James B. Young Jones, student 1850-1851

Jones, who appears in the R-MC matriculation record and the 1850 census as James B. Jones and later goes by James Y(oung) Jones (he was referred to by a former family slave and children's nurse as "Little Mass' Batt"), graduated in 1855 from Jefferson Medical College in Pennsylvania but did not practice medicine. In the late-1850s he visited Europe attempting unsuccessfully  to obtain a military commission in the French army during the Franco-Austrian War of 1859. At the start of the Civil War, Jones raised a company and became its captain, Co. E of the 1st Battalion VA Infantry, also known as the Irish Brigade. In February 1862, he was absent on sick leave. Jones was wounded in the face with both of his eyes and the bridge of his nose shot away on March 23, 1862 during the First Battle of Kernstown, VA, the first engagement in which his company was involved. He was left on the field and taken captive, dying in a Union field hospital in Winchester, VA on March 25, 1862. Jones was buried in Winchester, VA in Stonewall Confederate Cemetery.