| Notes |
- For research only:
Colonel Felix Alexander Reeve, U.S.V.
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Colonel Felix Alexander Reeve, the eldest son of Thomas J. and Rebecca A nn Earnest Reeve, was born in Eastern Tennessee, September 4, 1836. The Re eve family has been seated in Suffolk, England, for centuries. On his fath er's side, Colonel Reeve is descended from the Adams stock, and the Cox es of Maryland; and through his mother, from the Oliphants and Bruces of S cotland, and the Ernsts of Germany.
In 1860 he left his country home and went to Knoxville, where he resid ed in the family of the widely famous Parson Brownlow, and read law with H on. O. P. Temple, having the friendship of these sterling Union men, as we ll as of other leaders of the patriotic people of East Tennessee, " who se faith stood firm as rocky mountains," when the life of the nation was i mperiled. Their loyalty, sacrifice, and suffering will be the theme of so ng and story in ages yet to be!
Colonel Reeve was a Whig and Unionist; and after voting for the candida te for the Federal Congress in August, 1861, he left his native mountai ns for Washington City, where he was employed in the Treasury Departme nt by Secretary Chase, until he resigned to enter the Federal army. By ord er of President Lincoln he was appointed a colonel and authorized to recru it a regiment of loyal Tennesseeans. Proceeding to Kentucky in 1862, he re cruited the Eighth Tennessee Infantry Volunteers from the refugees who h ad fled from home and family to escape the rebel conscript; and so success ful were his efforts, that when General Burnside started for East Tennesse e, he had a thousand well officered men in line. His regiment was assign ed to the Second Brigade, Second Division, Twenty-third Army Corps. Upp er East Tennessee was occupied by the Federal army early in September, 186 3; Colonel Reeve took an active part in that campaign, and was at Knoxvil le with his regiment during the siege,-from November 17 until December 5,- when it was raised after an unsuccessful assault on Fort Saunders.
On the 4th of May, 1864, he was ordered on the Georgia campaign. The fir st engagement was at Buzzard's Roost, the 9th of May; on the 14th was foug ht the battle of Resaca, the Twenty-third Corps bringing on the engagemen t. The battle of Burnt Hickory was fought May 26; then ensued daily skirmi shing until the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, June 17. In this engagement h is brother, Jesse S. Reeve, adjutant of the regiment, fell mortally wounde d.
On October 4, 1864, General Thomas assumed command of the Fourteenth, Six teenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-third Corps, and moved northward, while Gen eral Sherman proceeded South with the remainder of his army. The Eighth Te nnessee took part in several actions just prior to the battle of Frankli n, November 30, and the battle of Nashville, December 1, in both of whic h, as well as in other engagements, it bore a gallant and conspicuous par t. The Army of the Ohio having been ordered to North Carolina in Januar y, 1865, the Eighth Tennessee was in the actions of Fort Anderson, Town Cr eek, and Wilmington. Returning to Nashville in the spring, the regiment w as mustered out of the service.
As commanding officer of the regiment, and for a time of a brigade, he w as rewarded by the commendation of General Burnside, General Schofield, a nd his more immediate commander, General Cox, who spoke of him as " a bra ve and meritorious officer."
Owing to illness contracted in the Georgia campaign, Colonel Reeve, by adv ice of his surgeon, resigned from the army, but with reluctance.
After leaving the service he resumed the study, and entered upon the pract ice, of the law at Knoxville. Without ambition outside of his professio n, he has never sought political preferment. He is an independent Democr at and a member of the Loyal Legion.
Before retiring from the executive chair, President Johnson nominated h im for the office of United States attorney for the Eastern District of Te nnessee; but the unsolicited honor was declined.
He pursued the practice of law until January, 1879, when he removed to Was hington City. In 1880 he was professionally employed in the Departme nt of Justice. In 1886 he was appointed assistant solicitor of the Treasu ry by President Cleveland, a position he has continued to hold acceptab ly under President Harrison.
In the spring of 1865 Colonel Reeve intermarried with Wilhelmina Donelson- Maynard of Knoxville; and as a reward of this union they have been bless ed with eight children.
Source: Officers of the Volunteer Army and Navy who served in the Civil Wa r, published by L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1893, 419 pgs.
SOURCE: http://www.all-biographies.com/soldiers/felix_alexander_reeve.htm
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Abt 1660 - Abt 1719 (~ 59 years)
