Dr. James Banks Reynolds

Served in NGNY 71st regiment.
portrait image & bio. at Findagrave

Assistant Surgeon of the Seventy first Regiment G.S.N.Y and was on duty with the regiment at the first battle of Bull Run. He also participated in the second battle of Bull Run as a surgeon.
Dr. Reynolds married two van Beuren sisters of his immediate community, the third and forth daughters of Michael and Mary van Beuren,
He died of pyaemia at age 49.

Biography is in Obituary & in the National Cyclopaedia

The New York Times, 21 Aug 1882, Mon Page 5 & https://archive.org/stream/nationalcyclopae00newy/nationalcyclopae0...

• said to be related to Sir Joshua Reynolds, English painter, but this claim is most likely spurious.
• like his wife, James' family had a real estate connection to Union Square. James' maternal grandfather had owned land there which he sold when the effort to design (then) Union "Park" began... So both the Reynolds (Brooks) family and the van Beuren (Spingler) family sold land to create today's Union Square.
• James' paternal grandfather also was a Union Square landholder: See: Nathaniel Reynolds, III
• Incidentally, James' maternal Brooks grandfather was Henry Sands Brooks, founder of Brooks Brothers . Brooks Brothers was a War contractor, providing uniforms for the Union Army.

James' van Beuren wives were also from a family with a NY city military background

vis. the 83rd NY infantry
It was Col. Michael Murray van Beuren who first led the 83rd NY, (9th Inf. Reg't., reconstituted). Dr. Reynolds' wife was a Brooks. It was one of her nephews who served in the 83rd. We see a complicated pedigree association here between the Brooks and Reynolds families. Anna Maria Reynolds (Brooks) {James' mother} is 1st Lt. Henry Sands Brooks, U.S.V.'s aunt. ... and 1st Lt. Brooks served in Col MM. van Beuren's 83rd Inf.

• https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/civil/rosters/Infantry/83rd_In...
• Capt. John William Davis is 1st Lieut (USA) Henry S. Brooks' first cousin's wife's sister's husband.
  • 1st Lieut (USA) Henry S. Brooks→ Elisha Brooks his father → Anna Maria Reynolds (Brooks) his sister → Dr. James Banks Reynolds her son → Josephine Reynolds (van Beuren) his wife → Mary Louise Davis (van Beuren) her sister → Capt. John William Davis her husband... > the 83rd was truly a family affair...
    • and Henry S. Brooks is also Capt. Davis' third cousin... (Henry served for a while as John Davis' adjutant

two marriages

~• a succession of two van Beuren sisters of Spingler family fortune. The first died young. Dr. Reynolds' children were all born to his second wife, Emily

• The Reynolds and van Beuren families also had a close geographical association. The groom's grandfather was Nathaniel Reynolds III, alderman of the 12th ward and neighbor to the bride's Spingler family on Bowery Hill.

National Cyclopaedia Bio.

REYNOLDS, James Banks, physician, was born in New York city, Apr. 8, 1833, son of William E. Reynolds. His great-grandfather was a native of England, who emigrated from Surrey and settled at Greenwich, Conn., in 1709. married a daughter of James Banks, a sterling patriot who took part in the revolutionary war, and was one of the martyrs imprisoned in the notorious British ship in Wallabout Bay, where so many of the American prisoners lost their lives from the hardship and ill-treatment of the British. He was fortunate in effecting his escape.

Dr. Reynolds' father was a prominent merchant of New York city, and married the daughter of an old Spanish resident of New Orleans.

The subject of this sketch passed his early life in his native city, receiving the best education under private tutors. He continued his education abroad, and having determined to follow the medical profession, in 1852 began the study of medicine under Dr. Willard Parker. He was graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons with the degree of M.D. in 1856. After serving the regular term as intern at Bellevue Hospital, he made a second visit to Europe in 1858 to complete his medical studies, residing in Paris, London and Dublin. He returned to the United States shortly before the civil war, and upon the outbreak of hostilities enlisted as assistant surgeon of the 71st regiment,- participating with this command in the first battle of Bull Run. Shortly after he was promoted to be surgeon of the regiment with the rank and pay of major of cavalry. He also saw service in Virginia. After the war he resumed the practice of medicine in New York, and became identified with a number of that city's leading public institutions.

During his career Dr. Reynolds turned his attention to the diseases of children becoming so proficient in this department of medicine, that at the time of his death he was considered one of America's leading authorities in that subject. He enjoyed a wide and extensive practice among the oldest and best families of New York city, with whom his broad culture and agreeable manners made him a welcome friend as well as a faithful medical adviser When the Sisters of Charity of New York in 1869 projected an asylum for foundlings.Reynolds was laboring day and night to perfect the plans for what became the New York Foundling Asylum. Dr. Reynolds organized one of the most useful clinics of New York at this institution, and devoted a considerable portion of his time to the same to within a few years of his death. He was also one of the founders of the New York Obstetrical Society in conjunction with Drs. Theodore G. Thomas, J. Marion Sims, Fordyce Barker and Harold Jacoby.

Dr. Reynolds was married in 1864 to a daughter of Michael Van Beuren, of the well-known New York family. She died in 1872, and he was married to her sister in 1874. He died at Rye. N. Y., Aug.18, 1882.