Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/750

694 securing its assignment to the Sixty-first Virginia infantry regiment as Company K. With this command Sergeant Adams shared the fortunes of Mahone's gallant brigade, and by his excellent service won promotion to the rank of first sergeant, and richly deserved a commission. The company joined the Sixty-first regiment just after the battle of Cedar Mountain, and was a part of the small force commanded by Col. V. D. Groner, which throughout the entire day held in check the Federal army at Warrenton. He participated in the two battles at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, Yellow Tavern, Burgess' Mill, and all the other fighting of Mahone's brigade. The lieutenants of the company falling into the hands of the enemy at the time of the breaking of the lines at Petersburg, Sergeant Adams commanded the company on the retreat. At Appomattox it had but two privates to report for duty. On the day before the surrender Sergeant Adams had been captured by Federal cavalry while stopping, as he supposed, out of reach of the enemy, to prepare some food which was the first he had seen for two or three days. After his parole he returned to Norfolk and engaged in the city transfer business, to which he has since given his attention. Early in the '70's, when Gen. B. F. Butler visited Norfolk, Sergeant Adams, considering that Federal commander an exception, refused to carry him in his hack, an incident which gained for him a wide notoriety at the time. He is a member of Pickett-Buchanan camp, St. Paul's Episcopal church, and the order of Red Men. He was married in August, 1861, to Sarah Roberts, of Baltimore, who died November 26, 1883.

Captain Richard Henry Toler Adams, of Lynchburg, Va., whose faithful service in the Confederate cause was identified with the brigade, division and corps of Gen. A. P. Hill, is a native of the city where he now resides, born November 6, 1839. At the age of ten years his home was made in Appomattox county, where he was educated. In 1857 he removed to Richmond and was there engaged in the wholesale grocery trade until April, 1861, when he returned to Lynchburg to enlist in the Home Guard, or Company G of the Eleventh regiment, Virginia infantry. With this command he served as a private until May, 1862, in the meantime taking part in the battles of Blackburn's Ford, First Manassas and Dranesville, and in the spring of 1862, upon the promotion of his brigade commander, A. P. Hill, to the command of the Light division of Jackson's corps, Adams was promoted captain in the signal service and assigned to General Hill's division. He reported for this duty just before the battle of Cold Harbor, July, 1862, and subsequently was with General Hill until he was killed before Petersburg. In the discharge of his duty he was with his command in the battles of Gaines' Mill, Frayser's Farm, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Harper's Ferry, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and served in the trenches before Petersburg from June, 1864, until April, 1865. His service was of an active and perilous nature. Three horses were killed under him during the war, and he was wounded at Petersburg. During the siege of Harper's Ferry, in 1862, stationed on Loudoun heights, he transmitted General Jackson's order of attack to Maryland heights in five minutes—rapid work which elicited