Originally aired on April 28, 1995 - In part 35 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles one of the Civil War’s most colorful characters, William Edmondson “Grumble” Jones.
#35 – General “Grumble” Jones
The Civil War had more than its share of colorful characters, and “Grumble” Jones was one of them.
Actually, his name was William Edmundson Jones. He became an outstanding Confederate cavalry leader. His victories were numerous, and some were spectacular. Jones earned a reputation as “the best outpost officer” in Lee’s army. “Stonewall” Jackson had unwavering confidence in him; John Mosby thought him an idol. Yet Jones ran afoul of his superior, General Jeb Stuart, and his star set quickly thereafter.
The nickname “Grumble” was fitting. Born May 3, 1824, near Glad Spring in southwestern Virginia’s Washington County, Jones attended Emory & Henry College before going to West Point. He graduated tenth in the Class of 1848. Frontier duty in the cavalry took Jones to outposts from Missouri to the Washington Territory.
His personality changed completely in 1852. Jones had come home to Virginia and married Eliza Dunn. The newlyweds were on their way by boat to Jones’ new assignment in Texas when their ship wrecked in a storm. Jones’ bride was torn from his arms and swept overboard. The Virginian was never the same thereafter. He quit the army, moved back to Washington County, and became a recluse. In personality Jones became belligerent, profane, slovenly, fault-finding. Even his neighbors called him “Grumble”.
Jones entered the Civil War as a captain in the 1st Virginia Cavalry. He succeeded Jeb Stuart as colonel of the regiment. Later Jones commanded the equally renowned 7th Virginia Cavalry. In September, 1862, Grumble Jones became a brigadier general. Audacity in a number of actions in western Virginia, plus gallantry at the cavalry battle of Brandy Station, further enhanced his stature. Jones’ long beard, receding hairline, piercing eyes, high-pitched voice, penchant for profanity, and farmer’s attire in battle, all made him an easily recognizable figure in the field.
Meanwhile, enmity between Jones and Stuart slowly expanded. The two officers, equally dauntless and devoted, were at the same time men of strong opinions and not given to concessions. The inevitable explosion came in September, 1863, when Jones unleashed a verbal attack on Stuart so direct and so vicious that it could not be ignored. Stuart filed court-martial charges. Grumble Jones became one of the few generals banished from the Army of Northern Virginia.
He was sent to command the isolated Department of Southwestern Virginia and East Tennessee. Jones performed well in the Knoxville campaign and elsewhere. Always men pointed at him at a distance and with fascination. A Kentucky soldier at that time described Jones as “a small man…cool and imperturbable…. (but) an eccentric officer, who seemed to take pleasure in self-torture, as if doing penance”.
Despite his exile from the main Confederate army, Grumble Jones fought viciously and served the Southern nation well. On June 5, 1864, he led an attack against Union forces at Piedmont, near Mount Crawford in Rockingham County. Swearing loudly as he led a cavalry charge, Jones took a bullet in the forehead and died instantly. He was forty years old.
Federal soldiers searched his body and buried it on the battlefield. After the war, acquaintances exhumed the remains and placed them in the cemetery immediately behind Old Glade Spring Presbyterian Church.
The legendary partisan ranger, John S. Mosby, said this of Grumble Jones: “He was a stern disciplinarian, and devoted to duty. Under a rugged manner and impracticable temple he had a heart that beat with warm impulses. To his inferiors in rank he was just and kind, but too much inclined to (go against) the wished and (to) criticize the orders of his superiors.”
Today the noise from nearby Interstate 81 echoes through the Glad Spring church cemetery. Yet Jones’ grave is silent, plain, and ignored. That is just the way he would want it.
