PTSD, General John R. Jones, and Confederate History

Combat changes many men. Confederate General John R. Jones seemed to be one of those men. Born in Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1827, John Robert Jones was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and then ran a military school in Urbana, Maryland. When the war came, he raised a company that became a part of the 33^rd Virginia Infantry. He was commissioned a captain in June 1861, fought at First Manassas, and then was promoted lieutenant colonel in August of that year. In 1862, when the 33^rd Virginia was reorganized, Jones ran for colonel, and he lost. He attempted to regain his old position of lieutenant colonel, and again, he lost. At Jackson’s urging, Jones was promoted over others to brigadier general in June 1862, leading a Virginia brigade in the Seven Days campaign.

Southern Illustrated News, January 16, 1864

A wound in the knee at White Oak Swamp, followed by a bout with typhoid fever, kept Jones from the battle of Second Manassas, but at Sharpsburg, he led Jackson’s old division into battle. Yet Jones seemed to be a different man. Partway through the action, Jones headed to the rear, claiming that the explosion of a nearby shell had disabled him. Then, at the battle of Fredericksburg, while back in command of his brigade, it was rumored that Jones had been found hiding behind a tree during part of the battle. Word eventually made its way to Stonewall Jackson. Charges were preferred, and Jones was tried for cowardice. The officer panel on Jones’s trail included A.P. Hill, Jubal Early, Isaac Trimble, Robert Rodes, Henry Heth, James Archer, and William D. Pender. Jones was found not guilty and was acquitted. At Chancellorsville a couple of weeks later, Jones led his brigade, but, once again headed to the rear, this time due to “the ulcerated condition of one of his legs. Jones was relieved of his command, and a newspaper later reported that Jones had resigned.[1] For some unknown reason, Jones was captured on July 4, 1863, at Smithsburg, Maryland, and imprisoned at Johnson Island, and later at Fort Warren. Was he following along behind the Army of Northern Virginia, or simply traveling? It is really not clear why Jones was in Maryland. He was not released until July 1865.[2]

Jones returned to Harrisonburg, Virginia, sold farm equipment, and was a commissioner in chancery of the county court. He was married twice, divorced once, and had two different African-American families. Jones died in 1901.[3]

Stonewall Jackson, who had nominated Jones for promotion, was troubled and humiliated at the court martial of Jones. Jackson told Tucker Lacy “I have almost lost confidence in man. When I thought I had found just such a man as I needed, and was about to rest satisfied in him, I found something lacking in him. But I suppose it is to teach me to put my trust only in God.”[4]

So how have historians viewed the career of John R. Jones?  Douglas Southall Freeman wrote that he  even hated  to mention John R. Jones’s name in connection with the Army of Northern Virginia. Later, in chronicling the part of Jones’s role at Chancellorsville, Freeman wrote that the general “probably had written himself off the army roster by leaving the field because of an ulcerated leg.”[5]

Joseph L. Harsh held the view that Jones was “clearly wanting in ability.”[6]

Robert E. L. Krick thought Jones “spectacularly awful as a Confederate officer.”[7]

Robert K. Krick wrote that Jones “performed with so little personal poise at Sharpsburg that he came under formal charges.”[8]

John R. Jones’s post-war relationships with African-American women certainly influenced late 19^th and early 20^th century historians and their treatment of his role in history. However, given the charges of cowardice leveled at him after the Seven Days campaign, his military career came to an ignoble end following the battle of Chancellorsville. It seems very likely that his issues may have been related to
PTSD. One has to ask – what happened to John R. Jones?

If you are interested in Jones’s romantic entanglements, please check out Freedom’s Child: The Life of a Confederate General’s Black Daughter, by Carrie Allen McCray (1998).

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[1] Southern Illustrated News, January 16, 1864.

[2] A note in his file from the National Archives concerning his capture states that Jones was “Formally in C.S. Army – now a citizen.”

[3] Davis, Confederate General, 3:206-207.

[4] Quoted in Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 2:500.

[5] Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 2:500n, 665.

[6] Harsh, Sounding the Shallows, 142.

[7] Krick, The Smoothbore Volley That Doomed the Confederacy, 122.

[8] Gallagher,  Antietam: Essays on the 1862 Maryland Campaign, 50.