Adelbert Ames, a native of Maine, was a brigadier general in the Union Army and received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor at the Battle of Bull Run. He was appointed provisional governor of Mississippi in 1868 and commanded the fourth military district, which included Mississippi and Arkansas, under the provisions of federal Reconstruction. During his tenure, he appointed the first black citizens to public office in Mississippi history. When Mississippi was readmitted to the Union in 1870, he was appointed by the legislature to the United States Senate. In 1873 he ran for governor and, upon election, resigned his Senate seat. He served a tumultuous term as a Republican governor with a Democratic majority legislature. Discord and rancor over matters of race marked his administration. When the legislature brought politically-motivated impeachment charges against him, he resigned from office in a compromise, and the charges were dropped. He left the state for New York and, later, Massachusetts.