William and Marilda Jones were owned by Newton Craig of Scott County, Kentucky. The two had at least four children together, one daughter and three sons who served in the Union army like their father. Both William and Marilda ran away from their master on March 11, 1865 and were subsequently arrested by a nightwatchman named James Cannon the next day. Instead of being allowed to visit their daughter and proceed to Camp Nelson to enlist, Cannon took all of their money and sent them back by armed guard to their master. William and Marilda escaped once again but it is unknown whether they were ever compensated for the money taken from them by Cannon. William enlisted in the Union army on March 21, 1865, but he died at Camp Nelson on April 21, 1865. Army officials, however, mistakenly classified him as a deserter. Marilda applied for a widow's pension on December 20, 1865, but she never received one, probably due to her husband's supposed status as a deserter. She died sometime after December 1865.
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Ira Berlin, Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, Series II, (Cambridge University Press, 1982), 276-277.
