Biography
Morven M. Jones is identified in Marshall as one of three New York State civilian agents arrested in Washington on October 27, 1864 and confined at the Old Capitol/Carrol Prison. They were tried by a military commission over alleged fraudulent soldiers' voting papers. The reproduced decision acquits all three of the charge. Jones was a former Union lieutenant who had resigned because of ill health and then performed hospital relief work. His earlier Confederate prisoner-of-war confinement is distinct from this federal political prosecution. The account records his release on February 8, 1865. Source: John A. Marshall, American Bastile (1869), printed pages 559-579, https://archive.org/details/americanbastile00marsgoog/page/n576/mode/1up.
The military-commission decision reproduced by John A. Marshall identifies Major General Abner Doubleday as commission president and Colonel John A. Foster as judge advocate. W. A. Beach of Troy and R. H. Gillet of New Lebanon argued for the defendants; Foster argued for the prosecution. The reproduced finding acquits North, Cohn and Jones of the charge. Jones’s partially sustained specification expressly excludes fraudulent intent and does not turn the charge acquittal into a conviction. Marshall distinguishes that finding from later physical release and expressly disputes contemporary rumors of conviction or pardon. Source: American Bastile, retained 1875 edition, printed pages 559–579, especially 574–576. The legal roles concern this commission, not the defendants’ earlier military service.
