William Benjamin Jones

In 1860 he was the 34 year old Warwick County clerk of court. He enrolled on 18 May 1861 at Upper Grafton, VA and mustered on 29 May as First Lieutenant of Company I, 32nd Virginia Infantry. His company was redesignated as Company L of the First Virginia Artillery, the battery more commonly known as the Peninsula Artillery, on 31 August.

On 5 April 1862, in action at Lee's Mills on the Warwick River, he gained the nickname "Hellcat Billy" for the volume of fire from his guns. He was acting Adjutant of the regiment in April 1862 and was promoted to Captain on 9 June.

He commanded the battery in Maryland.

His battery was disbanded in November 1862 and he later served as an engineering officer on General Edmund Kirby's staff. He was surrendered in the Trans-Mississippi and took the oath of allegiance at Shreveport, LA on 7 June 1865.

He returned to Newport News and was again Clerk until 1869, when he was removed by the military authorities.

His service from Clemens1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. His graduation from William & Mary from Sean Michael Heuvel's master's thesis The Old College Goes to War: the Civil War experiences of William and Mary students, faculty, and alumni (2006). His nickname at Lee's Mills from A Deadly Surprise on the Peninsula by Mark St. John Erickson in the Daily Press of 29 April 2013. His 1869 removal as Clerk of the Court is from the Richmond Daily Dispatch of 16 February 1869. Other personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860.

1825; Mulberry Island, Warwick County, VA

1878; in VA