Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/662

614 report of the campaign, alluding to the fact that out of his fourteen generals, three had been killed, four wounded and two captured, said of General Jones: "I consider his loss an irreparable one to his brigade."

Brigadier-General John R. Jones entered the Confederate service as captain of a company of the Thirty-third Virginia regiment, Stonewall brigade, and shared the services of that command at First Manassas and in the Valley campaign of May and June, 1862, winning promotion to lieutenant-colonel of his regiment. On June 23, 1862, he was promoted brigadier-general and assigned to the command of the Second brigade of Jackson's division. In this capacity he served at Cold Harbor and Malvern hill, until wounded in the night following the latter battle. His command in this campaign was composed of the Forty-eighth, Forty-second and Twenty-first Virginia regiments, the First Virginia battalion, the Hampton artillery and Jackson's battery. He resumed command of his brigade, which had fought under Bradley T. Johnson at Second Manassas, after it had reached Frederick in the march through Maryland. He then assumed command of Jackson's division, and was in charge of it at Harper's Ferry. After the surrender of that post he marched at 1 o'clock on the morning of the 16th of September to reinforce Lee at Sharpsburg. There he took position on the extreme left. His brigade and Winder's (Stonewall) formed his front line, and the two, numbering less than 400 men, attacked at 6 o'clock on the morning of the 17th, held back the enemy for nearly an hour, then retired to the second line, and after remaining for half an hour under a terrific storm of shot and shell, advanced and repulsed the enemy. Jones, disabled by the explosion of a shell above his head, early in the battle turned over the command to Brig.-Gen. William E. Starke, who fell in the fight, leaving Col. A. J. Grigsby in command of the Stonewall division. Jones' own brigade was successively commanded by Capts. John E. Penn, A. C. Page and R. W. Withers, the first two of whom each lost a leg. The division numbered about 1,600 at the beginning of the fight, and lost about 700 in killed and wounded. He commanded his brigade at Fredericksburg, and at Chancellorsville, on the first day, where the Second and Third brigades, Jackson's