Catesby ap Roger Jones was born on April 15, 1821 at Fairfield, Virginia, the son of Mary Ann Mason (Page) Jones, niece of Light Horse Harry Lee, and Adjutant-General Roger Jones, United States Army, who was brevetted for services at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, and made lieutenant-colonel for gallantry at Fort Erie in the War of 1812.
Appointed a midshipman by President Jackson on June 18, 1836, young Jones first served under his uncle, Thomas ap Catesby Jones, in the Macedonian and the Relief. Transferred to the frigate Columbia, East India Squadron, he became aide to Commodore George C. Read. At Callao, in March 1840, he joined the schooner Shark, Lieut. Abraham Bigelow, and the following year in the Constitution, flagship of the Pacific Squadron, Commodore Alexander Claxton, he returned to Hampton Roads.
A passed midshipman since July 1, 1842, he served under Maury at the Depot of Charts and Instruments, Washington, in 1842 and 1843, also assisting in surveying Tampa Bay in the schooners Flirt and Oregon. He then made another cruise around the world; in the brig Perry, to Hong Kong, and thence in the Brandywine, by way of Valparaiso, to the United States (1843 - 45).
During the Mexican War he was on the Ohio, Pacific Squadron, operating on the western coast of Mexico and South America, and thus was afforded no opportunity for active war experience. Made a lieutenant May 12, 1849, he was detached from the St. Mary's on March 26, 1851, with leave for twelve months to visit Europe. This was extended because of serious wounds received in a street riot in Paris. Returning home, he was ordered, February 28, 1853, to ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard, where he assisted Lieut. John A. Dahlgren in experiments leading to the perfection of the famous Dahlgren gun.
On February 5, 1856, at Dahlgren's request, he was sent to the Merrimac as the only other officer familiar with the new guns then on that ship. After ordnance duty on the Plymouth, Caledonia, and Pawnee, he was placed, May 19, 1860, on "waiting orders. " When Virginia seceded, Jones resigned his commission, and on April 18, 1861, Governor Letcher appointed him captain in the Virginia navy.
Early in June, he assisted in capturing the magazine at Norfolk with 300, 000 pounds of powder and many shells. Becoming a lieutenant in the Confederate navy, June 10, 1861, he fortified Jamestown Island and on November 11, went to Norfolk to prepare the battery for the ironclad Virginia, the reconstructed Merrimac. Then, as her executive officer under Captain Franklin Buchanan, he fought in the battle of March 8, 1862, in which she sunk the Cumberland and burned the Congress.
Buchanan having been wounded, Jones commanded her the next day in the renowned duel with the Monitor, an indecisive three hours' engagement. Josiah Tattnall relieving Buchanan, Jones remained executive officer of the ironclad, which after some repairs attempted vainly on April 11 and May 8 to induce the Monitor to fight again. Jones was the last man to leave the Virginia, when the evacuation of Norfolk rendered her destruction necessary. Retiring with the crew to Drury's Bluff, he helped to defeat the Federal fleet there on May 15.
After commanding the Chattahoochee, at Columbus, Georgia, and the naval works at Charlotte, North Carolina, he was ordered on May 9, 1863, to command the important naval gun foundry and ordnance works at Selma, Alabama. Meanwhile, he had become a commander, April 29, 1863.
At Selma, in spite of many obstacles, he manufactured cannon for Buchanan's squadron at Mobile and for Forts Morgan and Gaines as well as for the Confederate army. After the war, Jones formed a partnership with John M. Brooke and Robert D. Minor to purchase American war supplies for foreign governments. The company was dissolved after a year or so, but not until Jones had made a trip to Peru early in 1866 for the firm.
On June 19, 1877, he was shot in the lungs by J. A. Harral of Selma and died the next day. The two men were neighbors; both were leading citizens of the town and had been closely associated in religious and secular affairs. The difficulty that led to the tragedy seems to have originated in a quarrel between their children and the shooting occurred on Harral's premises. Jones was survived by his wife, three sons, and three daughters.
Catesby ap Roger Jones was an eminent naval officer, who during the 1850s, 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. 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. Later in 1862, he commanded a shore battery at Drewry’s Bluff, on the James River, and the gunboat "Chattahoochee" while she was under construction at Columbus, Georgia. 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.
When Catesby ap Roger Jones settled with his family at Selma, he married on March 23, 1865 to Gertrude T. Tartt.
