William F. Raynolds

William F. Raynolds
Birth name	William Franklin Raynolds
Born	March 17, 1820 Canton, Ohio, U.S.
Died	October 18, 1894 (aged 74) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1843–1884
Rank	Colonel Brevet Brigadier General
Unit	Corps of Engineers Corps of Topographical Engineers
Battles/wars	Mexican–American War American Civil War

William Franklin Raynolds (March 17, 1820 – October 18, 1894) was an American explorer, engineer and U.S. army officer who served in the Mexican–American War and American Civil War. He is best known for leading the 1859–60 Raynolds Expedition while serving as a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers.

During the 1850s and again after his participation in the Civil War, Raynolds was the head engineer on numerous lighthouse construction projects. He oversaw riverway and harbor dredging projects intended to improve accessibility and navigation for shipping. As a cartographer, Raynolds surveyed and mapped the islands and shorelines on the Great Lakes and other regions. At least six lighthouses whose construction he oversaw are still standing. Some are still in use and of these, several are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1848, during the American occupation of Mexico after the Mexican–American War, Raynolds and other U.S. Army personnel were the first confirmed to have reached the summit of Pico de Orizaba, the tallest mountain in Mexico, and inadvertently set what may have been a 50-year American alpine altitude record. In 1859, Raynolds was placed in charge of the first government-sponsored expedition to venture into the upper Yellowstone region that was later to become Yellowstone National Park. Heavy winter snowpack in the Absaroka Range of Wyoming prevented the expedition from reaching the Yellowstone Plateau, forcing them to divert to the south and cross Union Pass at the northern end of the Wind River Range. After negotiating the pass the expedition entered Jackson Hole and surveyed the Teton Range, now within Grand Teton National Park.

During the Civil War, Raynolds participated in the Battle of Cross Keys during the Valley Campaign of 1862 and a year later was in charge of fortifications in the defense of the military arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. On March 13, 1865, Raynolds was brevetted brigadier general for meritorious service during the Civil War. After the war, Lt. Col Raynolds was assigned to a myriad of positions across the Nation to include establishing the St. Louis Engineer Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1870 to 1872. Raynolds retired from the army on March 17, 1884, with the permanent rank of colonel.

He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1867.^[1]