38 Facts About Adelbert Ames

Adelbert Ames was an American sailor, soldier, businessman and politician who served with distinction as a Union Army general during the American Civil War.

Adelbert Ames was the last Republican to serve as the state governor of Mississippi until the election of Kirk Fordice, who took office in January 1992,116 years after Ames vacated the office.

Adelbert Ames was the penultimate surviving general officer of the Civil War, dying at the age of 97 in 1933.

Adelbert Ames was outlived only by Aaron Daggett, who died in 1938 at the age of 100.

However, because Daggett was a brevet rank brigadier general of volunteers, Adelbert Ames was the last surviving Civil War general who had held his rank in the regular US or Confederate States army and was the last surviving general of the conflict who had begun his career in the regular US Army.

Adelbert Ames was born in 1835 in the town of Rockland, located in Knox County, Maine.

Adelbert Ames was the younger of two sons of Martha Bradbury Ames and Jesse Ames, a sea captain who later purchased what became the Ames Mill in Northfield, Minnesota.

Adelbert Ames grew up to be a sailor and became a mate on a clipper ship, and he served briefly as a merchant seaman on his father's ship.

Adelbert Ames' class had graduated about a month earlier than usual, while a second class, set to graduate in 1862, graduated on June 24,1861.

Adelbert Ames was then commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd US Artillery.

In 1893, Adelbert Ames received the Medal of Honor for his performance there.

Adelbert Ames was commended for his conduct at Malvern Hill by Col.

Adelbert Ames returned to Maine and politicked to receive a commission as a regimental infantry commander and was assigned to command the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment on August 20,1862.

Probably as a result of this staff duty and his proximity to the influential Meade, Adelbert Ames was promoted to brigadier general in the Union Army on May 20,1863, two weeks following the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Adelbert Ames assumed brigade command in the XI Corps of the Army of the Potomac, relinquishing his command of the 20th Maine to Lt.

At one point, Adelbert Ames himself took part in the hand-to-hand fighting.

Adelbert Ames led the successful assault in the Second Battle of Fort Fisher, accompanying his men into the formidable coastal fortress as most of his staff were shot down by Confederate snipers.

Adelbert Ames received a brevet promotion to major general in the Union Army on March 13,1865, for his role in the battle.

Around 1868, Adelbert Ames became an original companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society of former Union officers and their descendants.

Adelbert Ames served from February 24,1870, to January 10,1874, as a Republican.

In Washington, Adelbert Ames met and married on July 21,1870, Blanche Butler, daughter of his former commander, then US Representative Benjamin Butler, later a one-term governor of Massachusetts.

Adelbert Ames battled James Lusk Alcorn, a former Confederate general, for control of the Republican Party, which then had mostly black voters.

Adelbert Ames's appointments included some so-called scalawags and a few former Confederates, but he was never happy in Mississippi, and much of the time, his wife and family remained in the North, where the weather was cooler and the socioeconomic conditions were less unpleasant.

Adelbert Ames was proud of his record and considered himself one of the best Republican governors of any of the Reconstructed states.

Adelbert Ames had no forces to send and depended on the federal government for troops to reinstate the ousted officials.

Rather than face an impeachment trial that would entail great expense, Adelbert Ames's lawyers made a deal: once the legislature had dropped all charges, he would resign his office, which occurred on March 29,1876.

Adelbert Ames next headed to New York City, then later settled in Tewksbury, Massachusetts as an executive in a flour mill, along with other business interests in the nearby city of Lowell.

General Adelbert Ames was assigned to command the brigade during the Siege of Santiago.

Adelbert Ames commanded the 1st Division when the V Corps was mustered out in New York.

Adelbert Ames corresponded extensively with the historian James Wilford Garner during this period; Garner's dissertation viewed Reconstruction as "unwise" but absolved Adelbert Ames of personal corruption.

Adelbert Ames's widow compiled a collection of her correspondence with Adelbert Ames, Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century, published posthumously in 1957.

About 1900, Adelbert Ames joined the Massachusetts Society of Colonial Wars.

Adelbert Ames died in 1933 at 97, at his winter home in Ormond Beach, Florida.

At the time of his death, Adelbert Ames was the last surviving full-rank general who had served in the Civil War.

Adelbert Ames was the son-in-law of Civil War General Benjamin Butler.

Adelbert Ames's daughter Blanche Ames Ames was a noted suffragist, inventor, artist, and writer.

Adelbert Ames's son Butler Ames was a businessman and politician, representing Massachusetts in Congress for ten years.

Adelbert Ames was portrayed by actor Matt Letscher in the 2003 film Gods and Generals.