John Earl Jones- Civil War Drawing

John Earl Jones was my Great Grandfather. He was born abt. 1828, where, unknown. He joined the Missouri Volunteers, in Illinois, Co. "C" 17th regiment of Missouri in 1862. He married my Gr-grandmother (Elizabeth Jane Brisco) in Douglas Co. Missouri in Dec. 1874, but already had children by a previous marriage, and was widowed at the time he married my Gr-grandmother. They went to Texas, where my grandfather was born, and were on their way to Indiana when he died inroute in Arkansas. They left some of those children by wife #1, in Texas as they were young adults at that time.
We know nothing about them, or any info on his background or any other family members prior to his marriage to my Gr-grandmother.