President Jefferson Davis offered Adams a cabinet position there as Confederate Postmaster General, but he declined.

After settling his banking interests, he formed and enlisted the Wirt Adams' Cavalry Regiment into the Confederate States Army at Memphis, Tennessee, in August 1861.

From there they fought a rear-guard action in the Confederate retreat from Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, and subsequently to Corinth, Mississippi.

Later, at the Battle of Shiloh, they were positioned on the extreme right flank of the infantry and fought with it near the Tennessee River at Greer's Ford.

Later, four of the regiment's companies aggressively attacked and pursued Union Army elements for two miles, near Booneville, Mississippi.

Upon leaving General Price, Adams captured a trainload of Union Army troops from Corinth.

After the fall of Vicksburg, both his regiment and the 28th Mississippi Cavalry harassed and skirmished units under General William Tecumseh Sherman who were advancing on Confederate-held positions.

[4] In 1888, Adams was made the target of a number of attacks by the editor of the New Mississippian, John H. Martin, a staunch prohibitionist and reform advocate.