Confederate Generals |
Brigadier General William Wirt Adams Born March 22, 1819 at Frankfort KY Shot and killed May 1, 1888 at Jackson MS in argument with John Martin, a newspaper editor Buried Greenwood Cemetery, Jackson, MS
FATHER: George Adams
BROTHER: Brig. Gen. Daniel Weisiger Adams
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Brigadier General William Wirt Adams |
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Pre-War Profession: Army of Texas, planter, banker, politician War Service: October 1861 Col. of 1st Mississippi Cavalry, rear guard in A S Johnston's retreat from Kentucky, Shiloh, Iuka, Vicksburg campaign, opposed Grierson’s raid, September 1863 Brig. Gen., Meridian, commanded a brigade in Forrest's corps. Post war Career: Revenue agent, postmaster Notes: Died in a street fight with a newspaper editor.
William Wirt Adams, son of Judge George and Anna (Weissiger) Adams, was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, on March 22, 1819. Returning from college in Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1839, he enlisted as a private in Col. Edward Burleson's command for service in the Republic of Texas. Adams was soon made adjutant of the regiment and was in the campaign against the Indians in northeast Texas. In autumn of 1839 he returned to Mississippi. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s Adams made a living in banking and agriculture. He married Sallie Huger Magrant in 1850. They had no children. In 1858 he served in the Mississippi legislature, and in 1861 he worked as a Confederate commissioner in Louisiana attempting to convince the state to secede. After the formation of the Confederate States of America, Adams declined Jefferson Davis's offer to serve as postmaster general. He subsequently raised a regiment, the First Mississippi Cavalry to fight in the Civil War. In September 1863 Adams was commissioned a brigadier general. Following the war he lived in Vicksburg and Jackson, where he served as postmaster in 1885. In 1888 Adams died in Jackson in a street fight with a local newspaper editor who had written a critical editorial of the statesman.
Commands which served under Gen. Adams
Arkansas Seventeenth Mounted Infantry Regiment Fourteenth Confederate Cavalry Louisiana Ninth Infantry Battalion Ninth Tennessee Battalion Stockdale’s Mississippi Battalion Wilbourn’s Mississippi Battalion Robert’s Mississippi Battery Sources:
http://www.navarrocollege.edu/library/civilwar/abstracts/a_d.htm Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "ADAMS, WILLIAM WIRT," http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/AA/fad11.html (accessed May 23, 2006).
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Chalmers, Gen. J. R. Forrest and His Campaigns |
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Dimitry, J. W. - Confederate Military History - Mississippi Volume |
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Rigdon, John C. - Historical Sketch and Roster of the Mississippi 1st Infantry Regiment (Adams) |
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