Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment

John G.B. Adams enlisted in the U.S. Army as a Private and eventually achieved the rank of Captain, leading the 19th Massachusetts regiment in the Eastern theater of the Civil War. The regiment would fight in almost all of the Eastern theater’s most famous battles, including the Seven Days Battles, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Adams would earn the Medal of Honor at the Battle of Fredericksburg, while his regiment continued to participate in the war during the Overland Campaign.


It was during that campaign where the 19th Massachusetts’ story really became unique. During the fateful Battle of Cold Harbor, a Union debacle, Adams and his entire regiment were captured and held as prisoners until the end of the war. Adams was first held at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, before being used as a human shield on Morris Island in an attempt to stop naval bombardment by the Union. Later moved to Columbia, he and a comrade attempted to escape but were eventually captured. 


Adams tells his incredible story, as well as the regiment’s story, in these gripping memoirs.