A.L. JONES

RUTH A. JONES

BORN OCT. 22, 1827,

MARRIED

OCTOBER 2, 1849,

DEPARTED THIS LIFE OCT. 29, 1878,

AGED 51 YRS. & 7 DAYS.

No other war was like the American Civil War for Americans because every sailor and soldier, every collateral death, every field or railway yard that was destroyed, every city or town devastated by artillery was American.  And, more Americans were killed in the Civil War than any other war that Americans have fought.  The war tore the country apart and threatened the existence of the Republic. 

Cemeteries throughout the United States feature memorials to honor the soldiers who fought.  The soldiers, proud of their service, also denoted it in many ways—some with elaborately carved commissioned statues, some with inscriptions that memorialized each battle in which they served, while others have little more than a metal marker that noted their service.

The humble zinc grave marker of A.L. Jones in the Alliance City Cemetery in Alliance, Ohio, doesn’t give his birth or death date, let alone the unit in which he served, but it is adorned with two symbols representing his service—on one side of the column an American flag and on another, a uniformed soldier astride a strutting horse.