Originally titled the First Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry, the unit was renamed after its commander, William Wirt Adams, in December, 1861.

The Regiment was organized by William Wirt Adams, a prominent banker and former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

[1] These companies were organized into a cavalry regiment in the summer of 1861, and the troops under Adams proceeded to Kentucky in September to join the Confederate forces there.

[1] When Union General William T. Sherman began his campaign towards Meridian in February, 1864, Wood's Regiment skirmished with Federal troops at several points along their line of march.

[1] In the final stages of the war, Adams' brigade, including his former regiment, was attached to Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry corps,[3] and fought in the Battle of Selma before surrendering in Sumter County, Alabama on May 4, 1865.