William Wirt Adams

William Wirt Adams (March 22, 1819 – May 1, 1888) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded cavalry in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.

Early life and education Adams was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, to Anna Weisiger Adams and Judge George Adams (a personal friend to American statesman and orator Henry Clay). He was a brother of Daniel Weisiger Adams, another future Civil War general. In 1825 his family moved to and settled in Natchez, Mississippi. His father was a district court judge for Mississippi from 1836 to 1839.

Adams attended college at Bardstown College in Bardstown, Kentucky. Upon graduation in 1839, he relocated to the Republic of Texas where he enlisted as a private in the Texas militia under Edward Burleson. Appointed regimental adjutant, he participated in the Indian Wars.

Adams returned to Mississippi where he married Sallie Huger Mayarant in 1850. On May 1, 1888, Adams, walking on President Street in Jackson with another man, encountered Martin coming from the opposite direction near the corner of Amite Street. After a brief verbal altercation, both men pulled revolvers on each other, Adams firing three times and Martin six. Both died almost immediately with Adams shot through the heart and Martin in the chest, leg, and hand. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.

Controversies The photographic portrait of William Wirt Adams in Era Warner's "Generals in Gray" is incorrect. It is that of his brother Daniel Weisiger Adams.