John G. B. Adams

John Gregory Bishop Adams (October 6, 1841 – October 19, 1900) was an American soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Civil War.

Adams was born October 6, 1841, in Groveland, Massachusetts, to Isaac and Margaret Adams. He married Mary E. on April 5, 1866, in Boston. They had two children, but they both died in infancy.

When Adams returned home after the war, he worked a series of jobs, including working for a shoe company, as a customs inspector, postmaster, and deputy warden. He served as a Massachusetts elector in the 1868 presidential election. In 1899, Adams published a war service memoir, Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment.

Biography

Adams enlisted in military service as a private and eventually achieved the rank of captain. During his Civil War service, he fought in several major battles, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. It was during the Battle of Fredericksburg that his actions would earn him the United States military's highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor. During the Battle of Cold Harbor, his entire regiment was captured and held as prisoners in a Confederate prison camp, where he was held for nine months.

Civil War service

Adams enlisted as a private in Major Benjamin Perley Poore's Rifle Battalion, a unit that was later folded into the 19th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. The 19th Massachusetts was organized at Camp Schouler in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, in April 1861. The 19th was largely composed of Essex County men. Its core began as three companies of the state militia's 1st Battalion Massachusetts Rifles from Essex County. In the camp, Adams and his fellow militia rifleman regiment turned in most of their Windsor, Vermont-produced Model 1841s and received the Model 1856 Enfield Rifle. Also known as "the 2-band Enfield" and "Sergeants' Rifle," it was the rifle that the British army issued to its rifle regiments and to sergeants in its line battalions. A handful of the Model 1841s that were in excellent condition and had been modified to.58 caliber and with rear sights and bayonets were retained, but most of the men received the new rifles and were impressed with them.