Where Are You Mr. Jones?

Samuel Jones, Jr., a farmer, was born in Bridgewater, Ma on March 25, 1823.  He was the son of Samuel Jones and Abigail (Nabby) Benson.  On September 16, 1862 he enlisted to serve in the Civil War.   He joined Company K 3^rd Massachusetts Infantry in Middleboro to serve for a period of nine months.  He was sent to Camp Joe Hooker in Lakeville, MA, then mustered into service on 23rd of September 1862.

Samuel was sent to Fort Totten in Newbern, North Carolina to maintain control of the area.  The fort was built in 1862 after occupation of the city. The fort would help the soldiers gain control of North Carolina’s sounds, coast, and the Neuse River. The strategy gave the Union a strong base to launch further attacks into the state. The plan proved successful and the Union held control of the sounds and coast until the end of the War. 

Samuel became ill and was transported to the Foster General Hospital in Newbern where he died of disease on May 26, 1863, just 30 days before his tour of duty was to end. I found his gravestone in Harlow Cemetery on Cherry Street in Bridgewater, MA resting beside his parents and siblings.  Or was he?

Today, August 15, 2011, I discovered an article in the Middleboro Gazette dated June 20, 1863, page 2:  "The company (k 3rd infantry) speaks in terms of the highest comendation of Mr. Jones who was strictly temperate, a highly agreeable companion, and a brave man.  His body was buried in the Newbern National Cemetery. Every grave is marked with a marble headstone engraved with the name of the soldier.

I now understand that many soldiers that died fighting in the Civil War were never returned home to their loved ones.  Samuel was one of many who never came home, but his family who erected a stone in his memory loved him.

The commonwealth errected a monument in 1908 in memory of Massachusetts’s soldiers and sailors who died in North Carolina during the Civil War.