John R. Jones (general)
John Robert Jones (March 12, 1827 – April 1, 1901) was a Virginia educator who became a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He was wounded twice in battle.
He was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, the son of David Jones and Harriet Yost, with several siblings. Jones graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and later ran a military school in Urbana, Maryland. He married Sarah Brashear, but they had no children. He later acknowledged a daughter, Marie Magdalene Rice, with a formerly enslaved woman, Malinda Rice. His granddaughter Carrie Allen McCray wrote about this family history.
When the Civil War began, Jones organized a company that became Company I, 33rd Virginia Infantry. He started as a captain in 1861 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel that August. He fought in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign and commanded a brigade in the Stonewall Division. He was wounded at White Oak Swamp and at Malvern Hill, was out of action, then returned to service.
During the Maryland Campaign he led his brigade at Harpers Ferry and at Antietam, where a shell explosion caused hearing loss and he briefly relinquished command. He later returned to lead the Stonewall Division and helped capture Harpers Ferry. After Antietam, he went back to the Shenandoah Valley and then rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia before the Battle of Fredericksburg.
After Fredericksburg, Jones faced charges of cowardice from some subordinates related to actions at Chancellorsville. He was acquitted in April 1863, but another charge arose for leaving the battlefield at Chancellorsville due to an ulcerated leg. He never commanded in the field again and was captured by Union forces on July 4, 1863, near Smithsburg, Maryland. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner.
After the war, Jones became a merchant and, by 1880, served as a commissioner of accounts (probate official) in Harrisonburg, Virginia. His personal life remained complex; his daughter Mary was raised by her maternal uncle, and Jones employed Malinda Rice as his housekeeper and helped her family. After his wife’s death in 1878, he moved in with a merchant friend’s family and bought a small house for Malinda and her children. The 1900 census shows him living with Loisa Mills, a Black servant, and her three sons.
Jones died in Harrisonburg in 1901. His granddaughter published a book about this family history in 1998.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:14 (CET).