[for the Richmond Dispatch.]
Col. Egbert J. Fanes.
The gentleman whose name appears above is the Colonel of the 4th Alabama Regiment, and was cut down white at its head, in the desperate struggle made by it with the Northern Vanndale, upon the hotly contested field of Manassas. Col. Jones is an Alabamian by nativity and residence, and a lawyer by profession. For a number of years, although he has yet scarcely reached the meridian of life he has been one of the leaders of the North Alabama Bar. During the late war with Mexico, he left a large and lucrative practice, and repaired with a company which he had raised to the scene of action beyond the Rio Grande. He had no opportunity while there of taking a prominent part in the campaign, which resulted in the fall of the Mexican Capital; yet he showed by the rigid and inflexible determination with which he discharged his every duty, by his energy, promptness and clearheadedness under all circumstances, that he possessed many of the elements of which great military leaders are made.
He raised a company in Huntsville, Alabama, his present place of residence, as soon as it became apparent that war was inevitable between the Abolition Government at Washington and that of the Confederate States. This company formed a portion of the Fourth Alabama Regiment, to the colonelcy of which he was elected in the early part of May last, and was at once ordered to Virginia. He has been with General Johnston from the time of his occupancy of Harper's Ferry to the present.
There is no officer in the Confederate army who has all his faculties more nearly under his complete control than the subject of this brief and imperfect sketch. In the hour of danger he is one of the coolest of the cool--one of the bravest of the brave. It is said by those who saw him in the battle of Manassas, when the shots were flying thickest and the men were falling fastest, that he was the impersonation of self-collectedness; that he sat his horse, at the head of his regiment, with one of his legs thrown carelessly over the pommel of his saddle, a conspicuous mark from his position and his tall and massive person, for the enemy's bullets, which were showered like hail all about him, and calmly exhorted his men to discharge their pieces carefully and with precision, indicating to them by a wave of his sword when to rise and fire and when to fall behind the little eminence which partially protected them. His horse having been wounded under him, he deliberately dismounted, and in the face of a terrible fire proceeded with the greatest coolness to examine his legs, in order to discover where he had been stricken.
Colonel Jones was severely wounded in both hips, the two balls taking effect about the same moment. For some time his condition was considered extremely critical, but his friends will be gratified to learn that he is slowly recovering, and will, no doubt, soon be out of danger.
Colonel Jones is a fine specimen of the physical man. About six feet, four or five inches in height, broad-shouldered, full-chested, and very erect; he looks in every sense of the word the soldier.
Both his manner and the expression of his countenance are somewhat cold and chilling, and serve to repel those who are not well acquainted with him; but his friends all know that underneath this frigid exterior beats a heart than which there are none on earth truer, or more fully alive to all the coolest impulses of humanity Madison.
Richmond, Aug. 4, 1861.
