John B. Jones was a Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 army officer and Texas Ranger

Texas Ranger Division

The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...

 captain. Born in Fairfield, South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

, his family moved to the Republic of Texas

Republic of Texas

The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...

 in 1838.

At the beginning of the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Jones enlisted and served in the Eighth Texas Cavalry regiment (better known as “Terry’s Texas Rangers

Terry's Texas Rangers

The 8th Texas Cavalry, , popularly known as Terry's Texas Rangers, was a group of Texas volunteers for the Confederate States Army assembled by Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry in August 1861...

”) under the command of Benjamin Franklin Terry. He was later promoted to the rank of major.

After the war, he moved briefly to Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 with the purpose of locating and founding an exile colony for former Confederate supporters, but he returned to Texas after the attempt failed. In 1874, and after a short incursion in politics, he accepted the offer of commanding a newly formed branch of the Texas Rangers, named the “Frontier Battalion.” This force had the special task of stopping the numerous Indian raids and enforcing the law within the territory of the State.

In the following years, Jones engaged in battle with the Comanche

Comanche

The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...

, the Kiowa

Kiowa

The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...

 and the Apache

Apache

Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

 on several occasions, and the Frontier Battalion under his command was instrumental in ending the Indian incursions and raids over the settlers’ homesteads. His force also played a major role in pursuing and capturing many criminals and outlaws, such as noted bank robber Sam Bass

Sam Bass

Sam Bass was a nineteenth-century American train robber and outlaw.-Early life:Bass was orphaned at the age of 10. For the next five years, he and his siblings lived with an abusive uncle. In 1869, he set out on his own and spent the next year in Mississippi...

 in 1878.

Jones was an active Mason

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

, and in 1879 he achieved the position of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Austin

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

. He died in Austin on July 19, 1881, while still in command of the Frontier Battalion, which continued to be operational until 1901.

In Pop Culture

• A character in the 1951 film The Texas Rangers. The fictional tale has real-life outlaws Sam Bass
  Sam Bass
  Sam Bass was a nineteenth-century American train robber and outlaw.-Early life:Bass was orphaned at the age of 10. For the next five years, he and his siblings lived with an abusive uncle. In 1869, he set out on his own and spent the next year in Mississippi...
  
  , John Wesley Hardin
  John Wesley Hardin
  John Wesley Hardin was an American outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk hero of the Old West. He was born in Bonham, Texas. Hardin found himself in trouble with the law at an early age, and spent the majority of his life being pursued by both local lawmen and federal troops of the...
  
  , Dave Rudabaugh
  Dave Rudabaugh
  David Rudabaugh , was an outlaw and gunfighter in the American Old West. Modern writers often refer to him as "Dirty Dave" on account of his alleged aversion to water, no evidence has emerged to show that he was ever referred to as such in his own lifetime.-Early life:Rudabaugh was born as David...
  
  , Butch Cassidy
  Butch Cassidy
  Robert LeRoy Parker , better known as Butch Cassidy, was a notorious American train robber, bank robber, and leader of the Wild Bunch Gang in the American Old West...
  
   and The Sundance Kid
  Harry Longabaugh
  Harry Alonzo Longabaugh , better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, in the American Old West. Longabaugh likely met Butch Cassidy after Parker was released from prison around 1896...
  
  forming a gang, then squaring off against two convicts recruited by Jones to bring them to justice.

External links

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• Entry for John B. Jones from the Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas published 1880, hosted by the Portal to Texas History.