He received a common school and academical education, also apprenticed to the saddler's trade.

Jones represented the U.S. Congress at the swearing in of the terminally ill, newly elected Vice-President Willam Rufus deVane King in Matanzas, Cuba.

With war impending, Jones was a delegate to the Peace Convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the conflict, but he did not attend.

Friend and former political ally President Andrew Johnson pardoned Jones for his Civil War activities in June 1865.

Jones died in Fayetteville, Tennessee, on November 14, 1884 (age 78 years, 244 days).