PBA Galleries

14 lines, on sheet of yellow paper 15x11 cm (6x4¼"); matted and framed under plexiglass along with original photograph portrait of Reno by D.F. Barry, with Barry's blindstamp in lower right margin. Overall 38x49 cm (15x19¼").

Captain Marcus Reno, whose path would famously cross that of Custer during the post-Civil War conflicts with the Native American Sioux, writes to “Brig Gen Custer Cmdg 1st Brig 1st Div”: “General, If you are at Antietam Ford & General [James H.] Wilson at Shepherdstown [W. VA.] move your Brigade to Shepherdstown, & relieve Gen Wilson, who will go to support General [William W.] Averell- By Command of Brig Gen [Alfred Thomas] Torbert M.A. Reno Capt & Chf staff.” A rare original carbon copy of a handwritten note by Reno to George A. Custer a decade before he would serve under the flamboyant "Yellow Hair," arriving too late at the Battle of Little Big Horn following some confusion, and suffering ignominy and charges of cowardice.