The Jones Family

One would naturally suppose that Geo. W. Jones, after his arrest for treasonable correspondence with the arch traitor Jeff. Davis and incarceration at Fort Lafayette and release only on taking the oath of allegiance to support the Government and the capture of his son in arms against the Government at Fort Donelson, would not have the temerity to show his face to the people of Iowa, let alone traveling among them and trying to reorganize the Democratic Party.  But the brazen impudence of the man is only exceeded by the fact that loyal Iowa should contain enough disloyalists to give a show of success to his efforts.  Another item has leaked out to show the treason of the Jones family.  A Shiloh correspondent of the N. Y Times, who was in the battle at Wilson’s Creek, picked up a letter from another son of the notorious George W., introducing to a Captain in the rebel army a citizen of Dubuque, who wished to fight against his Government.  But the letter and extract will explain the matter, and show the traitor propensities of the family:

In roaming about the woods I found a well worn letter, whose contents may prove of interest.  It is dated:

DUBUQUE, Iowa, July 1, 1861.

DEAR HUNTER: By this I introduce to you my friend, Daniel O. C. Quigly, of this town, and bespeak your kindness and attention toward him.  I believe he will prove himself worthy of your friendship.  With every wish for your prosperity and happiness, your friend.

CHARLES D. JONES.

To Captain S. E. Hunter, Hunter’s Rifles,

Clinton, Louisiana.

The particularities of this document consist in the fact that the writer is a son of Gen. Geo. W. Jones, of Dubuque, (late Minister to Bogota, Fort Lafayette, &c.,) and a brother of the Lieut. Jones who was bagged at Fort Henry.  The Quigly spoken of, is a son of a prominent citizen of Dubuque, and one who, soon after the war commenced, bolted to the South and offered his services to the scoundrels who are trying to break up this government.  I offer the letter for publication from the fact that the writer now lives in Dubuque, and pretends, as he ever has pretended since the war began, to be loyal.  How far such loyalty will be tolerated by a Government whose burdens are already heavy enough, should be tested.  The letter was given, and for a treasonable purpose, at a time when the gallant Lyon was struggling against the traitorous uprisings in Missouri – at a time when hundreds of Jones’ townsmen in the First Iowa, were toiling and suffering beneath the burning sun of Missouri, inspired only by motives of patriotism, by a wish to preserve intact their beloved Constitution – it was at such a time that Jones chose to perpetrate his treason and assist in the work of breaking up the Government.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 2

See Also:

• The Jones Family of Dubuque, Iowa

Geo. W. Jones

No public demonstration was made on the arrival of this extinguished citizen of Iowa at Dubuque, but we ascertain form his toady of the Express that a number of his friends called on him. – From the same authority we learn that the story which was put in circulation about him having addressed a letter to Jeff. Davis, which was found accidentally among his papers, is pronounced by Jones to be false.  If Geo. W. Jones said that he lies – under the very grievous charge of an intentional deception upon his fellow sympathizers.  Jones might swear till his face was as black as his character to the truth of what he avows, and he could not change the facts in the case.  Jones, - we are informed, and appeal to Senator Grimes for the truth of the statement, - did write a letter to Jeff. Davis, and addressed it to Hon. Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, in which he sympathized with the arch-traitor, and avowed his own determination of assisting him in his treason.  He might as well attempt to palliate the conduct of his son, taken at Fort Henry with arms in his hands, fighting against the country that raised him from a puling, puking infant in his nurse’s arms to manhood out of the pap-bowl in his father’s hands, that all that time had been replenished from the treasure of the country he since has so ignominiously betrayed.

The senior Jones says that in those letters that were made the foundation and pretext of his arrest, he “denounced the secession theories which have resulted in the existing rebellion, and reproached the South for not endeavoring to maintain its right in the Union.”  A pretty story this.  It’s enough to make a horse-block laugh to see the squirmings and wrigglings  of this modern Othello.  A gentleman in the act of appropriating his neighbor’s wood-pile, might be excused on the plea of short-sightedness; but there is no palliation in the unblushing effrontery of a denial in the face and eyes of a fact that has been interwoven with the history of this rebellion as a part and parcel of the same.  We have no faith in these Joneses, there is bad blood in the old one’s veins, that seven times dipping in the pools of Washington, nor a journey to Mecca nor Bogota, would remove.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, March 5, 1862, p. 2

An Iowa Traitor among the Fort Henry Prisoners

Among the rebel officers captured at Fort Henry is a young man named Geo. R. G. Jones, who commanded an artillery company.  He is a renegade Northerner, a resident of Dubuque, Iowa, and a son of Hon. George W. Jones, late Minister to Bogota, and now a prisoner at Fort Lafayette.  The Fort Henry correspondent of the New York Times says the son is a young man who never did anything in particular, except to use a subsistence from the fortunes which his father earned, or rather gained from the people of Iowa; yet the moment the war broke out, he, together with a half dozen other fellows from Dubuque, bolted South, and offered his service to the rebel Government.  He has always lived North, has been supported by the North, (through his father,) and turns against the country which has fed him at the very first opportunity to raise his hand against his patron and supporter.  A large number of his townsmen are among the soldiers who captured him, and they became so indignant at finding this young ingrate at 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. – Chicago Journal.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2