Thomas Austin Jones was the man who helped John Wilkes Booth insofar as food and newspapers in Maryland after the assassination of President Lincoln. From various accounts Jones seemed to be a member of the Confederate secret service.

According to the OR's he was arrested and taken to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. However on ancestry he was listed at T.A. Jones and confined at Fort Delaware on April 23, 1865. If ancestry has copied the records correctly then perhaps a very small piece of American History may have been over-looked. I can find nothing of him being held at Fort Delaware other than the Federal POW records copied by ancestry.

For those who have ancestry go to POW Civil War and type in T.A. Jones. He will be the 3rd T.A. Jones. Be sure to click on Confederate. It says he was arrested on April 23rd 1865 and was a farmer from Charles County, Maryland.

That was found on page 4763 and if you back it up four pages you should find the prison. If I'm doing this correctly and I think I am then he was held at Fort Delaware. Back it up to page 4759 and you will see the introduction to Fort Delaware. The OR's disagree with what I'm saying but I'm looking at the original records from Fort Delaware.

A couple of things could have happened. Either ancestry did not follow the correct order in copying the Federal POW records or he may have been held at Fort Delaware for a day or so and taken to the Old Capitol Prison where he would have spent the majority of his time. As we know the OR's were helped made by General Ainsworth and his staff and did not take every small detail when extracting information for the Official Records of the Rebellion.