Jones, Rufus Sib

Rufus Sib Jones (alternately spelled Rufus Sibb Jones) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1834 and became a bricklayer. On July 10, 1863, seven months after President Abraham Lincoln decreed that blacks could fight in the Union Army, Jones enlisted in the 8th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops for a term of three years. Promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major in November 1863, Jones helped lead his regiment through Jacksonville, Florida and surrounding Confederate holdings during the following year.. Jones and his regiment faced Confederate soldiers at the Battle of Olustee (or Ocean Pond) in Barbour, Florida on February 20, 1864. Jones sustained a wound in his thigh in an unrelated confrontation on August 16, 1864.. Between January and February of 1865, Jones returned home on furlough. He returned to duty in March through June 22, 1865 when he was reassigned as the clerk for the regiment’s headquarters in Brazos Santiago, Texas. He maintained that position through the summer of 1865 and left the regiment once it disbanded in November of that year. Jones died on July 17, 1897 and was buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. (By Brandon Rothenberg)