History of Groveland, (Essex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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John Gregory Bishop Adams, soldier, was born at Groveland, Mass., Oct. 6, 1841. He was educated in the public schools, and before he was twenty years old enlisted in Major Ben Perley Poore's rifle battalion, which was subsequently merged into the 19th Massachusetts Volunteers. In March, 1862, he was made orderly sergeant. During the seven days' fighting on the Peninsula he was conspicuous for his bravery, and at its close his gallantry had won for him a second lieutenant's commission. At Fredericksburg, eight color bearers of his regiment had been shot, and the ninth, Lieut. Edgar M. Newcomb, in command of the color company, was killed as he took the colors in his hand. Adams seized the two standards, one in either hand, and led the charge over an open space swept by the confederate battery. He gained the cover of a shot-fiddled house, but the confederate position was impregnable and Marye's Heights were stormed but not captured. This placed him among the recognized heroes of the war. At the battle of Gettysburg, the 19th Massachusetts was sent to support General Sickles in his terrible peach-orchard and wheat-field fray on the second of July. In this battle Lieutenant Adams was the ranking first lieutenant in his regiment and took command of Company I. While leading his men he received two severe wounds in the groin, either of which was supposed to be fatal. He was borne from the field to die, the surgeons giving up his case as hopeless. Yet in November he was again with his command. His wounds never fully healed, and incapacitated him for active lucrative positions. After Gettysburg he was promoted captain, and during the Wilderness campaign of 1864 he served with distinguished bravery. It was the ill-fortune of most of the 19th Massachusetts to be captured at Cold Harbor early in June, 1864, and Captain Adams was among the prisoners. For nine months he suffered in Confederate prisons. He was sent to Libby, and after three months was transferred to Andersonville. He was removed to Macon; thence to Charleston, where for five months he was kept under the fire of Gillmore's guns, a retaliation to which the Confederate authorities subjected a large number of Union officers. He was then sent to Columbia, where he remained until he was exchanged. After the civil war he was employed in the Boston custom house, as postmaster of Lynn for eight years, and as deputy superintendent of the Concord reformatory. In 1885 he was made sergeant-at-arms for the commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was for many years president of the association of survivors of Confederate prisons, president of the trustees of the Soldiers' home, and a delegate to the national conventions of the G.A.R. He has held other positions of honor and responsibility, and in 1895 was elected commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. On Dec. 11, 1896, the war department at Washington announced that a medal of honor had been awarded to Capt. J. G. B. Adams for most distinguished gallantry in action at Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862. He died suddenly in Boston, Mass., Oct. 19, 1900.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Groveland, (Essex County) Massachusetts

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