Half plate studio ambrotype. [ca 1859-1860]. Full thermoplastic case with rural genre vignette. With period note reading: “W.R. Jones & his friend at West Point John W. Lea/ [on reverse] who afterwards became a minister.” Provenance: Jones Family by descent; Bill Turner Collection.

Large-format portrait of Virginian William Rice Jones (at right) with friend and fellow West Point cadet, John Willis Lea of North Carolina (at left). The identifications are assured by other identified images of both men and by a period note that accompanies this piece. This is an important photograph of two young men on the verge of significant, active wartime service.

Lea and Jones, who entered West Point in 1857, are shown wearing the United States' Military Academy's furlough uniform. Both men wear officer’s style frock coats without rank insignia and dark trousers. Jones holds his cap down in front of him. Lea is wearing his, but a rain cover conceals any insignia. Since cadets did not normally get a furlough until the end of their second year, the image likely dates to 1859 or 1860. Neither cadet stayed at West Point to graduate, both resigned to join the Confederacy. Lea resigned in December 1860 and Jones in April 1861.

Lea was born September 18, 1838, at Leasburg, North Carolina. He was appointed to West Point from Mississippi, where he lived with his mother and family in the household of his uncle, Willis M. Lea. At the Academy, Lea acquired the nickname of “Gimlet” due to his thin frame (evident in the photo). Sources date his resignation to 11 December 1860, which predates South Carolina’s official secession. Lea likely joined a militia unit immediately after his resignation when he returned home, but his compiled military records only record his commission as Captain of Co. I of the 5th Regiment NC State Troops on 16 May 1861. The 5th Regiment North Carolina State Troops saw action at First Manassas (Bull Run) in July and were posted at Fairfax Station in the fall. During the Peninsula Campaign, as part of General Jubal Early’s brigade in D.H. Hill’s Division, the regiment suffered heavy casualties at the Battle of Williamsburg on 5 May 1862, losing roughly 300 men. There, Lea was wounded in the leg and captured. At a Union field hospital the next day, he was recognized and greeted warmly by his fellow West Point colleague, George A. Custer, who aided him with money (and a pair of socks). Lea reciprocated by writing a note requesting Custer’s good treatment should he ever fall into Confederate hands.

Lea was paroled and allowed to recover with the family of Colonel William Durfey in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he was nursed back to health by Colonel Durfey's daughter, Margaret. Lea and Margaret were married 18 August 18 1862, while Lea was still on parole. Custer wrote to his sister that he served as best man at their wedding, wearing a full dress Union uniform. He noted that Lea was in a full dress Confederate uniform. Custer reported that he spent two weeks on leave with the couple in Williamsburg after their marriage.

Records pick Lea up again in January 1863, when he is listed as being present once more with the 5th North Carolina. In March of that year, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. At the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 3, Lea sustained a head wound serious enough to sideline him until September or October. After recovering, he served in the 1864 campaign against General Ulysses S. Grant, fighting at the battles of Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. On May 12, Lea was promoted to Colonel, and was wounded a third time while commanding the regiment at Opequon on September 19, returning to duty once again in January. By the time Lea was paroled at Appomattox, he was acting as a brigade commander.

For a time after the war, Lea was engaged in the lumber business in Williamsburg with a brother-in-law. However, he felt a calling to preach, changed his denomination from Methodist to Episcopalian, and became an Episcopal minister. Lea died at Shadwell, Virginia, in 1884.

William Rice Jones, Lea’s companion in the image, was born in Virginia on 21 November 1840, and entered West Point at age 16 through the sponsorship of his relative, Congressman William O. Goode. Jones summarized his Confederate military career in an 1865 application for amnesty: “I entered the service of the State Va. on the first day of May 1861 and was continued with recruiting service till July following when I was appointed Cadet in the C.S. Army and ordered to N.C. In October following, I was appointed Lt. of Artillery and remained in N.C. till May 1862, when I returned to Va. and was appointed Adjt. Of the 4th Va. Heavy Artillery, with the rank of First Lieut. In October 1862, I was ordered to Texas and remained there till the termination of the war. When I reached Texas I was continued in various staff capacities till March 1863, when I was assigned to the command of a Heavy Battery at the mouth of the Brazos River, where I remained until November 1863, when I was assigned to the staff of Brig. Genl. J.E. Slaughter as Chief of Artillery. When Gen. Slaughter was Chief of Staff for Maj. Gen. Magruder I was Asst. Chief of Artillery for the latter. I accompanied Genl. Slaughter to the west and remained with him till the 28th Day of May 1865, when I left Brownsville for my home. I was Asst. Insp. Genl. On the staff of Genl. Slaughter and was paroled at Houston Texas July 5th 1865.”

Jones initial appointment in the Confederate Army as a Cadet was likely due to his age. His service records add a few details. One document lists him as a cadet in the corps of artillery and another in the engineers, likely reflecting service in North Carolina coastal defenses. His promotion to 2nd Lieutenant likely occurred in anticipation of his twenty-first birthday. Jones assignment to the 4th Va. Heavy Artillery in May 1862 made use of his artillery training at West Point, though their first service was as an infantry unit at the end of the Seven Days Battles. Jones’ military file includes praise for his knowledge of infantry tactics. The regiment was subsequently posted at Chaffin’s Farm on the James River opposite Drewry’s Bluff, where they controlled a critical bend in the river and could block access to Richmond.

Jones’s selection by Major General Magruder for duty in Texas also made use of his artillery experience, first in retaking the port of Galveston, and then in countering the U.S. blockading fleet and landing parties along the Texas coast. At Galveston, on 1 January 1863, Jones seems to be one of three artillery lieutenants praised as behaving, “with remarkable gallantry during the engagement, each of them volunteering to take charge of guns and personally directing the fire after the officers originally in charge of them had been wounded.” His duties immediately after the battle likely involved the placement of guns to dissuade further Union landings.

Jones was promoted to captain on 30 March 1863, and given command of a company in Bates’ Regiment of Texas Volunteers, later designated the 13th Texas Infantry. They served along the Texas coast from Matagorda to Galveston. Jones’ company, eventually designated (the second) Company F, was one of two companies trained as heavy artillery and was posted to defenses at the mouth of the Brazos River at Velasco.

Jones’ transfer to staff duty with General Slaughter at the end of 1863 corresponds to Slaughter's arrival in Texas. Jones seems to have been Slaughter’s Chief of Artillery.

During the last eight months or so of the war, Slaughter oversaw the West Subdistrict of Texas. Jones refers to it as “accompanying Slaughter to the west,” though the district seems to have nearly covered everything south of San Antonio. The field force under Slaughter’s command diminished as the fate of the Confederacy became clear, but his men did fight in what many regard as the last battle of the Civil War- the Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought on 12-13 May. Jones’s statement that he was Slaughter’s Assistant Inspector General until 28 May 1865 would include the battle, a Confederate victory.

While Slaughter and others sought refuge in Mexico as the last Confederate forces dispersed, Jones stayed in Texas to be paroled and return home to Virginia, where he died at age 52 in 1894. He maintained his connections with Texas, however, taking a job managing the Callaghan Ranch near San Antonio in the early 1870s, guiding its expansion into a sprawling operation.



[Civil War, Confederate, Union, Historic Photography, Cased Images, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Texas, Cavalry, Virginia, West Point.]