Adelbert Ames

Federal (USV)

Colonel

Adelbert Ames

(1835 - 1933)

Home State: Maine

Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1861;Class Rank: 5

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 20th Maine Infantry

Before Antietam

After graduating from West Point, he was appointed 2nd then 1st Lieutenant, 5th US Artillery (May 1861). He was at 1st Bull Run with "Griffin's Battery" (the West Point Battery, Battery D, 5th US) in July of that year. On 20 August 1862 he accepted the commission as Colonel of the 20th Maine Infantry.

On the Campaign

He commanded the regiment on the Maryland Campaign.

The rest of the War

He was promoted to Brigadier General 20 May 1863, and led a brigade at Gettysburg.

After the War

He was honorably mustered out of the Volunteer service 30 August 1866. He had been promoted, in the Regular Army, to Captain, 5th US Artillery in June 1864. He was promoted to Lt Colonel of the 24th US Infantry on 28 July 1866, and resigned from the service in February 1870. He served as Governor, 1868-70 and 1874-76 and as U.S. Senator from Mississippi, 1870-74. He was appointed Brigadier General (of Volunteers) during the Spanish-American War (1898-99).

He received the Medal of Honor in 1894 for action in the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.

References & notes

Source: Heitman, Francis Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, Washington, US Government Printing Office, 1903; and
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889