1862-1865

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Header Record

Title: [Collection of Joseph Jones, F company, 79th regiment, Illinois, infantry] [Decimalized .001-.162]

Jones served in the 79th Illinois Vols. He was captured at the Battle of Franklin (November 1864). Transcripts available for letters GLC02739.001-GLC02739.087.

GLC02739

February 6, 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

"It is not uncomen for me to weep over my deer little family."

GLC02739.098

February 24, 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

His infected thumb makes it difficult to write.

GLC02739.099

February 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

The railroad has been repaired from Chattanooga to Knoxville and they will soon prepare for the spring campaign.

GLC02739.100

February 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Map

Title: [Fort of Sweetwater, Tennessee]

GLC02739.101

9 March 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones [incomplete]

God has carried him through the war thus far. She is going back home. He contemplates the effects of war: "In peace: children bury their parents; in war: parents bury their children."

GLC02739.102

9 March 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

He was detailed as a Provo guard and sent to protect the Roberts, a slaveholding Confederate family, from being robbed. The women there do no work and he credits their intelligence to the luxury of time to study. He has a room to himself but has requested to return to camp. He compares the Confederates to the Copperheads: "there is no reason in them."

GLC02739.103

15 March 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

William Hickenbothem from his regiment will visit her while on a furlough. She should feel free to spend money on supplies that they need. He will write to those who have found fault with her. He will not reenlist: "one hundred thousand dollars would not hire me again…I will quit the company of men that is worse than dogs and brut[e]s and a life that is harder than death."

GLC02739.104

30 March 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

He is sorry to hear that things at home are so difficult for her. He is pleased that she received his diary, as "for future use and practice…it is more precious than gold."

GLC02739.105

6 April 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

He is studying arithmetic. He thought she "was religious enough not to go to any party." The soldiers had a pretend battle with snowballs.

GLC02739.106

14 April 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

He expects a forward movement soon. He gives news of friends. He offers to send her papers.

GLC02739.109

15 April 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

He is sorry that she didn't see Hickenbothem. He hopes to get a furlough this summer and would like her to buy silk dresses for herself and the children.

GLC02739.110

30 April 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

They marched to Athens, then Charlestown, and then to Cleveland. They are headed toward Dalton, Georgia where the Confederates are stationed and expect to encounter a Confederate garrison soon.

GLC02739.111

6 May 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

They have come within 12 miles of the Confederates without firing but there will be a battle soon if the Confederates do not fall back. They awaited the Confederates on a ridge but they did not appear so his regiment moved to a higher ridge and fortified it.

GLC02739.112

11 May 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

They have been fighting since they arrived. They tried to storm the Confederate works but were repulsed with many losses including their colonel.

GLC02739.113

20 May 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

They fought hard at Rocky Face north of Dalton on the 9th and he was wounded slightly in the neck. They drove the Confederates to Resaca and defeated them there. A musket ball passed through his hat and grazed his head. The Confederates retreated toward Atlanta, leaving half of their wounded and a battery of six guns.

GLC02739.114

21 May 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

They have fought two battles in this campaign and skirmished with the enemy every day from the 7th to the 19th. His company of 20 has lost half its men.

GLC02739.115

27 May 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

Engaged in fighting for 3 days; anticipating a decisive battle tomorrow.

GLC02739.116

31 May 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

Daily skirmishing and sharp-shooting; establishing battle lines; dangers of picket duty; mentions battles at Rocky Face and Resaca; asks her not to send the children to school unless he dies.

GLC02739.117

5 June 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

Nine days' engagement with the enemy; continuous fighting in Tennessee from 4 May to 7 June; discomfort from "filth and durty clothes and loss of sleep;" hopes for a furlough.

GLC02739.118

7 June 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

Movement towards Atlanta; recounts various hardships of army life; tallies the lost men from the regiment over the course of two years.

GLC02739.119

11-12 June 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

Concern for his sick daughter Elizabeth; expressions of faith; sleeping outside in the rain.

GLC02739.120

20 June 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

Almost daily engagements with the enemy; list of corps commanders, citing Gen. "Howart" (Oliver Otis Howard) as his favorite; relates a story about Gen. Howard's exchange with a soldier about removing the body of a wounded man from the field.

GLC02739.121

28 June 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

Charge on June 27th ("I never saw a grater [sic] slaughter in as little [sic] time").

GLC02739.122

1 July 1864

Jones, Joseph, fl. 1862-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy E. Jones

More description of the charge on June 27th, with 800 killed or wounded; assisting the wounded on the field and in the hospital; safekeeping his diary.

GLC02739.123