Esteemed member DZouave5@aol.com contributes:

Good information concerning Ames at Gettysburg can be found in Pfanz's GETTYSBURG: CULP'S HILL & CEMETERY HILL, also his OR reports are in Series I, Vol. 27, Part I, pp. 712 and 1043. He is also mentioned, in passing, in the THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ.

And for you trivia buffs, author and humorist George Plimpton is a direct descendent of General Ames. Plimpton remembers as a young lad being quite intimidated in meeting the General as everyone had to stand up straight like good little soldiers.

It might be noted that George Plimpton is also a direct descendant of the infamous (at least to many Southerners & some Northerners) Ben Butler -- as Ames married Butler's daughter, Blanche. Interestingly, while old "Spoons" was not much for looks, his daughter was quite a beauty, as her photos attest. Ames drew much comdemnation for his tenure as Reconstruction Governor of Mississippi -- and also became embroiled in various postwar debates regarding the assault on Fort Fisher. But, while a strict martinet and grandly self-assured individual, he was, withall, a very gallant soldier.

Brian Pohanka

Esteemed member deicher@astronomy.com (Dave Eicher) contributes:

Here are citations for the two most valuable books on Adelbert Ames:

Ames, Blanche Ames. *Adelbert Ames, 1835-1933: General, Senator, Governor: The Story of His Life and Times and His Integrity as a Soldier and Statesman in the Service of the United States of America throughout the Civil War and in Mississippi in the Years of Reconstruction* (625 pp., published by the author, North Easton, Mass., 1964)

(by far the most useful volume), and -

Those wishing to investigate Ames further may wish to consult *Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century: Family Letters of Blanche Butler and Adelbert Ames*. Compiled in 1935 by Ames's widow, this work consists of 1408 pages in two volumes. It was privately published by Jesse Ames Marshall in Clinton, Massachusetts, in 1957.

Good university and public libraries may well have both works.