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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.
Source: Confederate Military History, vol. X, p. 285
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.
Source: Confederate Military History, vol. X, p. 285
Other related posts:
- John C Adams posts
- Union General Jacob D. Cox’s description of the death of Adams
Here’s a list of Confederate Generals who were engaged at the Battle of Franklin, Nov 30, 1864.
John Adams
William B. Bate
William F. Brantley
John C. Brown
Abraham Buford
John C. Carter
James R. Chalmers
Patrick R. Cleburne
Francis Marion Cockrell
Zachariah Deas
Winfield Scott Featherston
Samuel G. French
States Rights Gist
George W. Gordon
Edward Johnson
Mark P. Lowrey
Hiram B. Granbury
S. D. Lee
John Bell Hood
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Henry Jackson
William Hicks Jackson
S. D. Lee
W. W. Loring
Mark P. Lowrey
Arthur C. Manigault
William Quarles
Daniel Reynolds
Thomas M. Scott
Claudius W. Sears
Jacob Sharp
Charles Shelley
Thomas Benton Smith
A. P. Stewart
Otho F. Strahl
Edward C. Walthall
[Another post in a series about the re-burial on October 10th and the connection to Harold Becker (in attendance) whose father served in the 128th Indiana and fought at Franklin 30 November 1864.]
Harold’s father, Charles Conrad Becker, was a member of the 128th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The 128th served alongside two other Indiana regiments on the far left Union flank at Franklin (Nov 30th, 1864): the 63rd and 120th Indiana. Those three regiments were part of Israel B. Stiles’s brigade.
Stiles’s brigade assumed the furthest position on the far left Union flank that day, buttressing up against the Nashville-Decatur Railroad.
Click on map to see an enlarge map with more scope
As you can see on the map above, the Confederate brigades of Scott and Featherston assaulted the far left Union flank by sweeping across what is currently known as the Eastern flank. Hundreds of Rebel boys were killed on tis part of the field including hundreds from Mississippi and Alabama.
Here’s a Google Earth terrain map showing the position of the 128th at Franklin; click on the map for a larger version.
The next day after the battle, December 1st, Patrick Cleburne, and three other Confederate Generals were brought to Carnton and laid out on the back porch. Jacobson eloquently tells the story. What about his Kepi? His pistol?
The bodies of Confederate Generals Cleburne, Adams, Strahl and Granbury were laid out right on this porch on the morning of December 1st, 1864.
This is the authentic Kepi worn by Cleburne the day he was killed.
Image of Cleburne’s Kepi courtesy of the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN.
Want to know more?
Read the incredible true story of what happened to the once-lost pistol that belonged to Patrick Cleburne.
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