Pamela,

I understand what you mean about "common names". With my surname, Martin, and I too have Jones ancestry (East Tennessee Unionists!) it can take hours on end to comb through all of the possibilities, plus, in your case he didn't even help you with an unusual first name, like Hector or Cletus, but he had to be a James.

One good thing you have going for you is this man's age at forty-five (45) he is unusually old for mid-war service. If the age matches up with your ancestor, then I feel you can be sure this is your man. Though a common name, there were very few forty-five year old James Joneses in Confederate service in early 1863.

Thanks for your order and your support of the message boards.

Jim Martin