Letty Reynolds pensioner transcript

Letty Reynolds sought a pension for the death of her husband, Jacob "Jack" Reynolds, who died during the Civil War. Those records reveal many details about their lives enslaved on the Rock Spring plantation, including:

• Jack was enrolled on April 14, 1865, at Boone, North Carolina in Company K of the 119th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops Volunteers. He was mustered into service as a private on May 11, 1865 in Lexington, Kentucky.
• Jack is reported: "Died at Camp Nelson General Hospital on June 13, 1865, of Measles."
• Letty Cox married Jack Reynolds in December 1848 by H.W. Reynolds, her former master, in Patrick County, "according to his manner of marrying slaves."
• Their legitimate children who were under 16 years old when Jack died: Mary, born May 15, 1853; Adaline, born Jan. 1, 1855; and Henry, born Dec. 4, 1856.

The transcript also includes a desposition of Hardin W. Reynolds attesting to Jack and Letty's marriage, including,

• Jack Reynolds and Letty Cox were his slaves, that sometime in December 1848, at their request, he married them at his residence in Patrick County, Virginia.
• They remained on his farm and as his property until Gen. Stoneman made his raid through this county on April 8, 1865, when Jack Reynolds left with Gen. Stoneman's command.
• That he kept a register of the birth of all Black children on his plantations but that it had been lost or destroyed. He was not at the birth of their children but saw them a short time after their births.
• Referred to "drawing their weeks supplies, Jack Reynolds always drew for his wife, Letty, and the children as they were born unto them."

Nancy J. Reynolds, wife of Hardin W. Reynolds, also provided a deposition of her knowledge of Jack and Letty's marriage, including,

• She knew them before their marriage and since, and Letty's name was Cox before she was married
• Letty was raised by Nancy's father, Joshua Cox.
• Letty is living nearby and still is taking care of her three children.