Jquery – Set button text when appending to form

I have buttons that are created when reading info from a database. When one of the buttons is clicked, a form is created on the fly. The form creates fine, but the problem I am having is setting the text of the button for the form. I have the following to create the form and set the text:

This is the code that sets the button:

<button class="replybtn" id="replybtn<?php echo $commid; ?>" value="<?php echo $commid; ?>">Reply</button>

And this is the code that creates the form when the button is clicked:

$('.replybtn').click(function (e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    var btnnum = $(this).val();
    let replybtn = "replybtn" + btnnum;
    let replyform = "replyform" + btnnum;
    
    var form = $("<form>", {
        action: 'http://intranet/generalinfo/communitybb/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php',
        method: 'POST',
        id: replyform,
        class: 'replyform'
    });

    form.append( $("<textarea>", { 
        name: 'reply', 
        class: 'commentbox',
        rows: '5',
        cols: '150'
    }));

    form.append($("<button>", {
        class: 'replybtn',
        id: replybtn
    }));

    $("#" + replybtn).html = "Reply";
});

EDIT
Added in the code that sets the variables.