Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1036

970 ." At the opening of the campaign of 1864, Colonel Jones was with his battalion under the command of General Beauregard and participated in the battles near Drewry's Bluff, winning again honorable mention from Generals Beauregard and Whiting. In the fall of 1864 he was in command of all the artillery of Anderson's corps, four battalions, and had been promoted to the rank of colonel. He participated also in the campaign which closed at Appomattox. After the war Colonel Jones went back to his old profession of teaching.

Rev. John William Jones, D. D., a Virginian distinguished for his contributions to the history of the Confederate era, was born at Louisa, and is an alumnus of the State university. Devoting himself in youth to the ministry of the Baptist church, he pursued a theological course at the Southern Baptist theological seminary, was ordained in June, 1860, and soon afterward was appointed a missionary to Canton, China. There his life might have been spent, and doubtless his unbounded energies would have accomplished great good in that distant field, but the rapidly hastening crisis in national affairs delayed and finally prevented his departure. When Virginia called for the military service of her sons he promptly enlisted as a private in Company D of the Thirteenth Virginia infantry, under Col. A. P. Hill. After serving in the ranks one year he was made chaplain of his regiment, and in November, 1863, he became missionary chaplain to A. P. Hill's corps. He was present on every battlefield of the army of Northern Virginia from the occupation of Harper's Ferry in 1861 to Appomattox Court House in 1865, shared the sufferings and privations and the risk of battle with the soldiers, ministered to them in hospital, encouraged them in the performance of arduous duty, and was particularly effective in those famous religious revivals which resulted in the religious profession of over fifteen thousand of Lee's veterans. He himself baptized over four hundred soldiers, and under his preaching thousands declared their acceptance of the gospel of the "Prince of Peace." After the close of the war he was for several years pastor at Lexington, Va., and one of the chaplains of Washington college, under the presidency of General Lee. Also laboring in the Virginia military institute, he did effective work in both those famous educational institutions. Since then he has acted as agent of the Southern Baptist theological seminary, general superintendent of the Virginia Baptist Sunday-school work, and assistant secretary of the home board of the Southern Baptist convention, and has traveled extensively throughout the South. In September, 1893, he became chaplain of the university of Virginia. In the midst of his work in behalf of the church, he maintained a literary activity which has saved to history many important contributions relating to the Confederate war. For ten years, from 1876, he was secretary of the Southern historical society, editing fourteen volumes of "Southern Historical Papers." By authority of the family of Gen. R. E. Lee, of whom he was an intimate friend, he wrote after the general's death, "Personal Reminiscences and Letters of R. E. Lee." Other works of his production are "The Army of Northern Virginia Memorial Volume," an "Appendix to Cooke's Life of Stonewall Jackson," "Christ in the Camp, or Religion in Lee's Army," "The Memorial