Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General. A member of the prominent Adams family, he was an 1856 graduate of Harvard University, and was practicing law when the Civil War started. At age 26 he volunteered for the Union Army, and was commissioned as 1st Lieutenant of Company H, 1st Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry on December 19, 1861. He saw the war though to its end, and resigned due to ill health on August 1, 1865. He was a member of the Massachusetts Railroad Commission after his war service, and served as President of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890. His father was American Diplomat and Congressman Charles Francis Adams, his grandfather was 6th United States President John Quincy Adams, and his great-grandfather was 2nd United States President John Adams. His brothers were prominent historians Brooks Adams and Henry B. Adams.