J. William Jones (25 September 1836 – 17 March 1909) was an American Southern Baptist preacher and writer who became known for his evangelism and devotion to the

Lost Cause of the Confederacy The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. Fir ...

. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

of 1861–1865, the newly ordained Jones was a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

chaplain and conducted many revival meetings. Later, he became a campus minister at several universities and in his final years, chaplain for the

United Confederate Veterans The United Confederate Veterans (UCV, or simply Confederate Veterans) was an American Civil War veterans' organization headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was organized on June 10, 1889, by ex-soldiers and sailors of the Confederate Sta ...

. After editing the papers of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Jones became the Secretary-Treasurer of the

Southern Historical Society The Southern Historical Society was an American organization founded to preserve archival materials related to the government of the Confederate States of America and to document the history of the Civil War.David S. Williams
J. William Jones (1836-1909)
''New Georgia Encyclopedia'', 06/15/2004A Guide to the J. William Jones Papers, 1861-1892
Library of Virginia
dead link 15jul2019

Early life

John William Jones was born on September 25, 1836, in Louisa County, Virginia. His father, merchant Francis William Jones (1811-1890) married Ann Pendleton Ashby Jones (1817-1863) in 1834, and owned six people in the 1850 census and eight in the 1860 census. The family had enough money to educate John, including at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

in Charlottesville, Virginia (from which he graduated in 1859), and the first class to attend the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina.

Career

After ordination as a Baptist minister in Charlottesville, Jones first led Little River Baptist Church near his home in Louisa County, Virginia. When Virginia seceded from the union, he and his younger brothers Francis Pendleton Jones (1841-1863) and Philip Edloe Jones (1843-1863) enlisted in the "Louisa Blues", which became part of the

13th Virginia Infantry The 13th Virginia Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in central and western Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia. Its commanders w ...

. Jones thus canceled his original plan to become a missionary in China. Their uncle, John M. Jones of Charlottesville, also resigned his U.S. Army commission to join the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

, eventually rising to the rank of brigadier general, although like both younger Jones siblings, he did not survive the war. Jones initially was the company chaplain, then the regimental chaplain, and led many mass revivals during the war, especially after being designated as the Baptist missionary to Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill's corps.John Wesley Brinsfield, ''The Spirit Divided: Memoirs of Civil War Chaplains : the Confederacy'', Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2006, p. 19

/ref> Jones also helped found the chaplain's association of the

Army of Northern Virginia The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was also the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most oft ...

. In writing about wartime chaplaincy, Jones estimated that he baptized 520 soldiers and preached at meetings (often with ministers of other Protestant denominations) that resulted in the conversion of at least 2000 men. He later recalled that Colonels often discouraged religion as they feared it might give soldiers qualms about killing the enemy, but the yeoman soldiers demanded it and considered sermons as their privilege. After the war, Jones was a Baptist minister in Lexington, Virginia, and as campus minister at Washington College, later known as

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexington ...

, in Lexington, where he often met with Robert E. Lee. Jones later was a pastor in Ashland, Virginia, and at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as well as campus minister at his alma mater, the University of Virginia, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He later estimated that four-fifths of the college students had become Christians in army camps, and that nearly all were maintaining their faith, many becoming pillars in their local churches. After a planned memorial volume concerning Gen. Lee by Washington College languished, Jones expanded the project with the approval of Lee's family, publishing his ''Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes and Letters of General Robert E. Lee'' in 1874. Jones published another Lee biography in 1906, and both volumes collectively were reprinted 29 times before 2012. In 1875, Jones became secretary of the

Southern Historical Society The Southern Historical Society was an American organization founded to preserve archival materials related to the government of the Confederate States of America and to document the history of the Civil War. By 1884, Jones had moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and become assistant corresponding secretary of his denomination's Home Mission Board (1884-1893). His ''Christ in the Camp'' (1887) was republished many times, and his textbook ''School History of the United States''(1896) became widely used in the South. During his final years supervising Baptist missionaries (including his four sons), Jones also was the chaplain-general of the

(1890 to 1909). Jones wrote an article entitled "The Old Virginia Town, Lexington" for the first issue of the ''Confederate Veteran'' in 1893. Jones became the superintendent and secretary of the Confederate Memorial Association in 1903, which succeeded in finishing a memorial which now houses the Virginia Historical Society.

Personal life

Jones married Judith Page Helm in Nelson County, Virginia on December 20, 1860. They had five children: Carter Helm Jones, Edloe Pendleton Jones, Francis William Jones, Meredith Ashby Jones and Howard Lee Jones. Four of their sons became Baptist ministers.

Death

Jones died on March 17, 1909, while visiting family in Columbus, Georgia. Survived by his widow, sons and grandchildren, he was buried in Richmond, Virginia with Jefferson Davis and other Confederate veterans at Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia), Hollywood Cemetery.findagrave no. 88614186 The Library of Virginia has his papers.

Bibliography

*''Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee'' (1875). *''Southern Historical Society Circular'' (1876). *''Confederate View of the Treatment of Soldiers'' (1876). *''Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography'' (1876). *''Army of Northern Virginia Memorial Volume'' (1880). *''General Lee to the Rear'' (1880). *''Virginia's Next Governor, Gen. Fitzhugh Lee'' (1885). *''Christ in the Camp'' (1887). *''Davis Memorial Volume; or, Our Dead President, Jefferson Davis'' (1890). *''School History of the United States'' (1896). *''The Morale of the Confederate Army'' (1899). *''Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man'' (1906).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, J. William 1836 births 1909 deaths People from Louisa County, Virginia People from Columbus, Georgia University of Virginia alumni Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni Confederate States Army chaplains Washington and Lee University faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty Southern Baptists Baptists from Virginia People of Virginia in the American Civil War 19th-century American clergy Southern Historical Society