The Biographical Dictionary of America/Ames, Adelbert

AMES, Adelbert, soldier, was born at Rockland, Me., Oct. 31, 1835. He entered West Point in 1856, and was graduated May 6, 1861, as 2d lieutenant 2d artillery, U. S. A., and a week later promoted to 1st lieutenant 5th artillery. He was first assigned to the duty of instructing volunteers at Washington, and afterwards transferred to Griffin's battery. He was brevetted major for his gallantry in the battle of Bull Run, where he was severely wounded. He served in the peninsular campaign, and was present at the siege of Yorktown and the battle of Garnett Farms; and for gallant services at Malvern Hill he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, July 1, 1862. He engaged in the battles of Antietam, Sept. 17, and Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862. His regiment, the 20th Maine, being out of service on account of an epidemic, he served as aid-de-camp to Generals Hooker and Meade in the Chancellorsville campaign. He was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, May 20, 1863, and in the first day's fight at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, he commanded the 2d brigade, 1st division, 11th corps. When the division commander was disabled, General Ames succeeded to the command. For his bravery he received a brevet as colonel in the regular army. He then joined the forces besieging Charleston, S.C., and served there and in Florida until the spring of 1864, when he was assigned to the army of the James and ordered to Fort Monroe. He was attached to the 18th corps, Gen. W. F. Smith, and left White House, Va., to join in the battle of Cold Harbor, reaching the battle-field June 3, 1864, and took part in the disastrous battle. His division, on Sept. 28, 1864, made the gallant but unsuccessful assault on Fort Gilmer and in the operations about Petersburg and Richmond, he was conspicuously active. He was ordered to join General Butler on an expedition against Fort Fisher, N. C., December, 1864. After the failure of the first attack on the fort made by General Butler and Admiral Porter, a second expedition was organized with the land forces under Gen. Alfred H. Terry. The expedition reached its destination Jan. 12, 1865. The troops were disembarked four miles north of the fort under a heavy bombardment. General Terry advanced his land force to within half a mile of the fort, where he established his headquarters and gave the command of the assaulting party to General Ames. He advanced on the 15th, after the guns of the fort had been silenced by Porter's fleet, but the garrison manned the parapet and poured a deadly fire on the blue jackets, who sought to storm the North-east bastion; the first brigade also made a charge. The storming party scaled the parapet and were joined by their comrades. General Ames ordered up Pennypacker's brigade. His advance was resisted with desperation, and he then brought forward the third brigade, and Colonel Bell led his command over the bridge into the fort, but fell mortally wounded. General Ames was in the fort directing the various forces, and his command rang out, "Advance and drive the enemy from the works." The range of the fire from the fleet was too uncertain, and General Ames sent an officer to General Terry to signal the fleet to cease firing, and for reinforcements. Abbott's brigade was ordered up, and under a general assault the garrison gave way and retreated along the sea-face to Battery Buchanan; and Fort Fisher, the last of the Confederate strongholds, was captured. For this victory General Ames was made a brevet major-general of volunteers and promoted to a captaincy in the 5th artillery, U. S. A. General Ames was in charge of territorial districts in North and South Carolina until he was mustered out of volunteer service, April 30, 1866. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel in the 24th infantry of the regular army July 28, 1866, and was appointed by President Grant, July 15, 1868, provisional governor of Mississippi, then in a state of turbulence. He resigned from the army in 1870, was elected U. S. senator from the reconstructed State of Mississippi, and served through the 41st, 42d, and part of the term of the 43d, congresses, until he was elected governor of the state in 1873, when he resigned his seat as a senator. Dissensions arose during his administration between the Democrats, who constituted the larger body of the white people, and the Republicans, most of whom were lately enfranchised freedmen, which resulted in the disorganization of the civil government and the perpetration of outrages and murders. General Ames asked President Grant for troops to aid in maintaining order, but was recommended to take all lawful means to preserve the peace by the forces in his own state." He raised a militia force from among the black men to assist the civil officers. Governor Ames was impeached in 1873, but the articles were dismissed on his resigning the office of governor. He claimed to have saved the state nearly two million of dollars by preventing the issue of railroad bonds. He was married to a daughter of Gen. B. F. Butler, and their daughter Edith was married in 1896 to Charles Brook Stevens. Their son Butler was an officer in the 6th Mass. volunteers in the war with Spain. On June 20, 1898, General Ames was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and he was honorably discharged, Jan. 3, 1899.