Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1035

Rh independence changed all plans of young men at that period. In April, 1861, he entered the Confederate army as a private in the Williamsburg Junior Guard, and gave his first year's service with that command, in the vicinity of Williamsburg, and under the command of General Magruder in the Peninsular campaign. For the first seven months he served in the engineering department under Col. Alexander Rives. At the reorganization of the Confederate army in May, 1862, he was elected third sergeant of Company C, Thirty-second Virginia infantry, and after the first battle of Fredericksburg he was promoted second lieutenant of this command. He was in all the battles of his regiment, in Corse's brigade of Pickett's division, except the fight at Fort Harrison, in 1864, when he was disabled by illness. The important actions in which he took part were, Seven Pines, Savage Station, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Brook Turnpike, north of Richmond, Second Cold Harbor, Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks and Sailor's Creek. He was severely hurt in the latter battle, and escaped the general disaster to surrender at Appomattox. After the close of hostilities he was engaged in farming until 1872, when he embarked in the drug trade, which has since been his occupation. He is prominent in social life, influential in public affairs, and honored by his old comrades, who have retained him as adjutant of Magruder-Ewell camp, Confederate Veterans, since its organization in 1892. On June 10, 1867, he was married to Mary Fiske Scuthall Fisher, who died in 1894. Their two children are living: Marian Ambler and Hugh Williamson, the latter a student in the university college of medicine at Richmond.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hilary P. Jones was, before the war, a prominent educator of Virginia, having been for several years engaged in the business of teaching, and standing high in his profession. He entered the army as an officer of artillery and soon was major of a battalion. He participated in the battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill and White Oak Swamp Bridge during the Seven Days' battles around Richmond, June 26th to July 1, 1862. During these operations his battalion was attached to Gen. D. H. Hill's division. He shared also in the marches and battles of the Maryland campaign. Just before the battle of Chancellorsville he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of artillery, and with his battalion took an active part in that most wonderful of all Lee's long series of brilliant victories. Colonel Jones was also in the Pennsylvania campaign and shared in the hardships and dangers that culminated in the great conflict of Gettysburg. During Ewell's march through the valley, while on the way to Gettysburg, Jones' artillery of twenty pieces, by a sudden attack upon the enemy's works near Winchester, prepared the way for the gallant advance of the brigade of General Hays, which swept away all opposition. The excellence of his work on this occasion is testified to by Lieutenant-General Ewell and Brigadier-General Pendleton in their reports of the Gettysburg campaign. General Early, in his report of this same affair says: "All the arrangements of Colonel Jones and the conduct of himself and his artillery, were admirable and have not been surpassed during the war." Again speaking of Gettysburg, General Early says: "The conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Jones and his artillery battalion at Winchester was