{{short description|American lawyer}} {{Other people|Daniel Adams}} {{Infobox military person |name= Daniel Weisiger Adams |birth_date= {{birth date|1821|5|1}} |death_date= {{death date and age|1872|6|13|1821|5|1}} |image=DanielWAdams.jpg |caption= D. W. Adams as a Confederate General |nickname= |birth_place= Frankfort, Kentucky, US |death_place= New Orleans, Louisiana, US |burial_place= Greenwood Cemetery, Mississippi, US |burial_label= Place of burial |allegiance= Confederate States of America |branch= Confederate States Army |service_years= 1861&ndash;1865 |rank= Brigadier General |unit= |commands= 1st Louisiana Regulars |battles= American Civil War<br/>-Battle of Shiloh<br/>-Battle of Perryville<br/>-Battle of Stones River<br/>-Battle of Chickamauga<br/>-Battle of Selma |awards= |relations= Brother of William Wirt Adams |other_work= }} '''Daniel Weisiger Adams''' (May 1, 1821 &ndash; June 13, 1872) was a lawyer and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

==Early life and career== Adams was born in Frankfort, Kentucky,<ref name="Eicher99">Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}. p. 99.</ref><ref name="Faust">Faust, Patricia L. ''Adams, Daniel Weisiger''. In ''Historical Times Illustrated History of the Civil War'', edited by Patricia L. Faust. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. {{ISBN|978-0-06-273116-6}}., p.2.</ref><ref name="Sifakis2">Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|0-8160-1055-2}}. p. 2.</ref><ref name="Warner1">Warner, Ezra J., ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders'', Louisiana State University Press, 1959, {{ISBN|0-8071-0823-5}}. p. 1.</ref> to George Adams and Anna Weisiger Adams. His brother, William Wirt Adams, was also a Confederate Army brigadier general.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Warner1"/>

The family moved to Mississippi in 1825.<ref>According to Eicher, 2001, p. 99, Adams was educated at the University of Virginia. Other sources for this article do not mention his education at the University of Virginia.</ref> Adams read law and became a lawyer in Mississippi.<ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Sifakis2"/><ref name="Warner1"/> right|170px|thumb|Pre-Civil War portrait of Daniel Adams He also was a second lieutenant in the Mississippi Militia and a member of the Mississippi legislature, serving in the Mississippi State Senate from 1852 to 1856.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Allardice |first1=Bruce S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeUzEAAAQBAJ |title=Kentuckians in Gray: Confederate Generals and Field Officers of the Bluegrass State |last2=Hewitt |first2=Lawrence Lee |date=2021-12-14 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-9406-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Adams killed James Hagan in a duel on June 6, 1843. Hagan, editor of the ''Vicksburg Sentinel'', had criticized Adams' father.<ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Sifakis2"/><ref name="Warner1"/><ref>Warner says that Adams'sfather was a federal judge. Eicher, 2001, p. 99 says Adams killed a federal judge who had criticized his father's newspaper.</ref>

Adams moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1852.<ref name="Faust"/> He became prominent in local political and social circles, and his practice became one of the city's largest.

==Civil War== [[File:21-32-046-adams.jpg|thumb|Bust of Adams at Vicksburg National Military Park]]

With the secession of Louisiana following the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, in early 1861 Louisiana Governor Thomas O. Moore appointed Adams a member of the military board created to prepare the state for war.<ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Sifakis2"/> Adams was later appointed a lieutenant colonel of the 1st Louisiana Regulars, or 1st Louisiana Infantry, in the Confederate Army, and was promoted to the rank of colonel on October 30, 1861, after the regiment was sent to Pensacola, Florida.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Sifakis2"/><ref name="Warner1"/>

When his regiment's brigade commander, Brigadier General Adley H. Gladden was killed on the first day of the Battle of Shiloh, Adams assumed command of the brigade.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Sifakis2"/><ref name="Warner1"/> Soon thereafter, Adams was wounded in further fighting at the Hornet's Nest. A bullet hit Adams just above his left eye and exited behind the left ear, severing the optic nerve and leaving him blinded in the left eye.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Warner1"/><ref name="Sifakis3">Sifakis, 1988, p. 3.</ref> Adams was put in an ambulance wagon, but had become unresponsive, so the driver assumed he was dead and threw him overboard to lighten the load.<ref name="Welsh">Welsh, Jack D. [https://www.questia.com/read/102735069/medical-histories-of-confederate-generals ''Medical Histories of Confederate Generals''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802175407/https://www.questia.com/read/102735069/medical-histories-of-confederate-generals |date=2020-08-02 }}. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1995. {{ISBN|978-0-87338-505-3}}. Retrieved June 20, 2015. p. 1.</ref> Adams was saved when passing soldiers of the 10th Mississippi Infantry Regiment found him and realized that he was still alive. After a month of recuperating in an army hospital in Corinth, he was able to resume his duties.<ref name="Welsh"/>

Adams was promoted to brigadier general on May 23. 1862.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Sifakis2"/><ref name="Warner1"/> He led his brigade at the battles of Perryville<ref>Eicher, 2001, p. 99 shows Adams as wounded at Perryville but the other sources do not.</ref> and Stones River.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Warner1"/><ref name="Sifakis3"/> He was wounded again, in the left arm,<ref name="Eicher99"/> at Stones River on December 31, 1862.<ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Warner1"/><ref name="Sifakis3"/>

Adams returned to duty in early 1863 and led his brigade at the siege of Jackson, Mississippi under General Joseph E. Johnston.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Warner1"/><ref name="Sifakis3"/> Under the command of General Braxton Bragg, Adams's brigade fought at the Chickamauga.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Warner1"/><ref name="Sifakis3"/> Adams's brigade broke through the Union lines on the second day of the battle but they were driven back by Union Army reinforcements.<ref name="Faust"/> Adams was again wounded, in the left arm, and captured.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/><ref name="Warner1"/><ref name="Sifakis3"/>

When he recovered sufficiently to return to duty and was exchanged, Adams briefly commanded a cavalry brigade.<ref name="Faust"/> He subsequently was made the commander of the District of Central Alabama in 1864, and the commander of the State of Alabama, North of Gulf Department in 1865. Although he sought a promotion to major general, he remained a brigadier general until the end of the war.<ref name="Eicher99"/> He took part in the Battle of Selma in 1865, and the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, that same year. Adams surrendered to Union forces in Meridian, Mississippi on May 9 and took the oath of allegiance to the United States.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Sifakis2"/>

==Postbellum career== After the war ended, Adams spent some time in England,<ref name="Faust"/> then returned to New Orleans to practice law along with Harry T. Hays, a fellow Confederate general. Adams lived for a time in New York City where he was involved in the real estate business before moving back to New Orleans to resume his law practice and engage in state politics. He died in his office of a massive stroke on June 13, 1872.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Faust"/> Daniel Weisiger Adams is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi next to his brother William Wirt Adams.<ref name="Eicher99"/><ref name="Warner1"/> Daniel Weisiger Adams's gravesite is unmarked.<ref name="Warner1"/> He was a member of The Boston Club of New Orleans.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu09362126&seq=297 | title=History of the Boston club, organized in 1841, by Stuart O. Landry }}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Biography|American Civil War}} *List of American Civil War generals (Confederate) *William Wirt Adams *Reed N. Weisiger

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== * Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}. * Faust, Patricia L. ''Adams, Daniel Weisiger''. In ''Historical Times Illustrated History of the Civil War'', edited by Patricia L. Faust. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. {{ISBN|978-0-06-273116-6}}. * Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|0-8160-1055-2}}. * Warner, Ezra J., ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders'', Louisiana State University Press, 1959, {{ISBN|0-8071-0823-5}}.

==External links== *{{commons category-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Daniel Weisiger}} Category:1821 births Category:1872 deaths Category:People from Frankfort, Kentucky Category:University of Virginia alumni Category:Lawyers from New Orleans Category:People of Louisiana in the American Civil War Category:Confederate States Army brigadier generals Category:American Civil War prisoners of war Category:American duellists Category:Mississippi lawyers Category:Mississippi state senators Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:Burials at Greenwood Cemetery (Jackson, Mississippi)