site logo
W.G. Jones

W.G. Jones

Federal (USV)

Captain

William Graham Jones

(1837 - 1863)

Home State: Ohio

Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1860;Class Rank: 25

Command Billet: Aide

Branch of Service: Artillery

Unit: Second Army Corps

Before Antietam

He was appointed to the US Military Academy from Ohio in July 1855, and graduated in 1860, being appointed brevet 2nd Lieutenant, 8th US Infantry on 1 July. He was on frontier duty at Ft. Breckenridge, NM. He was at San Antonio, TX at the start of the War and was captured by "Texas insurgents" on 8 May 1861 and imprisoned. He was promoted First Lieutenant on 14 May 1861. He was exchanged and released on 20 February 1862. He served as aide to General Andrew Porter, Provost Marshal of the Army of the Potomac March - June 1862. He was appointed Lieutenant Colonel (Volunteers) of the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry on 18 March 1862 and led them on the remainder of the Peninsula Campaign.

On the Campaign

He was detached as aide, at the rank of Captain, to Major General Edwin Sumner on the campaign, and is mentioned in the General's Report.

The rest of the War

He continued with General Sumner through the Fredericksburg Campaign and into March 1863. He resigned his commission in the 71st Pennsylvania on 6 April 1863, and was commissioned Colonel of the 36th Ohio on 30 April 1863. He was promoted to Captain, 10th US Infantry in the Regular Army on 1 June 1863. He was killed in action at Chickamauga, GA on 19 September 1863 in command of the 36th Ohio.

References & notes

Basic service dates from Heitman1 and Cullum2. His photo here from a tintype offered in 2006 by Forsythes' Auctions. He's also found in a group portrait taken of General Sumner and his staff at Warrenton, VA in November 1862, now at the Library of Congress.

Birth

02/23/1837; Cincinnati, OH

Death

09/19/1863; Chickamauga, GA; burial in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, OH

Notes

1   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 583  [AotW citation 13504]

2   Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, Vol. 2, pp. 512  [AotW citation 13505]