Civil War Union Army Officer. The son of prominent Pennsylvania Baptist minister Reverend Horatio Gates Jones, he was a lawyer and served as a Judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas from 1836 to 1847. After the Civil War started, he volunteered his services, and
was commissioned as Colonel and commander of the 58th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on February 13, 1862. He led his unit in operations in North Carolina until May 23, 1863, when he was killed in action at Batchelder's Creek, North Carolina.
In a General Order promulgated by department commander Major General John G. Foster three days after Colonel Jones' death, it was stated "The commanding general, in common with the officers and men of this command, is called upon to mourn the loss of a most gallant officer, Colonel J. Richter Jones, Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, who fell at the head of his regiment on the evening of May 23, whilst repelling an attack on the outposts.