Marcellus Jones and His Two Battles of Gettysburg How a Dupage Man Peace & War Jones’S Early Life Echoed a Restless Helped Win the Civil War Young America
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Marcellus Jones and his two battles of Gettysburg How a DuPage man Peace & War Jones’s early life echoed a restless helped win the Civil War young America. Born in 1830 in a by firing one shot Vermont town on New York’s border, he had little schooling, but learned By William George Shuster early to use his hands helping his and Bob Shuster father build wagons. At 17, he left and became a carpenter in New York, ummer 1890 was an Ohio, and then fast-growing Chicago, anxious one for Repub- H Ill. He moved to Weyauwega, Wis., in Slicans in Wheaton, 1854, built a business to make doors, Illinois. The lucrative federal and married in 1856. job of the county seat’s postmaster Then came 1858, famous for the was open, and many wanted it. Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois But when the Wheaton Illinoian news- about slavery. For Jones, it was paper finally announced on Oct. 3, memorable for other reasons: His son 1890, who the Republican administra- Webster was born; his wife Sara died tion had picked, it used a designation within days; his father in Vermont was well-known in town: killed by a cyclone; and his factory Photo of Marcellus E. Jones in his burned down. Grieving, Jones moved later years. Source: Found online “The man who fired the first shot to northern Illinois, settling in DuPage at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, is the man County in Danby (now Glen Ellyn). Confrontation who has been appointed …,” it said. He began again, as a carpenter and The 8th Illinois repeatedly fought This is the story of that man, building contractor, but then national the tough C.S.A. cavalry in 1862 and Marcellus Ephraim Jones, and the shot disaster struck. also at Brandy Station, Virginia, on which started his two battles of After Abraham Lincoln was June 9, 1863, where U.S. cavalry Gettysburg. elected U.S. President in November attacked C.S.A. Maj. Gen. J.E.B. 1860, committed to preventing Stuart’s horsemen in the war’s biggest slavery’s expansion to the territories, cavalry battle. several Southern states left to form Then, in late June, C.S.A. Gen. the Confederate States of America Robert E. Lee led the Army of (C.S.A.). On Apr. 12, 1861, C.S.A. Northern Virginia up into south-central forces captured U.S. Fort Sumter, Pennsylvania. A Union defeat on Charleston, S.C., igniting the Civil Northern soil would be a major blow War. U.S. and C.S.A. troops clashed militarily, politically, and diplomati- for the first time on July 21 at the First cally—but neither army knew exactly Battle of Bull Run outside Manassas, where the other was. Virginia, near Washington D.C. The Until Gettysburg. Union soldiers were routed, and the By June 30, 1863, troops of C.S.A. next day, Congress authorized Lincoln Lt. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill’s 3rd Corps to enlist 500,000 more men. were in Gettysburg, Pa., an important On Aug. 5, 1861, Marcellus Jones road and rail junction, and also west of joined E Company (Co.) of the 8th it. C.S.A. Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, 2nd Corps. was north of it, and C.S.A. which Congressman (later Union Gen. James Longstreet’s 1st Corps was General) John Farnsworth, an ardent coming up to it. The U.S. Army of the abolitionist and Lincoln’s friend, Potomac was nine miles south, with its recruited at Lincoln’s request. Jones new commander, Maj. Gen. George G. was soon promoted to first duty ser- Meade. geant. A month later, he and the 8th Co-author William G. Shuster That same day, while scouting, Illinois were on a train to Washington standing next to the First Shot Brig. Gen. John Buford and his 1st D.C. to join the new Army of the monument in Gettysburg, taken Cavalry Division, including the 8th Potomac. August 18, 2015 by Bob Shuster. Illinois, chased C.S.A. soldiers from I LLINOIS H ERITAGE 21 Gettysburg. As they did, Buford saw that ridges and hills east and south of Gettysburg were ideal defensive positions, and a danger to the C.S.A. army’s rear. He sent urgent messages to Union army commanders to come, while he prepared to face C.S.A. forces. Delaying tactics Buford’s plan was to dismount his cavalrymen, hold the western ridges facing the Confederates until they got too close, and repeatedly fall back. Though outnumbered, he could delay them until Union Gen. John Reynolds’ 1st Corps, hurrying north, arrived. So, it was essential to engage C.S.A. troops as far from Gettysburg as possible to buy time for the Union army. C.S.A. troops were west, in nearby Cashtown. Three miles outside Statue of General John Buford on the Gettysburg battlefield. The cannon Gettysburg, Buford set up a seven-mile at the base of the statue were the actual cannon that fired the first Union early warning line of pickets, running artillery shots of the battle, under Buford’s personal direction. north and south. In the middle, were Picture taken August 18, 2015 by William George Shuster. seven picket posts of 8th Illinois troopers, led by Marcellus Jones, now the entire command to follow and a 2nd Lieutenant. Running east and galloped” to the front. west through it was Chambersburg When he got there, the head of the Pike, the Confederates’ likely route. column had already crossed the bridge. The picket post there had five DuPage “On the left of the colors rode an County men, on a hill looking down a officer, a large handsome man, mounted few hundred yards at the bridge where on a white horse. Lieut. Jones took one the Pike crossed Marsh Creek. look [and] turning to [Sgt. Levi] Shafer, C.S.A. Maj. Gen. Henry Heth, said ‘Lend me your carbine.’ ” commanding a division of Lt. Gen. Jones stepped to a fence, “took Hill’s 3rd Corps, had orders to find deliberate aim at the officer and fired. whoever drove C.S.A. soldiers from “It missed,” noted Kelley, “but the Gettysburg. He was also eager to get column instantly halted and threw out shoes and boots in Gettysburg for his a skirmish line on either side of the men. At 5 a.m. July 1, 1863, Heth road along the creek. Our reserves ordered C.S.A. Brig. Gen. James J. came up double-quick, dismounted Pettigrew’s brigade to move east into and deployed.” Gettysburg. Leading the advance was the 13th Alabama Infantry, under Plaque in the front of the Buford Jones remembers C.S.A. Col. Birkett D. Fry. monument. It reads: “In memory Marcellus Jones recalled it some- of Major General John Buford what differently decades later, saying it Crossing the bridge Comdg. 1st Div. Cav. Corps Army was George Heim, not Kelley, who First-hand accounts of what of the Potomac who with the first came “at full speed” to get him. At the happened next on Chambersburg Pike inspiration of a cavalry officer picket post, Jones saw “a cloud of dust come from three Illinois men who selected this battlefield July 1st, rising above the trees some distance were there—Jones’ cousin Thomas 1863.” Picture taken August 18, up the mountain” and sent a note to Kelley, Horace Dodge, and Jones. 2015 by William George Shuster. Major John L. Beveridge (later gover- Kelley told the Wheaton Illinoian, nor of Illinois), commanding the 8th, on the battle’s 50th anniversary, that at the head of an approaching column that “a heavy column” was coming. 6:10 a.m., they saw “clouds of dust … came in sight with the Confederate Just after 7 a.m., Jones said, “the rising above the horizon.” flag in front … I jumped on my horse, enemy’s advance … appeared in sight By 6:45 a.m., “a distinct line …of galloped back and gave the alarm.” on the hills west of Marsh Creek, a nearby troops could be seen and soon Jones sprung to his saddle, “ordered mile or so away. Upon sighting our 22 I LLINOIS H ERITAGE Reunion of the 8th Illinois Cavalry veterans at the First Shot monument in Gettysburg in 1913, the fiftieth anniversary of the battle. On the far right are Levi Shafer, Jones sergeant and Anna Shafer, his wife. Jones had died thirteen years before this reunion. picket post, they deployed skirmishers needed to occupy vital defensive posi- Cavalry Association, to meet yearly “as on either side of the road … tions south and east of Gettysburg. long as two members survive.” A week “Asking Sergeant Levi Schaeffer later, they were discharged and sent to [sic] of Naperville [Illinois] for his Hard fighting a Chicago hotel to get six months back carbine, I took aim at an officer on a The 8th Illinois was in hard fight- pay. There, Jones was called to another white or gray horse and fired, the first ing the entire day. By sunset, though, room, and found all of E Co. gathered. shot at the battle of Gettysburg.” the battle of Gettysburg was over for They toasted him, their captain, and Dodge added a detail. As Private them. They were put in reserve for two gave him an expensive silver table serv- George Sager aimed his own carbine, days, and then joined U.S. cavalry in ice. With that, on July 21, Marcellus Jones stopped him. “Hold on George,” pursuing the retreating C.S.A. army, Jones left the Army, his service to the he said, “Give me the honor of opening until it escaped July 13 across the Union finished.