Presidential Candidate Franklin Pierce Laments the Death of the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, Roger ap Catesby Jones

In July 1812, Roger ap Catesby Jones resigned from the Marine Corps to accept a commission as a captain of artillery in the United States Army. He was actively engaged in the War of 1812. He was at the capture of York in April 1813, where he so impressed General John Chandler that he appointed him brigade major. In that capacity he was at the capture of Fort George and the defeat at Stoney Creek on June 6, where he was seriously wounded. In August 1813, he transferred to the staff of General Henry Dearborn as assistant adjutant general with the rank of brevet major. He caught the eye of General Jacob Brown, who brought Jones into his staff as his assistant adjutant general prior to his 1814 Niagara campaign. As Brown’s adjutant, it was Jones’s responsibility to collect and retain records, determine and detail casualties, manage correspondence, work with or supervise the other adjutants, and see to it that significant information and statistics were reported back to the War Department in Washington.

Jones fought conspicuously on July 5, 1814 in the victory at Chippewa, and was personally commended by Brown for his performance at the Battle of Lundy's Lane on July 25. For these, he won a brevet promotion to major. He next served at the defense of Fort Erie on August 14, and received commendation from General Edmund Gaines. A month later, on September 17, he was involved in the sortie from Fort Erie, and performed so well he was given a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel. Meanwhile, Jones prepared and sent reports of killed and wounded in the Niagara campaign to the War Department in Washington. He retained the originals of the reports and some copies for his own records as Adjutant General in the field.

In 1815, after the war, Brown had Jones join him as aide-de-camp and adjutant general. In 1818 Jones became a brevet colonel and then accompanied Brown on a tour of the Northwest defenses. In March 1825 he was appointed Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, a post he held for a record 27 years until his death. He was brevetted brigadier general in June 1832, and major general in May 1848.

As the Army's overall chief of staff during that period, Jones was responsible for recruiting, training and administration. He worked with the Army's commanding general, which until 1828 was Brown. After a period of contention with Brown's successor, the top general's post was assumed by Jones's trusted friend and colleague Winfield Scott, who had fought with him in Canada, and they worked closely together to maintain the autonomy of the Army from bureaucratic intrigues. The Jones era is remembered for the reforms he introduced that modernized the Army. He died on July 15, 1852. President Fillmore was among the notables to attend his funeral.

Franklin Pierce was the Democratic nominee for president at the time Jones died. He had known Jones for years, and his brother Benjamin Pierce had also participated in Brown’s Niagara campaign in 1814, and known him since then. The latter was an acquaintanceship of almost 40 years. Mrs. Pierce had requested that Pierce help find a position for her son, Walter, and Pierce agreed.

Autograph letter signed, Concord, NH, August 3, 1852, to Mrs. Jones, bemoaning the death of her husband and offering to assist her son. "I have felt deeply the loss of your lamented husband & assure you of my sincerest sympathy for yourself and family. I should have taken measures in reference to your son before, but I was absent when your letter reached here, and it has just now been brought to my notice. As I am not acquainted with the Board of Alderman, I have written to Judge Vanderpoel (formerly a member of Congress) and taken the liberty to enclose your letter. It cannot be necessary for me, madam, to assure you that I shall always feel a deep interest in the family of a personal friend whose loss I regard as a public calamity." With the original postmarked envelope.

Mrs. Jones’s request was passed along to Judge Aaron Vanderpoel, who apparently had the right connections. Mrs. Jones’s son, Walter Charles Jones, graduated from VMI in 1853. He became an engineer and officer in US Army. When Virginia seceded, he resigned his commission and became an officer in the Confederate service.

This letter was part of the Roger Jones papers we have acquired, and has never before been offered for sale.