Brig. Gen. John Adams, CSA

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John Adams (July 1, 1825 – November 30, 1864) was an officer in the United States Army. With the onset of the American Civil War, he resigned his commission and joined the Confederate States Army, rising to the rank of brigadier general before being killed in action.

Early life and career

Adams was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to Irish immigrant parents. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1846, ranking 25th in his class. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons, serving under Capt. Philip Kearny. Adams was brevetted for gallantry during the Mexican-American War at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales. After the war, Adams served on the western frontier, primarily in California. He was subsequently promoted to first lieutenant and captain. As a lieutenant colonel in the state militia, he was aide-de-camp to the Governor of Minnesota in 1853.

Civil War Career

With the secession of Tennessee, Adams resigned his commission in the United States Army in early 1861 and joined the Confederate Army not long afterward as a captain in the cavalry. He was commissioned a colonel in 1862, and a brigadier general in December of that same year, replacing the late Lloyd Tilghman in charge of his brigade of infantry. Adams served entirely in the Western Theater and was commended in several official reports for his leadership. He was particularly conspicuous during the Atlanta Campaign, where he again displayed personal bravery as well as a talent for battlefield tactics. His brigade was selected to lead the advance of John Bell Hood's army into Tennessee.

Adams was killed at the Second Battle of Franklin in 1864, one of six Confederate generals to perish in the defeat. An Indiana colonel who witnessed his death later wrote:

General Adams rode up to our works and, cheering his men, made an attempt to leap his horse over them. The horse fell upon the top of the embankment and the general was caught under him, pierced with [nine] bullets. As soon as the charge was repulsed, our men sprang over the works and lifted the horse, while others dragged the general from under him. He was perfectly conscious and knew his fate. He asked for water, as all dying men do in battle as the life-blood drips from the body. One of my men gave him a canteen of water, while another brought an armful of cotton from an old gin near by and made him a pillow. The general gallantly thanked them, and in answer to our expressions of sorrow at his sad fate, he said, 'It is the fate of a soldier to die for his country,' and expired. — Confederate Veteran, June 1897.

Adams left a widow with four sons and two daughters.

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Biography from The Confederate Military History: "John Adams

Highest Rank: Brig-Gen Birth Date: 1825, Biography:

Brigadier General John Adams, a gallant soldier was born at Nashville, July 1, 1825. His father afterward located at Pulaski, and it was from that place that young Adams entered West Point as a cadet, where he was graduated in June, 1846.

On his graduation he was commissioned second lieutenant of the First Dragoons, then serving under Gen. Philip Kearny. At Santa Cruz de Rosales, Mexico, March 16, 1848, he was brevetted first lieutenant for gallantry, and on October 9, 1851, he was commissioned first lieutenant.

In 1853 he acted as aide to the governor of Minnesota with the rank of lieutenant colonel of State forces, this position, however, not affecting his rank in the regular service. He was promoted in his regiment to the rank of captain, November; 1856.

May 27, 1861, on the secession of his State, he resigned his commission in the United States army and tendered his services to the Southern Confederacy. He was first made captain of

cavalry and placed in command of the post at Memphis, whence he was ordered to western Kentucky and thence to Jackson, Miss.

In 1862 he was commissioned colonel, and on December 29th was promoted to brigadier-general. On the death of Brig.-Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, May 16, 1863, Adams was placed by General Johnston in command of that officer's brigade, comprising the Sixth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-third and Forty-third Mississippi regiments of infantry.

He was in Gen. J. E. Johnston's campaign for the relief of Vicksburg, in the fighting around Jackson, Miss., and afterward served under Polk in that State and marched with that general from Meridian, Miss., to Demopolis, Ala., thence to Rome, GA, and forward to Resaca, where he joined the army of Tennessee.

He served with distinction in the various battles of the campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, he and his gallant brigade winning fresh laurels in the fierce battles around the "Gate City. " After the fall of Atlanta, when Hood set out from Palmetto for his march into north Georgia in the gallant effort to force Sherman to return northward, Adams' brigade was much of the time in advance, doing splendid service, and at Dalton capturing many prisoners.

It was the fate of General Adams, as it was of his friend and classmate at West Point, Gen. Geo. E. Pickett, to reach the height of his fame leading his men in a brilliant and desperate, but unsuccessful, charge. But he did not come off so well as Pickett; for in the terrific assault at Franklin, Adams lost his life.

Though wounded severely in his right arm near the shoulder early in the fight and urged to leave the fields he said: "No; I am going to see my men through." He fell on the enemy's works, pierced with nine bullets. His brigade lost on that day over 450 in killed and wounded, among them many field and line officers.

Lieut.-Col. Edward Adams Baker, of the Sixty-fifth Indiana infantry, who witnessed the death of General Adams at Franklin, obtained the address of Mrs. Adams many years after the war and wrote to her from Webb City, Mo. This letter appeared in the Confederate Veteran of June, 1897, an excellent magazine of information on Confederate affairs, and is here quoted:

"General Adams rode up to our works and, cheering his men, made an attempt to leap his horse over them. The horse fell upon the top of the embankment and the general was caught under him, pierced with bullets. As soon as the charge was repulsed, our men sprang over the works and lifted the horse, while others dragged the general from under him. He was perfectly conscious and knew his fate. He asked for water, as all dying men do in battle as the life-blood drips from the body. One of my men gave him a canteen of water, while another brought an armful of cotton from an old gin near by and made him a pillow. The general gallantly thanked them and in answer to our expressions of sorrow at his sad fate, he said, 'It is the fate of a soldier to die for his country,' and expired."

The wife of General Adams was Miss Georgia McDougal, daughter of a distinguished surgeon of the United States army. She was in every way worthy to be the wife of so gallant a man.

Though left a widow with four sons and two daughters, she reared them, under all the severe trials of that sad period, to be useful men and women."7

The following is a quote from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War by James Barr (Volume 4, page 439).

"I was ... interested in that terrible affair at Franklin. ... I would have had a trip to Andersonville (the infamous Confederate prison) had it not been for that 'devil-may-care' counter charge by the Illinoisans (sic) and the Kentuckians. Out Colonel Steward tried hard to save the life of General John Adams ... and called to his men not to fire on him, but it was too late. Adams rode his horse over the ditch to the top of the parapet, undertook to grasp the old flag from the hands of the colour-sergeant, when he fell, horse and all, shot by the colour-guard. I was a reenlisted veteran, and went through twenty-seven engagements. I am sure that Franklin was the hardest fought field that I ever stood upon."

By John McQuaide of Vicksburg, Miss.

"It was General John Adams ... who was killed on top of the works. Early next morning I assisted in putting his body in an ambulance ... Adam's horse was a bay. It was dead upon the works, with its front legs towards the inner side of the works. Adam's body was lying outside, at the base ... when I helped to pick it up."8

Brig. Gen. John Adams was a native Tennessean and West Point (1846) graduate who had won a brevet with the dragoons in the Mexican War. Commanding a brigade in Loring's Division throughout most of the civil war, Adams followed Leonidas Polk to Mississippi. In the midst of the deadliest fighting around the cotton gin, witnesses recall seeing the conspicuous Adams astride his white steed, Old Charley. Well out in front of his brigade, he dashed towards the Federal lines, seemingly impervious to the hail of bullets. Spurring his mount to jump the parapets, the horse came crashing down squarely on top of them, dead. Adams fell from the horse and into the ditches, his body riddled with nine bullets. Breathing his last, Adams was to say "It is the fate of a soldier to die for his country."

Biography from The Confederate Military History: "John Adams

Highest Rank: Brig-Gen Birth Date: 1825, Biography:

Brigadier General John Adams, a gallant soldier was born at Nashville, July 1, 1825. His father afterward located at Pulaski, and it was from that place that young Adams entered West Point as a cadet, where he was graduated in June, 1846.

On his graduation he was commissioned second lieutenant of the First Dragoons, then serving under Gen. Philip Kearny. At Santa Cruz de Rosales, Mexico, March 16, 1848, he was brevetted first lieutenant for gallantry, and on October 9, 1851, he was commissioned first lieutenant.

In 1853 he acted as aide to the governor of Minnesota with the rank of lieutenant colonel of State forces, this position, however, not affecting his rank in the regular service. He was promoted in his regiment to the rank of captain, November; 1856.

May 27, 1861, on the secession of his State, he resigned his commission in the United States army and tendered his services to the Southern Confederacy. He was first made captain of

cavalry and placed in command of the post at Memphis, whence he was ordered to western Kentucky and thence to Jackson, Miss.

In 1862 he was commissioned colonel, and on December 29th was promoted to brigadier-general. On the death of Brig.-Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, May 16, 1863, Adams was placed by General Johnston in command of that officer's brigade, comprising the Sixth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-third and Forty-third Mississippi regiments of infantry.

He was in Gen. J. E. Johnston's campaign for the relief of Vicksburg, in the fighting around Jackson, Miss., and afterward served under Polk in that State and marched with that general from Meridian, Miss., to Demopolis, Ala., thence to Rome, GA, and forward to Resaca, where he joined the army of Tennessee.

He served with distinction in the various battles of the campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, he and his gallant brigade winning fresh laurels in the fierce battles around the "Gate City. " After the fall of Atlanta, when Hood set out from Palmetto for his march into north Georgia in the gallant effort to force Sherman to return northward, Adams' brigade was much of the time in advance, doing splendid service, and at Dalton capturing many prisoners.

It was the fate of General Adams, as it was of his friend and classmate at West Point, Gen. Geo. E. Pickett, to reach the height of his fame leading his men in a brilliant and desperate, but unsuccessful, charge. But he did not come off so well as Pickett; for in the terrific assault at Franklin, Adams lost his life.

Though wounded severely in his right arm near the shoulder early in the fight and urged to leave the fields he said: "No; I am going to see my men through." He fell on the enemy's works, pierced with nine bullets. His brigade lost on that day over 450 in killed and wounded, among them many field and line officers.

Lieut.-Col. Edward Adams Baker, of the Sixty-fifth Indiana infantry, who witnessed the death of General Adams at Franklin, obtained the address of Mrs. Adams many years after the war and wrote to her from Webb City, Mo. This letter appeared in the Confederate Veteran of June, 1897, an excellent magazine of information on Confederate affairs, and is here quoted:

"General Adams rode up to our works and, cheering his men, made an attempt to leap his horse over them. The horse fell upon the top of the embankment and the general was caught under him, pierced with bullets. As soon as the charge was repulsed, our men sprang over the works and lifted the horse, while others dragged the general from under him. He was perfectly conscious and knew his fate. He asked for water, as all dying men do in battle as the life-blood drips from the body. One of my men gave him a canteen of water, while another brought an armful of cotton from an old gin near by and made him a pillow. The general gallantly thanked them and in answer to our expressions of sorrow at his sad fate, he said, 'It is the fate of a soldier to die for his country,' and expired."

The wife of General Adams was Miss Georgia McDougal, daughter of a distinguished surgeon of the United States army. She was in every way worthy to be the wife of so gallant a man.

Though left a widow with four sons and two daughters, she reared them, under all the severe trials of that sad period, to be useful men and women."7

The following is a quote from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War by James Barr (Volume 4, page 439).

"I was ... interested in that terrible affair at Franklin. ... I would have had a trip to Andersonville (the infamous Confederate prison) had it not been for that 'devil-may-care' counter charge by the Illinoisans (sic) and the Kentuckians. Out Colonel Steward tried hard to save the life of General John Adams ... and called to his men not to fire on him, but it was too late. Adams rode his horse over the ditch to the top of the parapet, undertook to grasp the old flag from the hands of the colour-sergeant, when he fell, horse and all, shot by the colour-guard. I was a reenlisted veteran, and went through twenty-seven engagements. I am sure that Franklin was the hardest fought field that I ever stood upon."

By John McQuaide of Vicksburg, Miss.

"It was General John Adams ... who was killed on top of the works. Early next morning I assisted in putting his body in an ambulance ... Adam's horse was a bay. It was dead upon the works, with its front legs towards the inner side of the works. Adam's body was lying outside, at the base ... when I helped to pick it up."8

Brig. Gen. John Adams was a native Tennessean and West Point (1846) graduate who had won a brevet with the dragoons in the Mexican War. Commanding a brigade in Loring's Division throughout most of the civil war, Adams followed Leonidas Polk to Mississippi. In the midst of the deadliest fighting around the cotton gin, witnesses recall seeing the conspicuous Adams astride his white steed, Old Charley. Well out in front of his brigade, he dashed towards the Federal lines, seemingly impervious to the hail of bullets. Spurring his mount to jump the parapets, the horse came crashing down squarely on top of them, dead. Adams fell from the horse and into the ditches, his body riddled with nine bullets. Breathing his last, Adams was to say "It is the fate of a soldier to die for his country."

Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. The son of Irish immigrants, he entered the United States Military Academy in 1841, graduating 25th in his class. Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons-United States Regular Army, he served under Captain Philip Kearny in the Mexican War. On March 16, 1848, he was brevetted for gallantry and meritorious conduct at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales and in 1851 was commissioned 1st Lieutenant. Promotion to Captain followed in 1856. Except for 2 years as a recruiting officer, he completed his United States Army career on frontier duty at Fort Crook, California, where he resigned on May 31, 1861. He traveled to New York City, where he learned that General Winfield Scott had ordered the arrest of Regular Army officers suspected of resigning to join the Confederacy. Evading capture, he went to Tenneessee, enlisted in the Confederate army as a Captain of Cavalry, and was placed in command at Memphis. By May 1862 he had advanced to Colonel and by December to Brigadier General, assuming command of Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman's Mississippi infantry brigade after Tilghman's death in May 1863. He served under General Joseph E. Johnston during the campaign to relieve Vicksburg, then joined Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk in Mississippi, marching with him to Resaca, Georgia, where he was transferred to the Army of Tenneessee. His brigade served in the advance during most of General John B. Hood's campaign to force Major General William T. Sherman northward after the fall of Atlanta, and he received commendation for his valiant service. He remained with Hood during the Franklin and Nashville Campaign, serving briefly under Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was severely wounded in the right arm early in the Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, but refused to leave the field. Later that day he was killed leading his regiment in a determined but unsuccessful assault on the Union lines. He was one of six Confederate Generals killed during the battle.

Bio by: Ugaalltheway

Brig. General John Adams was born on 1 July 1825 in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee.1,2 He was the son of Thomas Patton Adams and Anne Tennant.1,2 Brig. General John Adams married Georgiana McDougall, daughter of Dr Charles McDougall and Maria Griffith Hanson, on 4 May 1854 in Fort Snelling, Minnesota Territory, now Saint Paul. John was Aide-de-Camp to Gov. William Gorman.3,1,4 Brig. General John Adams died on 30 November 1864 in Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee, at age 39.1,2 He was buried in Maplewood Cemetery, Pulaski, Giles County, Tennessee, Find A Grave Memorial# 10814.5

He graduated from United States Military Academy, West Point, Orange County, New York, in 1846.2 He and Georgiana McDougall appeared on the 1860 Federal census of Millville, Shasta County, California, enumerated 14 July 1860. Their children John, Francis Joseph, Charles McDougal and Thomas Patton were listed as living with them. His occupation was listed as "Captain, 1st Dragoons"; this census lists Georgiana's birthplace as Arkansas.

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