an elevator shaft at the Customs House in St. Louis in 1887. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.