John Jones

He Rowed Into a Storm to Save the Monitor’s Crew

John Jones was born on August 25, 1841, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During the American Civil War, he entered the United States Navy and served as a Landsman, an enlisted rating commonly given to sailors who were still developing experience at sea. His wartime service took him aboard several Union vessels before he joined USS Rhode Island, the ship from which he would perform the dangerous rescue that earned him the Medal of Honor.

Jones enlisted in the Navy in 1861. His service eventually included duty aboard vessels such as the receiving ship USS Ohio, USS South Carolina, USS Niagara, and USS Rhode Island. By late 1862, he was serving aboard Rhode Island as the Union Navy continued its enormous effort to blockade Confederate ports and maintain control of the Atlantic coastline.

On December 30, 1862, Jones became part of one of the most dramatic maritime rescue operations of the Civil War.

USS Monitor, the revolutionary Union ironclad that had fought CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads earlier that year, was being towed south by USS Rhode Island when the ships encountered a severe storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Monitor had been designed primarily for operations in relatively protected coastal waters.

In the heavy Atlantic seas, waves repeatedly swept across her extremely low deck. Water entered the vessel faster than her pumps could remove it, and the situation steadily became more desperate.

By nightfall, it was clear that Monitor was in serious danger of sinking.

USS Rhode Island attempted to save the ironclad’s officers and crew.

Rescue boats were lowered into violent seas, and sailors volunteered to make the hazardous journey between the two vessels. Every trip carried enormous risk. Darkness, wind, waves, and the movement of both ships made approaching Monitor dangerous, while the ironclad itself was gradually disappearing beneath the water.

John Jones was a member of the first cutter sent from USS Rhode Island.

The small boat fought through the storm toward the sinking ironclad.

Jones and the other rescuers reached Monitor and began taking aboard men who were trying to escape the doomed vessel.

The work demanded extraordinary courage.

The rescuers were operating in a small open boat at night, surrounded by heavy seas, while attempting to transfer men from a sinking warship. A sudden wave, collision, or loss of control could have overturned the cutter or swept men into the ocean.

Yet Jones and his companions continued the rescue.

They successfully removed officers and sailors from Monitor and attempted to return them to USS Rhode Island.

Conditions deteriorated further.

In the confusion of the storm, the cutter carrying Jones became separated from Rhode Island. The men found themselves adrift in the Atlantic, unable to reach their own ship.

They had survived the immediate danger beside Monitor, but their ordeal was not over.

For hours, the small boat remained exposed to the gale and heavy seas.

The sailors had limited protection and no certainty that another ship would find them.

Eventually, a schooner discovered the cutter approximately fifty miles east of Cape Hatteras and rescued the exhausted men.

USS Monitor did not survive the storm.

The ironclad sank during the night, taking members of her crew with her. The loss ended the career of one of the most famous warships of the Civil War, but the actions of sailors from USS Rhode Island prevented the disaster from becoming even more deadly.

John Jones was among those whose courage made those rescues possible.

His Medal of Honor was awarded not for combat against an enemy warship, but for deliberately entering an exceptionally dangerous maritime situation to save fellow sailors.

That distinction makes his story unusual among Civil War Medal of Honor recipients.

Jones faced no Confederate artillery during the rescue.

Instead, his enemy was the Atlantic itself.

The violent sea, darkness, wind, and imminent loss of Monitor created conditions every bit as capable of killing the rescuers as hostile fire.

Jones accepted that danger voluntarily and helped bring men away from the sinking ironclad.

His conduct was formally recognized by the United States Navy in General Order No. 59, dated June 22, 1865.

John Jones received the Medal of Honor for his courage during the rescue operation of December 30, 1862.

His formal rank at the time was Landsman, and no higher verified naval rank has been established from his service record.

No additional clasp, star, bar, or other device accompanied his Medal of Honor.

Jones continued serving in the Navy after the Monitor rescue and remained aboard USS Rhode Island until his discharge in May 1864.

After leaving naval service, he returned to civilian life.

Unlike many Medal of Honor stories centered on battlefield charges or captured flags, Jones’s legacy came from a rescue mission conducted in darkness and near-hurricane conditions.

He risked his life not to defeat an enemy, but to save sailors who were trapped aboard a sinking ship.

John Jones died on August 14, 1907, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Portsmouth.

His story remains closely connected to the final hours of USS Monitor.

As one of the sailors who entered the storm in a small cutter from USS Rhode Island, Jones faced conditions that could easily have claimed the rescuers along with the men they were trying to save.

He helped reach the sinking ironclad, took endangered sailors into the boat, survived hours adrift in the Atlantic, and ultimately returned from an operation in which survival was never certain.

For that courage, Landsman John Jones earned the Medal of Honor and a lasting place in the history of the United States Navy.