WILLIAM WIRT ADAMS, C. S. A.

1819-1888

Judge George Adams and his wife, Anna Weisinger Adams, residents of Frankfort, Kentucky, welcomed a baby on March 22, 1819. Named William Wirt Adams, the boy eventually benefitted from his future political alliances, as well as those of his parents. The elder Adams was a close friend of Henry Clay, the well-known orator and statesman. Anna Weisinger Adams was the daughter of Daniel Weisinger, a prominent pioneer in Kentucky.

William Wirt Adams became a big brother at the age of two with the arrival of Daniel Weisinger Adams. Like William Wirt Adams, Daniel would later hold the rank of a brigadier general in the service of the Confederate States of America. Within a few years after Daniel's birth, the Adams family moved to Natchez, Mississippi. Among other positions, George Adams served as a Mississippi district court judge during the late 1830s.

William Wirt Adams had left the confines of his family's Mississippi home prior to his father's attainment of the judge's post. Wirt, as he was commonly called, had moved from Mississippi in order to attend college in Kentucky. After graduating from the Bardstown, Kentucky institute of higher learning in 1839, Wirt returned to Mississippi. That same year Wirt entered the military, serving as a private under Colonel Edward Burleson in Texas.

Adams was quickly promoted to regimental adjutant. At that rank, he participated in the expulsion of Native Americans from the northern portion of Texas. Adams eventually completed his Lone Star service and returned to Mississippi in the fall of 1839.

In 1843, Wirt Adams's brother Daniel became a major figure of controversy. Defending the honor of Judge Adams, Daniel confronted Dr. Hagan, the editor of The Vicksburg Sentinel. That publication had made what Daniel determined as offensive remarks about the judge. Daniel stated the purpose of his visit, at which time "Hogan ... closed on him instantly." In the ensuing argument, the twenty-two year old Daniel shot Dr. Hagan in the head, killing him.

Upon his homecoming to Mississippi, William Wirt Adams aggressively entered a variety of successful careers as a planter, slave owner, and in banking. He eventually became the senior member in the banking establishment of Adams and Horn. In 1850, Wirt Adams married Sallie Huger Magrant. The majority of historical sources note that while the couple's relationship lasted almost 40 years, and ended only through the death of Mr. Adams, it produced no children.

In 1858, Wirt Adams began serving his first of two sessions in the Mississippi State Legislature. By 1861, Adams was spending a great deal of time in his $90,000 Louisiana home, acting as a Confederate agent or Commissioner to Louisiana, in an effort to assist that state in its secession from the United States. Adams, a veteran of the struggle for Texas independence, apparently impressed fellow Mississippian Jefferson Davis, as Davis offered Adams the position of Postmaster General of the Confederate States of America. Despite the prominence of the post, Adams declined the request to serve the newly formed government in such a capacity.

Rather than accepting Davis's offer to become Postmaster General, Adams sent a request to the Confederate government on June 6, 1861. Adams asked for permission to recruit soldiers to serve in an independent regiment of mounted riflemen. President Davis met Adams's offer with a mixed response. While the idea of raising a command was approved, Davis denied the aspect of the soldiers working independently. Adams received Davis's consent to recruit a "regiment of mounted men for active operation and constant movement."

Upon the creation of the regiment he largely funded from his personal wealth, Adams was elected colonel of the newly designated 1st Mississippi Cavalry. The companies that comprised the regiment hailed from the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. With Colonel Wirt Adams as the commander of the 1st Mississippi, the regiment became known as Wirt Adams Regiment of Cavalry by year's end.

In August 1861, Brigadier General William Joseph Hardee stated that he was aware of the existence of Adams's regiment. In mid-September Adams, in Jackson, Mississippi at the time, received orders to report to Columbus, Kentucky where Adams was to join Hardee. The following month, Adams took the 1st Mississippi to Bowling Green and met Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's command. Adams formed the rear guard of Johnston's retreat from the Bluegrass State in December, utilizing the approximate 780 men under Adams's leadership.

Adams joined Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest and Colonel John Austin Wharton as Confederate cavalry commanders in Johnston's army when it was reorganized in early 1862.

In April 1862, Adams took part in the bloodbath at Shiloh, Tennessee. During the Confederate approach, Adams had led his regiment as a portion of the Confederate rear guard. Holding a position on the right of the Confederate line, Adams and his cavalrymen accompanied the infantry into battle. Serving in an observational capacity after the battle, one of Adams's captains made an attack that resulted in the capture of some 60 prisoners.

The remainder of April, and portions of May 1862, allowed Adams to lead raids along the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. By that time, Adams had twelve companies totaling 1,047 men and officers under his command. Later action during the siege of Corinth, Mississippi resulted in his Confederates capturing of approximately 40 Federals "in a gallant fight."

Throughout the summer of 1862, Adams continued to see action in the Mississippi towns of Baldwyn, Saltillo, and Guntown. In July 1862, Adams and his cavalry encountered Federals under the leadership of Phil Sheridan. Later that summer, Adams, serving under Brigadier General Frank Crawford Armstrong, conducted raids in West Tennessee. In doing so, Adams engaged Federal detachments near Bolivar...