Alexander Adams ( British Army officer ) Lieutenant - General Alexander Adams ( died 1835 ) was a British army officer . He distinguished himself in the Second Anglo - Maratha War , serving with the 78th Highlanders in India . His commander , General Wellesley ( later Duke of Wellington ) , thanked him for his services on several occasions . After the settlement of Java , he was appointed to a command in the army , and also as minister at the court of the emperor . Family . Alexander Adams was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth ( née Campbell ) Adams , and was a member of an " ancient Pembrokeshire family " . Joseph Adams was a " major in the army " . Military service . Gibraltar . Adams originally joined the Queen ' s Royals as an ensign , and served in that regiment as a lieutenant and adjutant , or acting adjutant , for a considerable time , chiefly at Gibraltar , a period he remembered with much pleasure . India . He joined the 78th Highlanders , not long after its formation , with the rank of captain . Around 1796 , he was the paymaster of the regiment in Bengal . He trained the men using David Dundas ' s then little - known drill - book of 1788 as a guide and is credited with instilling a high degree of discipline . He was promoted to major and given command of the regiment at Fort William , Bengal , in 1801 . During the Second Anglo - Maratha War of 1803 , the 78th was sent via Bombay to Poona to join a division of the Madras Army commanded by Major - General Arthur Wellesley ( later Duke of Wellington ) . Wellesley , by an extraordinary march , had saved the city from destruction . Adams distinguished himself at the successful escalade of the Pettah of Ahmednagar . During the heat of the action , the 78th , on the extreme left of the line and somewhat separated from it , had to charge a double column of regular infantry and artillery , while keeping a large body of cavalry in check on the left and , at the same time , being fired upon from the rear by their own guns . The 78th ' s guns , left behind by the necessity of closing quickly with the enemy , had been seized and turned against them by a party that had passed through the gap between the 78th and the rest of the brigade , along with some stragglers . Once the 78th had captured the enemy guns to its front , General Wellesley rode up and instructed Lieutenant - Colonel Adams to " face about , and drive those fellows from our guns " , which was immediately done . In his next general action , Adams was engaged against the combined armies of Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar at Argaum on 29 November later the same year . Here he took command of the leading brigade , owing to the illness of the unit ' s brigadier , who soon after died . The enemy troops were drawn up in an extended line , flanked by masses of cavalry , on a gently sloping plain . They permitted the British column to advance parallel to their front to within a very short distance without opposition . Having concentrated the greater number of their guns to bear upon one point of the road in front of a mud - walled village , the enemy suddenly opened fire on the leading battalions of sepoys , causing them to give way . General Wellesley , riding up to ascertain the situation , gave his directions , which were implemented by Adams , to lead the column round by the other side of the village . The natives were rallied behind this shelter , formed a line , and charged . Several hundred of the devoted sect of Gossains advanced to meet them , discharged their firearms , and attacked with swords the 78th and the remains of the 74th Regiment ( which had suffered severely in the former action ) , but were wiped out . The British were soon in possession of the field , artillery , baggage , and all . After this achievement , Wellesley expressed his appreciation of Adams ' s conduct . Adams also participated in the subsequent siege and storming of the strong hill - fort of Gawilghur . The Second Anglo - Maratha War ended immediately afterward . A strong detachment , consisting of the 78th along with a proportion of natives and artillery under the command of Adams , was sent to reduce the hill - fort of Lhoghur , whose governor proved hostile . Upon learning of preparations being made to storm the place , however , the governor became alarmed and surrendered . Wellesley once again thanked Adams , this time for the judiciousness of his preparations and his negotiations for the surrender , the fort being considered almost impregnable . About the middle of 1804 , the 78th went into cantonment s at Bombay , where it remained until 1806 , when it was sent to Goa . Adams was nominated to the command of the British auxiliary force at that Portuguese settlement under very delicate circumstances , during the French occupation of Portugal . At one time , the British force was ordered to be prepared to take possession of the colony if necessary . In 1811 , the 78th Regiment was ordered to Madras to augment the force which Sir Samuel Auchmuty , the Commander - in - Chief of the Madras Presidency , was about to lead to Java . Java . Adams was appointed to the command of a brigade . The Java Expedition sailed the day before a tremendous hurricane which devastated the Coromandel coast . The expedition , which was well out to sea , suffered only trifling damage . Reinforced at Malacca by a body of troops from Bengal , the army disembarked near Batavia , took possession of it , and made preparations to attack the strongly fortified position of Cornelis , within three or four miles of that city . After a heavy cannonade from both sides for some days , it was taken by assault , resulting , after some subsequent minor operations , in the final surrender of the island and its dependencies . On the settlement of Java , Adams was appointed to the command of the central division of the army , and to the important office of minister at the court of the emperor at Solo . He held this office until it was merged in the appointment of a civil commissioner to superintend the affairs of the native courts . Adams was then nominated Resident at Sourabaya , and to the command of the troops of the eastern division . The latter position , he continued to exercise at Sourabaya and at Samarang , until the general peace and restitution of Java to the Dutch . Retirement . Having attained the rank of major - general , he returned to Europe and retired to his paternal estate near Pembroke . In 1830 , he was promoted to lieutenant - general . He died on 12 September 1835 in a shooting accident in the vicinity of Pembroke . While in the act of getting over a hedge , his fowling - piece , although at half - cock , went off ; the contents entered his left eye and blew off the entire side of his head , killing him instantly . He had married Frances - Louisa Holcombe , daughter of the Reverend William Holcombe , in 1801 . She survived him .