Charles Powell Adams was born in Rainsburg, Bedford County, PA., on March 3, 1831. He graduated from the Ohio Medical College, in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1851. He married Mary Florence Hoover. Their daughter Flora was born in Indiana in 1853. They moved to Minnesota in 1854, settling in Hastings. They're plans were to both farm and set up medical practice. Their son William was born in 1856. The next year Charles served as a representative in the last territorial legislature. Mary died in October 1858, and was buried in Hastings. By 1860, Charles had given up farming. He was the editor of the Hastings newspaper as well as practicing medicine. When he heard of the shelling of Ft. Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops, he volunteered. He must have made some provision for the care of his children. In addition, he sold his newspaper to one of his Printers, John Mars. (Mars, himself, later joined the First Minnesota and served under Adams once again.) On April 30, 1861, Adams was mustered into service and voted, by the men of Company H, to serve as their captain. He stood 6' 1", had dark hair and was a striking figure of a soldier. He was wounded many times during the course of the war. At their first engagement, Bull Run, he was hit by an artillery shell in his left thigh and also received a slight head wound from a minnie ball. During the battle he had his pistol knocked from his hand by a musket ball. He led his men in charges against the enemy and was quoted as shouting out, "Honor to whom honor is due." At Antietam a bullet grazed his left shoulder. He was injured at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862. The regiment was running quickly down the hill and into a heavy forest of timber. While doing this, his feet became entangled in a bush or briar and he took a severe fall which resulted in a strain to his groin and a hernia on his left side. He continued through the battle and the army moved to Harrisons Landing the following day. There the swelling and inflammation confined him to his bed for ten days. While confined to his quarters he was attacked with malarial and swamp fever. He was sent to the General Hospital at Harrisons Landing and from there to the Hygria Hospital at Fortress Monroe, where he remained for some time. He returned to the regiment two days before the Battle of South Mountain. He re-injured himself when he fell from his horse while on duty on the picket line near Falmouth, Virginia. On Feb. 9, 1863, he was sent to and treated for the hernia at the Army Hospital for Volunteer Officers in Washington D. C. He spent two weeks recovering and then returned to the regiment. He worked his way up the ranks. As stated earlier, he began his military service, as captain of Company H. He was promoted to major on Sept. 26, 1862, after Antietam. He became lieutenant colonel on May 6, 1863. He then was second in command of the regiment when the First Minnesota made its charge on July 2, 1863. On July 2, 1863, he was at his position behind the regiment and on the right. Colonel Colvill was in the center and Major Downie was on the left. In the mad rush to stop the rebels, regimental structure was blurred. When Colonel Colvill fell Lt Colonel Adams took command and when he too went down, Major Downie commanded. Shortly thereafter, Downie was also wounded and fell. Adams was shot in both the side of his left leg, just above the knee and in his chest. The wound in the chest was made by a minnie ball. It entered the left breast, passed through the left lung, fractured the lower portion of the scapula and came out near the spine. The bullet destroyed some of the respiration ability of the left lung and required most of the work be done by the right lung from then on. He suffered two bullet wounds to his left leg. In the upper wound the ball entered in the left groin passed obliquely backwards and downwards through the thigh coming out his posterior a few inches below the hip joint. During the minnie ball's flight through it struck his femur, injuring but not breaking it. The second ball may have been the last of the three shots which, in quick order, took him down. It entered in the area of the lower third of his thigh from the rear. It passed obliquely inward and downward, lodging about two inches above the knee joint. This ball remained in him for the rest of his life and was never removed. Charles spent some time in the Gettysburg Hospital. From there he returned to Minnesota on Sept. 1st to finish his recovery. On Nov. 24, 1863, he returned and was admitted to the same Hospital for Volunteer Officers in Washington that he had been at earlier in the year. He returned to the regiment on Saturday, Dec. 12, 1863. Writing in his diary on Dec. 13, 1863, Sgt. George Buckman made the following notation: "Lt. Col. Adams took command of the Regiment. He has not recovered from his wounds which he received at the battle of Gettysburg. He has no use of his left lung and walks lame from a musket ball in his knee. Had 7 rounds. It is surprising to see how he lived." The regiment returned to Minnesota in late February 1864. He and the regiment were mustered out of the service on May 5, 1864. A new regiment was being formed to replace the recently disbanded unit. He had wanted to command this new regiment. He tried to get enough veterans of the original first to enlist so they could keep the name First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. However, not enough of the veterans did so. Only 58 veterans from the "Old First" opted to re-enlist. Since the regiment would be made up of mostly new men and it was going to be much smaller than a normal 1,000 man regiment, the unit was required to take on a new name; thus they became known as the First Battalion of Minnesota Infantry. Charles was not popular with some of the men and apparently a few higher ups also had some doubts about him, for he was not offered command of the new Battalion. When Adams learned that he would not be given command the unit he decided not to re-enlist in the new unit either. He returned home to Hastings and the Battalion went east without him. Two months later, however, on July 15, 1864, he received a commission as a major in Hatch's Battalion of Independent Cavalry, which he accepted. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Battalion on Sept. 5, 1864. Frank Mead, who had worked as a printer for Adams in Hastings also volunteered and fought in the First Minnesota. They were good friends. When the original first was mustered out Mead also joined Adams in Hatch's Battalion. Charles may have been responsible for Mead getting a promotion from being a private in the First Minnesota Infantry to becoming a 2nd lieutenant in Hatch's Battalion. Charles served until the end of the war and was mustered out with the Battalion on June 5, 1866. On June 22, 1867, he was given brevet, or honorary, promotions to brevet colonel, for faithful service during the war, and brevet brigadier general, for meritorious service. Charles returned to Minnesota and to Hastings. He was its mayor in 1872. He served as a state senator from 1879 to 1881. Charles married again. The second marriage was to a Mary C. Hoover. This marriage ended in divorce on Oct. 18, 1873. Five weeks later, on Nov. 29, 1873, he married Mary Sophia Pettibone in Vermillion located in Dakota County. Interestingly enough, Mary had divorced her first husband, Milo Pettibone, on Sept 6, 1873, just two months before she married Charles. One can draw their own conclusions from this amazing coincidence. Later in life Charles had to use a cane to steady his walk. This was neccessitated by his wartime injuries, especially the bullet in his left leg that was never removed. Charles died of cancer of the stomach on Nov. 2, 1893, in Vermillion, Dakota County, MN. He was 62 years old. He was buried at the Lakeside Cemetery in Hastings (Section D, Block 19, Lot 6). Sources: Diary of George Buckman, Dec. 13, 1864, MHS. Brigadier Generals in Blue, Roger Hunt, 1990, p5. Diary, Pvt. Balthasar Best, Co. K, 1st Minn. Inf., 1863. Pale Horse at Plum Run, Briam Leehan, 2002, Minn Hist Soc Press, p 115-116. The Hastings Independent, Aug. 1, 1861. 1860 US Census. 1870 US Census. 1880 US Census. 1885 South Dakota Territorial Census. Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol 14, Minnesota Biographies, MHS, St Paul, MN, June 1912, p 4. Military Medical Record, Charles P. Adams, National Archives, Wash. D. C. Military Pension Record, Charles P. Adams, National Archives, Wash. D. C. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
