author

Virgil Carrington Jones

1906–1999

A longtime journalist and popular historian, he wrote vivid, accessible books on the Civil War, American independence, and Appalachian feuds. His work on John S. Mosby helped bring the Confederate raider’s story to a wide audience, even inspiring the TV series The Gray Ghost.

1 Audiobook

U.S.S. Cairo: The Story of a Civil War Gunboat

U.S.S. Cairo: The Story of a Civil War Gunboat

by Virgil Carrington Jones, Harold L. (Harold Leslie) Peterson

About the author

Virgil Carrington Jones was an American journalist and nonfiction writer born in Charlottesville, Virginia, on June 7, 1906. He studied at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and later earned a B.A. from Washington and Lee University in 1930. Over the years he worked as a city editor and reporter in Alabama, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and later held roles with the Wall Street Journal, Curtis Publishing, a congressional office, and NASA publications.

Alongside his newspaper and editorial career, Jones built a reputation as a lively writer of history. His books included Ranger Mosby, Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders, The Civil War at Sea, Eight Hours Before Richmond, Birth of Liberty, and The Hatfields and the McCoys. Some of his writing appeared under the name Pat Jones, and he received a gold medal from the District of Columbia Civil War Round Table for meritorious writing.

He died on November 29, 1999, at age 93. Jones is remembered for turning deeply researched American history into readable storytelling, especially in his books on the Civil War and on memorable figures and conflicts from the American past.