Catesby Ap Roger Jones - Notes and references

Confederate naval officer, born in Fairfield, Virginia, USA. The nephew of Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, he served in the US Navy (1836–61) and the Confederate States navy (1861–5). He commanded the CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimac) during the three-hour indecisive contest with the USS Monitor (1862).

Catesby ap Roger Jones
Born	April 15, 1821 Fairfield, Virginia, USA
Died	June 20, 1877 Selma, Alabama, USA

Catesby ap Roger Jones (April 15, 1821 - June 20, 1877) was an officer in the U.S. Navy who became a commander in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.

Jones was born in Fairfield, Virginia, son of Major-General Roger Jones and Mary Ann Mason Page. During the 1850s, Jones was involved in development work on Navy weapons and served as ordnance officer on the new steam frigate Merrimack when she began active service in 1856.

When Virginia left the Union in April 1861, Lieutenant Jones resigned his U.S. Navy commission, joining the Virginia State Navy soon thereafter and becoming a Confederate Navy Lieutenant in June. During the Battle of Hampton Roads, when her Commanding Officer, Captain Franklin Buchanan, was wounded in the March 8, 1862 attack on USS Cumberland and Congress, Jones temporarily took command, leading the ship during her historic engagement with USS Monitor on the following day.

For his "gallant and meritorious conduct" during the battles of Hampton Roads and Drewry's Bluff, Jones was promoted to the rank of Commander on April 29, 1863.

Notes and references

^ (1983) Register of Officers of the Confederate States Navy, Office of Naval Records and Library United States Navy Department, Mattituck, NY: J.M.