The diary of William Ellis Jones is contained in a single volume and covers the period of Jones’ service in the Confederate States Army between March 14 and December 31, 1862. Jones apparently found the mostly-blank book on the battlefield at the Gaines’ Mill; it had previously belonged to a Union Soldier named William Daugherty. Jones tore out most of the used pages and transcribed a narrative he had been keeping into the book, but Daugherty’s signature and a few of his notes remain.
Jones’ record begins when he was mustered into service in Crenshaw’s Battery, Virginia Light Artillery, and contains brief but extremely rich daily entries describing morale among Confederates, the intensity of battle, and frequent illnesses and deaths. Jones also described receiving medical treatment for several health problems (June 14: “Feel much better this morning, the calomel acting with talismanic effect on my liver”), the execution of deserters (August 19: “…the prisoners were marched up to their graves, preceded by the band playing the dead march and their company with loaded muskets”) and meeting Stonewall Jackson (August 11: “He… looks on the ground as if he lost something; altogether he presents more the appearance of a well-to-do farmer than a military chieftain.”).
In a particularly long entry on June 27, Jones described participating in the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, covering his psychological state, the “terrifically hot” enemy fire, and the battle’s casualties. Jones’ diary is a literate and observant record of nine months of service in Crenshaw’s Battery.
William Ellis Jones was born May 15, 1838, in Richmond, Virginia. He was mustered into service in Crenshaw’s Battery (Pegram’s Battalion), Virginia Light Artillery, on March 14, 1862. Jones participated in the battles of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Mechanicsville (Beaver Dam Creek), Gaines’ Mill, Cedar Run, Groveton, Second Bull Run (Manassas), Harper’s Ferry, Antietam (Sharpsburg), and Fredericksburg, between March and December 1862, the period covered by his diary. He survived the war and returned to Richmond, where he married Ella Cordelia Smith, and ran a printing and binding business with William H. Clemmit under the name Clemmit & Jones. He died on April 18, 1910, at the age of 72, survived by three sons--F. Ellis Jones, Fairfax Courtney Jones, and Thomas Grayson Jones.