In the last post, I invited readers to advise the engaged couple, Annie and Charles. Talmadge Wilson wrote, “Too many cultural differences. End the affair and move on!”
Heather wrote: “Since we’re being “Dr. Phil” I agree with Talmadge Wilson. However, when you’re young and in love taking the hard road is normal. Plus, if you’re committed to each other…stranger things have happened. Can’t wait to find out what happened to them.”
What happened to Annie and Charles?
Charles hoped his father, Ambassador Jones, would return from South America and bring a wedding gift of cash. But his father didn’t arrive in time.
Charles, the devout Catholic, and Annie were married in her parents’ house in Ashland, Kentucky, by a Presbyterian minister. They returned to Dubuque, Iowa, to live.
Snooping on the Joneses
The Lincoln Administration recalled Ambassador Jones to Washington and replaced him with a Republican. Secretary of State William H. Seward ordered Ambassador Jones arrested and thrown into Fort Lafayette Prison. Seward never announced formal charges, and the ambassador never received a trial, but Seward had been intercepting the ambassador’s correspondence with his family. One letter from Ambassador Jones to Jefferson Davis stated:
“May God Almighty avert civil war, but if unhappily it shall come, you may, I think without doubt, count on me and mine and hosts of other friends standing shoulder to shoulder in the ranks with you and our other southern friends and relatives whose rights, like my own, have been disregarded by the abolitionists.”
Unfortunately for Ambassador Jones, he had said much the same thing in stump speeches in Iowa. The Muscatine Journal called Ambassador Jones “a traitor of the deepest dye.”
Going South
Charles was recovering from a bout of Chagres Fever when his father returned home from prison in February 1862. Charles and Annie went to Richmond, Virginia, “to escape the abolition draft” and “despotism.” Annie might have been carrying their first child. They traveled by way of Annie’s home in Kentucky.
Approaching Jefferson Davis with confidence
Charles headed to President Jefferson Davis’s office, confident that his father’s friend would help him. Sure enough, Charles got a job in the Confederate Civil Service.
Annie delivered their first child, Annie Stribling Jones, who died the same year. Charles changed to a job in the Confederate Treasury, with help from Jefferson Davis.
Charles passionately wanted to enter the Confederate Army. It’s unclear what Annie thought about this.
Charles petitioned Jefferson Davis for a spot on General Bushrod R. Johnson’s staff. Before this happened, Charles had another bout of Chagres Fever, leaving him feeling weak and nervous. He recovered and joined Johnson’s staff in fall 1863.
On May 16, 1864, Capt. Charles S.D. Jones was stationed outside of Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia. Rising early, Charles rode his horse into dense, dark fog, straight into the Union line.
Life as a POW
He languished in Fort Delaware prison, wracked with Chagres Fever, while Annie gave birth to another daughter, Josephine, near Richmond.
Annie’s Republican father told Charles to “take the oath of allegiance to the U.S. Govt.” But Charles said “he would rather rot in prison than give up his principles or allegiance to the South.”
Annie’s father traveled to Washington and helped Charles gain a parole before New Year’s Day 1865. Charles was exchanged for a Union officer of same rank, about a month before Appomattox. Charles needed a job to support Annie and an infant, so he asked Jefferson Davis to appoint him to an army post. Before this could happen, the war ended.
Quest for a pardon
Charles wanted a presidential pardon. His father-in-law interceded for Annie’s sake, saying that Charles had been “Seduced into the Rebel Army. He has returned a penitent man … and deeply sorry.”
Charles received a pardon. Thereafter, he sold insurance in St. Joseph, Missouri, managed his father’s property in Sioux City, and practiced law in Dubuque.
The family disintegrates
Charles had periodic bouts of Chagres Fever for the rest of his life. His personality changed for the worst, and Annie divorced him. Charles chalked this up, largely, to Protestant bigotry. Annie took most of their children to Sioux City, Iowa.
Charles stayed in Dubuque, struggled as a lawyer, and was incarcerated four or five times in the Iowa Hospital for the Insane. His doctor said Charles had a false sense of grandeur, liked to write, and was “one of the happiest patients you have got.”
No longer able to practice law, Charles dug a mine shaft 25 feet deep beside his parents’ house in Dubuque County. His parents grieved for their gifted, sensitive son.
When Jefferson Davis died in 1889, Ambassador Jones went to Mississippi for the funeral, where he served as a pallbearer. Less than two months later, the ambassador buried his son Charles, on January 28, 1890.
Annie outlived Charles by 19 years. She died at the Savoy Hotel in Washington, D.C, on March 22, 1909.
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Happy holidays to all!
Steve Hanken
23 Dec 2015Interesting story. I am curious about George Wallace Jones time in prison, when was he arrested and how long did he spend in prison?
David Connon
23 Dec 2015Thanks, Steve! When Ambassador George Wallace Jones was recalled by the Lincoln Administration, he went to Washington, D.C., to see his boss, Secretary of State William H. Seward. Secretary Seward threw Ambassador Jones a diplomatic dinner, and Abraham Lincoln invited the ambassador to visit him at his house. Thereafter, Ambassador Jones took a train to New York City on Dec. 20, 1861 and was arrested and thrown in Ft. Lafayette Prison for two months. He was released on Feb. 22, 1862.
Steve Hanken
23 Dec 2015Now that seems like atypical behavior for politicians, does it not! So who signed the release? Someone had to make some sort of effort to free Jones and probably had to spend some political capital to do it. As much as Republicans like to talk about things like the emancipation and what not, they did suspend Habeas Corpus to lock up political enemies whether they be in the North or not.
David Connon
24 Dec 2015Hi, Steve. Thanks for asking questions. You made some good points. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed papers to release Ambassador George Wallace Jones from prison. Historian Mark E. Neely, in The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties, writes that Secretary of State William H. Seward was in charge of military arrests of civilians from the start of the war “until the War Department assumed control of them in Feb. 1862” [p. 19]. Neely writes that “864 civilians had been arrested throughout the country” while Seward was in charge [p. 75]. Ambassador Jones claimed, “I was released by order of Secretary of War Stanton who informed me that he could see no reason why I had been imprisoned.”
Steve Hanken
24 Dec 2015Dr. Gideon S. Bailey was arrested and supposedly sent to St. Louis for a time. How he was entangled in this whole mess seems to have been a hardship both on him and Van Buren County where he was the only physician. A Missouri preacher and supporter of “States Rights” made a point of this particular person because according to him, Bailey was the doctor who cared for Lincoln’s father in his last illness. I have no way of knowing if this is true, but it does seem vindictive of somebody for arresting this man who had been an advocate for free and public schools in the first territorial legislature of which he was a member. Any way of finding out if this is really true? I still have no idea how long he was locked up, but apparently after a bush whacker killed a Union Major, the Provost Marshall for St. Louis had ten random people pulled out of the same prison and hanged as retribution. A very interesting story if I can get more facts. Must be a list somewhere if there is a number like you mentioned? Any ideas? Steve
David Connon
24 Dec 2015Hi, Steve. Ah, yes, Dr. Bailey. I’ll give a little background information. On Aug. 8, 1862, Secretary of War Stanton suspended the writ of habeas corpus across the U.S. Stanton ordered law enforcement personnel across the country (including small-town police chiefs) to arrest anyone who discouraged enlistment “by act, speech, or writing” or who gave “aid and comfort to the enemy,” or did anything else “disloyal.” Later that month, 36 Iowans were arrested. Many weren’t charged at all. (Source: Hubert H. Wubben, Civil War Iowa and the Copperhead Movement, pgs. 65-67)
Dr. Bailey was one of those arrested. A man named Charles S. Manning testified that Dr. Bailey told him, emphatically, that he opposed the war and he opposed the enlistment of married men. At least one other testimony was given against Dr. Bailey. [Source: Charles S. Manning Testimony, Gideon S. Bailey Union Citizen File, National Archives, at Fold3.com ]
This example suggests what can happen when a government criminalizes certain types of speech and writing.
Regarding hangings in St. Louis, I think that’s probably a rumor. You may wish to visit the Missouri Secretary of State’s Missouri Provost Marshal Database. It’s an excellent resource. Best wishes, Dave
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David Connon
28 Apr 2016Thank you for your kind words! I appreciate it.
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David Connon
29 Apr 2016Thank you for reading my blog!