The Online Archive of Terry's Texas Rangers
Sharing & preserving the history of the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment, 1861-1865
The Online Archive of Thomas Walker Jones & the Skirmish at Mossy Creek, TN
by Andrew Jones
Thomas Walker Jones enlisted in Terry's Texas Rangers as a private in Company I in Gonzales, Texas when he was about 24 years old. He was officially sworn into service on September 11, 1861 in Houston. Correspondence from Rev. Robert F. Bunting, who accompanied the regiment and reported its doings, noted that Jones was wounded in battle on December 26, 1863 near Mossy Creek, Tennessee, about a month after General Longstreet raised his siege of Knoxville.
When Longstreet raised his siege in late November, he ordered Wheeler's Cavalry to retire to the east to a more sustainable position. Wheeler himself was soon ordered to report to General Bragg, and Maj. Gen. William T. Martin was left in command of the cavalry in East Tennessee. Over the next month and despite bitterly cold weather, Union cavalry aggressively pressured the Confederates. The battle on December 26 - more accurately a skirmish - followed several days of movements and sharp skirmishing primarily along the railroad between Knoxville and Morristown, and most recently on December 24 in the New Market, Dandridge and Mossy Creek areas.
On December 26 the Rangers, then with only about 400 active men and operating within Col. Thomas Harrison's Brigade, of Armstrong's Division, were squared off against cavalry from the Union Army of the Cumberland, First Division, and more particularly, the First and Second Brigades, commanded by Col. A. P. Campbell and Col. O. H. LaGrange, respectively. Campbell's brigade included the 2nd Michigan, 9th Pennsylvania and 1st Tennessee cavalry regiments, while LaGrange's brigade included the 2nd Indiana, 4th Indiana, 7th Kentucky and 1st Wisconsin cavalry regiments. The 18th Indiana Light battery (Eli Lilly's Battery, then commanded by Col. E. M. Cook, 2nd Indiana Cavalry) accompanied the two Union brigades.
Fighting on December 26 began early in the morning and lasted all day, in very cold and raining conditions. The 11th Texas and 3rd Arkansas regiments, also part of Harrison's brigades, were dismounted for the fight, while the Rangers remained on their horses. Four different times during the day the Rangers were ordered to draw the fire of the Union artillery battery. Four Rangers were wounded. According to Ranger Surgeon J. W. Gulick, Jones, by then a 5th Sergeant, "was severely wounded in the leg by a shell, and his horse killed . . ." Also wounded were Rangers Henry Terrill, Company F, who also had his horse killed; Richard Torrance, Company H, "terribly wounded, his leg torn off below the knee" and later amputated; and George W. Littlefield, Company I, wounded when a shell burst near his side, "carrying away a great mass of flesh". Jones lay on the cold field of battle pinned by his now dead horse for what seemed an eternity before being dragged to safety by another Ranger. The day's fighting yielded little result, but Union forces resumed their push in the coming days.
The Rangers and Martin's Division were involved in further pitched fighting with the Union First Division in the Mossy Creek vicinity on December 27 and 28, and after a final intense skirmish on December 29, they withdrew south with little further action to Sevier County. There, they settled in for a few miserable, cold months in which clothing, food and provisions were extremely scarce. The regiment returned to northern Georgia in the spring of 1864 and resumed active campaigning.
Thomas Walker Jones, born in North Carolina in 1837, moved to Texas in 1859.
The 1860 census shows him working as a store clerk in Gonzales and living
with his sister, Mary Ann, and her husband, 
George
Jefferson Booth(e). Booth(e), who evidently owned the store in which Jones
worked, also served in Terry's Texas Rangers, joining in the spring of 1862
after the Battle of Shiloh.
Jones married Mary Pricilla Gill in Gonzales on February 21, 1867 and lived in Texas until his death on September 22, 1919. His wife died February 26, 1918. Jones and his wife had nine children:
1. Mary Elizabeth Jones (Betty) (LeBleu) b. 6/29/1868, Gonzales
2. Robert Harvey Jones b. 10/9/1870, Gonzales
3. Thomas Milam Jones 11/15/1874, Gonzales*
4. Trezenant Patrick Jones b. 10/5/1875, Blanco
5. Joseph Walker Jones, b. 4/30/1878, Blanco
6. Zilmon Booth(e) Jones, b. 1/20/1880, Blanco
7. Mattie Addeal Jones (Addie) (Newton), b. 4/27/1882
8. John William Jones, b. 5/3/1885 or 1884, Choate, Bee Co.
9. Pearl Lee (Lea?), b. 10/28/1886, Choate, Bee Co.
* Andrew Jones, who submitted this information, is a great, great grandson of Thomas Walker Jones and great grandson of Thomas Milam Jones.
Thomas Walker Jones applied for a Confederate pension in 1910 when he was 72 years old. Witnesses attesting to his service included G. W. Littlefield and William F. (Frank) Holcomb, both of Company I, and William Cicero Smith, Company D.