The “traitorous” fiddler with a connection to Jefferson Davis

Multi-talented George R.G. Jones wanted a career in the Confederacy.  His dream became a reality through education and a few well-placed family friends.

George was born in 1837 in Wisconsin Territory, across the Mississippi River from Dubuque, Iowa.  He was the second son of George Wallace Jones, one of Iowa’s first U.S. Senators, a slave owner, and a lifelong friend of Jefferson Davis.  Culturally speaking, Senator Jones was a Southerner.

When George was three years old, his family moved to Dubuque, northeast Iowa.  They brought three slaves – and one black freedman — with them.  (The family freed the slaves two or three years later.)  When George was 11 years old, his father was elected U.S. Senator from Iowa.

His father’s stump speeches

Senator Jones, a Democrat, befriended Southern congressmen and senators and often voted with the Southern bloc.  Senator Jones gave stump speeches around Iowa.  He said, if civil war broke out, he and his sons would “be found in the ranks of the Southern Army, and that, altho’ we might be few in number, we would be victorious as our cause would be just.”

Southern military college

At age 15, George enrolled in Western Military Institute (WMI) in Kentucky.  The school aimed to become the Virginia Military Institute of the West.

Western Military Institute
Western Military Institute

He re-enrolled at ages 19 and 20.  George made friends from “some of the best families” of Tennessee, and he became proficient at infantry tactics and drill.

After he graduated from WMI in 1858, George attended schools in Germany and returned to Dubuque.  His father was in South America after losing his senate seat and being appointed minister (ambassador) to New Grenada, present-day Columbia.

Plans to “go South”

In early 1861, southern states were seceding.  George, age 23, bumped into one of his father’s friends in Galena, Illinois.

George said “he was going to Dixie to see his sweetheart,” and gave a “Significant Smile.”  His “sweetheart,” however, wasn’t a lady – it was the Confederacy.  George also told his father that he would fight to defend the rights of the Southern people.

New job

In late April 1861, two weeks after Fort Sumter, George was in Nashville, Tennessee, drilling newly recruited soldiers.

Southern Artillery Militia Charleston SC LIBRARY OF CONGRESS cropped

That summer, his mother wrote his father, Ambassador Jones:

We hear occasionally from George who is in Nashville or thereabouts.  He says he is perfectly happy & will not move from there until the war is over & then only to visit for that is his adopted country.

George became a drillmaster, and a lieutenant, with the Provisional Army of Tennessee on July 30, 1861.

Father under surveillance

While George drilled soldiers, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward spied on his father, intercepting letters between Ambassador Jones and his family.  Seward suspected Ambassador Jones of treason, partly because of his stump speeches and his friendship with Jefferson Davis.  The Lincoln administration recalled Ambassador Jones to Washington.

Shortly before Christmas 1861, the State Department arrested Ambassador Jones and threw him into Fort Lafayette Prison.  Secretary Seward announced the arrest with lightning speed, and the news reached Tennessee.

Request for a commission

While his father was in prison, George wrote the Confederate Secretary of War that he wanted to be a career Confederate officer.  George attached letters of recommendation from General Bushrod R. Johnson and Ambassador Jones’s Southern political friends.  Unsurprisingly, George received a commission.

Fort Henry

In early February 1862, Captain George R.G. Jones was at Fort Henry, Tennessee, commanding an artillery battery, expecting an imminent attack.  Fort Henry was in a very poor location, on low ground between a slough and the Tennessee River.  Rising water flooded the fort as Union gunboats attacked.  General Lloyd Tilghman ordered 60-some men, including Captain Jones, to hold off the enemy while the other soldiers escaped.  The Confederate guns fired accurately until General Tilghman surrendered.   The general praised George and the other officers for “their consummate devotion.”

Ft. Henry on Tennessee River
Ft. Henry on Tennessee River

Northern newspapers weigh in

A New York Times reporter called George “a renegade Northerner, a resident of Dubuque, Iowa, and a son of Hon. Geo. W. Jones …”

The reporter continued:

… He has always lived North, has been supported by the North (through his father), and turns against the country which has fed him …

A large number of his fellow townsmen are here, who became so indignant at finding this young ingrate, in this place, ready to train his guns upon his former associates, that they discussed the propriety of shooting him.  Wiser counsels, however, prevailed, and he is left to enjoy his infamy undisturbed.

The Davenport Daily Gazette stated:

We presume young Jones will be sent to sympathize with his father at Fort Lafayette.  An unfortunate family, those Joneses.

Personal impressions of George

Iowa Union soldiers who met George were more sympathetic.  E.M. Van Duzee, a Dubuque resident and captain of the 12th Iowa Infantry, stated:

He said he was a citizen of Tennessee, and had been for several years.  He was quite cheerful, and I think was quite willing to be taken prisoner.

C.S. Sumbardo stated:

I had a short talk with George Jones at Fort Henry. He stated that he was through with fighting, and would like to take a tour through Europe, where I think he would be more warmly received than at Dubuque.

Captivity

George spent the next seven months in captivity at Johnson’s Island, Ohio.  The prison, located on Lake Erie, held Confederate officers.

Johnson's Island
Johnson’s Island

A fellow prisoner called George “elegant and accomplished.”  Furthermore, George reportedly was “a versatile genius, being one of the best musicians in prison.”

Testimonials

On Sept. 1, 1862, George was paroled and sent to Vicksburg.  Two months later, he was in Richmond, seeking an appointment as ordnance officer in General Tilghman’s brigade.

General Tilghman stated:

I deem him one of the most valuable men we have … sacrificing Home, Property and friends, he has now proven himself an able and zealous soldier.

Jefferson Davis commented:

Capt. Jones as the son of my early and valued friend has to me special interest and I rejoice to find that his merit as a soldier has proved equal to his zeal for our cause.

The fiddler’s trunk

In spring 1863, George left Vicksburg “to join Johnston’s forces.”  Thereafter U.S. Grant began his siege.  When Confederates surrendered Vicksburg, a company of the 21st Iowa Infantry captured George’s trunk.

The Dubuque Daily Times announced:

Besides several articles of clothing and an excellent fiddle, this trunk contained letters of the most treasonable character, from several residents of Dubuque.

Quiet service

George served the rest of the war in western Alabama and eastern Mississippi.

Endeavors after Appomattox

After the war, he practiced law in Memphis.  He got married and was awarded patents for a fan rocking chair and an inkstand.  George died on January 2, 1905.

Inkstand patent
Inkstand patent

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This blog post is running concurrently on Sarah Bierle’s blog, Gazette665 .

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Thanks for reading my blog!  Please share your comments below.

David Connon

David Connon has spent nearly two decades researching dissenters in Iowa: Grinnell residents who helped on the Underground Railroad, and their polar opposites, Iowa Confederates. He shares some of these stories with audiences across the state through the Humanities Iowa Speakers Bureau. He worked as an interpreter at Living History Farms for eleven seasons. Connon is a member of Sons of Union Veterans, an associate member of Sons of Confederate Veterans, and a member of the Des Moines Civil War Round Table. His articles have appeared in Iowa Heritage Illustrated, Iowa History Journal, Illinois Magazine, and local newspapers in both states.

This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. An interesting tale of a unique individual; any relation to George Jones of Country Music fame?

    1. Hi, Christopher. No, George Jones wasn’t related to the Country singer George Jones (as far as I can tell). Thanks for reading my blog!

  2. Very interesting Dave! I am glad to have found the link.

    1. Hi, Donna. Thank you for your kind comment. I’m glad you found the link, too.

  3. What became of those captured letters from Vicksburg???

    1. Hi, rosiecatt. Thanks for reading my blog! I couldn’t find out what happened to the captured letters from Vicksburg. If the letters would’ve made George’s father (Ambassador George Wallace Jones) look disloyal, I think that the federal authorities would’ve released the letters to the press.

  4. Interestingly, Jones was buried in Dubuque alongside his parents and siblings.

    1. Hi, Ron. That’s right. George was buried in the family plot in Dubuque along with other children of Mr. and Mrs. George Wallace Jones. I was interested to discover that none of the spouses of their children were buried in the same plot.

    1. Hi, nfl 17 coins.
      Thank you for your kind comments! Thanks, too, for sharing my blog with your friends.

  5. David, that trunk would be a virtual time capsule of very interesting material, one would think that Seward would have latched on to it even to just check what could be gained for political reasons. Having the “goods” on someone in the form of these letters could be devastating even if they didn’t amount to much as far as what they held, the fact they had come from a Confederate Officer to Jones as Ambassador could have sealed George Jones Sr. fate, never to ever become an elected politician and to shut him off politically by making him a pariah to anyone else seeking office. There must be property books somewhere that discuss the whereabouts of the trunk and what became of it, government being what it is, records seem to be kept on most everything.

    1. Hi, Steve. You make very good points. I can only wish the government did keep the trunk, and that it recorded its whereabouts. It would be fascinating to take a look at it, to see artifacts that I have written and thought about. I hope you and your wife will have a Happy Thanksgiving.

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