Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/150

 JONES

JONES

JONES, Augustus, soldier, was born in Kas- kaskia, Northwest Territory, Feb. 18, 1796 ; sec- ond son of Judge Jolin Rice and Mary (Barger) Jones. He served in the war of 1813 with his brother, John Rice (q.v.), and removed to Mis- souri, where he became an extensive landed pro- prietor. President Andrew Jackson appointed him U.S. marshal of Missouri in 1839, and he held the position for eight years and received from congress the thanks of the nation for valuable services. He was major-general of the state militia, and in 1844 was defeated for representa- tive in the 29th congress on the Anti-Benton ticket. In the Mexican war he commanded a company of volunteer cavalry and served as mil- itary governor of Santa Fe. He was a principal or second in several duels. He removed to Texas with his property, in 1851, and settled near Colum- bus, Texas, where he died in February, 1887.

JONES, Catesby ap Roger, naval officer, was born in Clark county, Va., about 1821; son of Gen. Roger and Mary Anne Mason (Page) Jones, and grandson of Maj. Catesby and Lettice Corbin (Turberville) Jones. He entered the U.S. Naval academy, and served in the U.S. navy as midshipman and lieuten- ant until Virginia seceded, when, being stationed at the U.S. navy yard at Norfolk, Va., he re- signed his commission, joined the Virginia state forces and took part in floating and reconstruct- ing the U.S. steam frigate Merrimac, scuttled by order of Commodore McCauley, U.S.N., com- mandant of the yard, April 19, 1861. Lieutenant

Jones converted the Merrimac into the iron-clad FiVgfim'a, plating the vessel with hardened iron two inches thick from the Tredegar works at Richmond, put on double bolted through the woodwork and cleqched. Besides the smooth- bore guns rescued from the scuttled JferHmac, he placed two 100-pound 7-inch rifles reinforced by several 3-inch steel bands shrunk on : the first heavy guns so made. These were located bow and stern and were supplemented by two 6-inch rifles and six 9-inch smooth-bore broadsides. Lieu- tenant Jones was executive and ordnance officer and after the first day's fight with the Moni- tor, March 8, 1863, when both Flag-Officer Lieut.

Franklin Buchanan and Flag-Lieutenant Minor were wounded, he succeeded to the command, and on March 9, finding the armament ineffec- tive against the Monitor, Lieutenant Jones made repeated efforts to destroy the little nondescript with his powerful vessel used as a ram. The Monitor, however, eluded the steel prow of the Virginia, and both vessels witiidrew, the Virginia to shield her hull, increase her draught, add steel shutters to her ports and repair her steering- gear. As Lieutenant Buchanan was unable to resume command, the government at Richmond placed the Virginia under Commodore Josiah Tatnall and made Lieutenant Jones second in command. On March 29, 1862, Commodore Tat- nall assumed command, and on April 11 the reconstructed Virginia steamed down to the Roads expecting again to meet the Monitor, but the fleet of U.S. vessels was behind Fort Mon- roe and did not come out for a second trial, and after exchanging a few shots with the battery on the Rip Raps, a break-down of the engine forced the Virginia to return to Norfolk for repairs. On May 8 t\\eVirginia again went down the harbor, to find the Monitor, Naugatuck, Galena and a number of heavy ships shelling the Confederate batteries on Sewell's Point, and on the approach of the Virginia the fleet retired behind the protect- ing walls of Fort Monroe, and Lieutenant Jones, despairing of obtaining an open fight, fired a gun to the windward and took the Virginia back to her buoy. After the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces, the Virginia was lightened to eighteen feet for the i:)urpose of steaming up the James to co-operate with the army, but be- fore reaching Jamestown Flats the pilots de- clined to venture farther uf), and the ship being so lifted as to expose her hull and render her un- fit for action, Commodoi'e Tatnall gave orders to destroy her, and she was burned on the shore near Craney island, the crew escaping by march- ing twenty-two miles to Suffolk and taking the cars to Richmond, Lieutenants Jones and John Taylor Wood being the last to leave the doomed vessel. Commodore Tatnall was, at hi? own re- quest, tried by court-martial and honorably ac- quitted. Lieutenant Jones was placed in com- mand of the defences of the James river and constructed batteries on Drewry's Bluff, sunk vessels in the channel and prepared to meet the Monitor, Galena and other Federal iron-clads, forcing the passage of the river. The crew of the Virginia under Lieutenant Jones barred the Federal fleet, and Richmond was saved. He was promoted to the rank of commander, April 27, 1863, and ordered to Selma, Ala., to take charge of the Confederate government works there and to complete the armament of the iron-clad Ten- nessee. He constructed the machinery and bat-