active 1812 James Reynolds

Very little is known for certain about this author beyond his connection to the War of 1812. Library of Congress records list James Reynolds, active 1812 as the supposed author of Journal of an American Prisoner at Fort Malden and Quebec in the War of 1812, which was privately printed in 1909 and edited by G. M. Fairchild.

The work matters because it is a personal, on-the-ground account of wartime experience rather than a later retelling. In it, the writer describes the movement of sick soldiers, capture by British forces, and imprisonment in Canada, offering a direct glimpse of the hardships, uncertainty, and daily reality of the conflict.

Because Reynolds is identified only tentatively in major catalog records, many details of his life remain unclear. What survives most clearly is the voice in the journal itself: practical, observant, and valuable to readers interested in early American history and the human side of war.