active 1812 James Reynolds

Very little is firmly documented about this author beyond the work attached to his name. Library and catalog records list him simply as James Reynolds, active 1812, and connect him with Journal of an American Prisoner at Fort Malden and Quebec in the War of 1812.

According to the Library of Congress record for the 1909 private printing, the journal was published without the author's name on the manuscript, but editor G. M. Fairchild argued that it showed strong evidence of having been written by surgeon's mate James Reynolds. In that note, Reynolds is described as having been assigned by Surgeon General Edwards of General Hull's army to care for sick men aboard vessels sent from the Maumee to Detroit, before their capture by the British.

Because so little biographical detail survives, Reynolds is remembered mainly through this concise personal narrative. For listeners interested in firsthand accounts of the War of 1812, his journal stands out for its directness and its close view of imprisonment, military medicine, and wartime uncertainty.