Ames, Adelbert, 1835-1933

"Adelbert Ames served as a governor and U.S. senator of Mississippi during the Reconstruction era. He was born in East Thomaston (modern-day Rockland), Maine, in 1835. As a boy, Ames spent time working on various merchant vessels, receiving training in seamanship. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1856, graduating in May 1861, at the start of the Civil War. Commissioned as a second lieutenant, the young Ames was promoted to first lieutenant barely over a week later and served with the 5th U.S. Artillery during the battle of First Bull Run at Manassas, Virginia, on July 21, 1861. Despite being wounded in the leg, Ames stayed by his cannons. His actions at Bull Run led him to receive the brevet (honorary) rank of major and, in 1893 (more than thirty years later), the Medal of Honor.

Ames recovered from his wound and returned to the front lines in 1862, serving with distinction as an artillery officer during the Peninsula Campaign near Richmond. Seeking better promotion potential, Ames sought an infantry command. Through those efforts, in August 1862, he received command of the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment, and led that unit in combat during the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. In May 1863, he volunteered to serve as a staff officer for Major General George G. Meade, which helped him achieve the rank of brigadier general that month. With this promotion, Ames left the 20th Maine to his second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who gained great fame commanding the regiment at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Ames’ own performance at Gettysburg was highly praised, as his division successfully defended the Union position at Cemetery Hill.

After Gettysburg, Ames’ division was transferred to the Department of the South. Over the next two years, he commanded Union troops during campaigns in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. He received a brevet promotion to major general for his actions at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in March 1865.

After the Civil War, Ames became involved in federal Reconstruction efforts. In 1868, he was appointed the provisional governor of Mississippi. Ames proved sympathetic to the plight of African Americans in the south. He sought to protect Black civil rights and appointed Mississippi’s first African American public officials. In 1870, after Mississippi was readmitted into the Union, Ames ran for U.S. senator for the state as a Republican and won. He served in that capacity from February 1870 to January 1874, achieving the reputation as a strong public speaker. While serving as a senator in Washington, D.C., Ames met and married Blanche Butler, daughter of Union general Benjamin F. Butler, under whom Ames had served during the war. Ames and his wife had six children over the course of their marriage.

In 1873, Ames ran for governor of Mississippi. His chief rival was James L. Alcorn, a former Confederate general who had been a Whig before the Civil War and joined the Republican Party afterwards. Ames won the election and worked diligently to improve Mississippi’s financial and social situation. In 1874, Democrats in Mississippi coordinated a campaign of violence against African Americans and white Republicans in the state, to secure political control in Mississippi. Unable to militarily suppress the white supremacist terror campaign, Ames signed a truce with Democratic leaders in Mississippi to reduce the violence and allow a peaceful election. Groups of white supremacists abandoned the truce and resumed their intimidation tactics against Republicans and Black Mississippians during the following elections, leading to a surge of Democratic politicians taking office.

In 1876, the conservative Democrat majority in the Mississippi legislature tried to impeach Ames and many other Republican officials with trumped up charges of corruption. Despite a strong political force against him, Ames’ critics were unable to provide any evidence of impropriety. Nevertheless, because impeachment was politically driven, Ames could see that his future as governor was over and any effort on his part to legally defend himself would be personally and financially taxing. He and his attorneys reached an agreement with Democratic leaders to resign his office in exchange for dropping the legal charges. On March 29, 1876, after Democrats cancelled their legal proceedings, Ames vacated his position.

Ames left Mississippi and went into business in Minnesota with his father and brother. A short time later, he relocated to New York City and then Massachusetts, overseeing mills and various business interests. When the Spanish-American War erupted in 1898, Ames volunteered for service and was appointed brigadier general of volunteers. Although over sixty years old, Ames joined the field campaign in Cuba and performed well.

Ames resumed his business ventures in the early twentieth century. He lived until 1933, dying at age 97. He is buried in Lowell, Massachusetts. (Wikipedia)"