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Photograph of Zabdiel Boylston Adams, 1861.
From the collections of the Warren Anatomical Museum.

A graduate of Harvard Medical School in 1853, Zabdiel Boylston Adams enlisted in 1861, joining the 7th Massachusetts Volunteers as an assistant surgeon.  He was later a captain with the 56th Massachusetts Volunteers.  Adams was wounded at Orange Plank Road during the Battle of the Wilderness and taken captive, spending four months in Confederate prisons in Virginia. 

Zabdiel Boylston Adams (1829-1902)
Autograph Letter Signed : Lynchburg, Va., to James Thomas Fields, 1864 May 29.
Gift of Mitchell L. Adams to the Library of Harvard Medical School, 1981.

In this letter to his brother-in-law, publisher James T. Fields (1817-1881), written from Lynchburg, Adams describes his wounds and treatment.

"Today I am a little better but strength is wanting.  I have suffered intensely and the ball is lodged near the ankle joint and not yet found by the surgeons, although they have made a long incision and resected a piece of the smaller bone about 6 inches long.  The wound was in the outer side of the l[eft] lower leg, and was received while rallying the few men that remained to a stand by the side of the color.  A few of my men behaved very bravely, many very wildly & foolishly, and many ran off.  I was also wounded slightly in the l[eft] knee.  I shall probably save my leg, but recovery will be slow & use of ankle & joint imperfect after…. They are very kind to me, and all the drs. take unusual interest in my case, still it is not like our own hospitals."

Chess Pieces, 1864
Gift of Mitchell L. Adams to the Warren Anatomical Museum, 1981.

The wooden chess set pieces were carved by Zabdiel Boylston Adams while confined in Libby Prison, in Richmond.