ure, stands the subject of our memoir, GENERAL WADSWORTH, of the Volunteers.

JAMES SAMUEL WADSWORTH was the eldest son of James Wadsworth, one of the pioneers of Western New York, and was born in Geneseo, Livingston County, New York, on the 30th of October, 1807. He received a thorough education at Harvard and Yale Colleges, from which he graduated with distinguished honors. He studied law with Messrs. McKown & Denniston, of Albany, New York, and completed his legal course in the office, and under the eye of the great statesman of New England, Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and in 1833 was admitted to the bar. In the following year he married. a daughter of John Wharton, of Philadelphia, by whom he had two sons and one daughter, and returning to his immense estates, engaged in the quiet enjoyment of agricultural pur

suits.

His estates in Western New York are unsurpassed in beauty or fertility. The wheat they produce is world-renowned, and all other products are in marvellous abundance and excellence of quality. As a farmer he was certainly one of the best and most successful in the country. He took particular interest in the improvement of stock, and imported very largely. In fact, agriculture was with him a study, a science, an art, not merely a means of making money; and most liberal was he in the promotion and dissemination of agricultural literature. He was a corporator in the Western New York Agricultural Association, President of the Livingston County Agricultural Society, a large contributor to the State Fair, and a Regent of the University.

But one of the most important traits of his character was his great liberality and benevolence, which deserve especial mention, but our space is too small to give them half their due prominence. Very few of the thrifty tenants upon his farms but have become rich under his liberal system. Some time ago, the weevil destroyed the wheat crop for a number of years. Mr. Wadsworth allowed his tenants to pay what they could without distressing their families, and assuming the loss himself, squared all their accounts. He did not leave them in debt to him and wait till a good crop should enable them to pay him; but with a magnanimity unsurpassed, he at once cancelled the whole demand. In all the great calamities which have befallen the people in different parts of the country, he was always a very large contributor; and most modest was he in the distribution of charities, preferring that no publicity be given to them. When Ireland was suffering from famine, he loaded a ship with food at his own expense, and sent it over to the sufferers. These examples might be multiplied ad infinitum, but "ex uno disce omnes."

His whole life was mainly devoted to his private business. Although active and influential in moulding the politics of the country, and never neutral or silent upon any of the great questions before the people, he very rarely held office. His position, talents, wealth, and liberality, all conspired to give him unusual prominence, and he was often invited to accept high and honorable official positions, but he rarely consented. It was not until the necessities of the country demanded it, that he accepted office; and when she required him, he volunteered in any capacity he could be made useful.

In 1848, Mr. Wadsworth declined the nomination for Governor, and John A. Dix was placed in the field in his stead. He was Presidential elector at large in 1856, and district elector in 1860, both times on the Republican ticket, for progress and love of freedom were as prominent as any other traits of his character. In 1860 he was again invited to accept the gubernatorial nomination, but again declined in a characteristically noble letter, illustrating his disinterested patriotism and hightoned political standard. In the following winter he was appointed, by the Legislature of New York, a commissioner to the Peace Congress, which convened at Washington in February, 1865, and voted against all compromise measures for the effection of a dishonorable peace.

When the Southern rebellion first broke out, and cut off Washington from the loyal North, leaving us all in doubt and uncertainty as to the fate of the nation's capital, he chartered two ships, freighted them with provisions, and sailed with them himself for Annapolis, Maryland, to provide for the militia, who were being hastened forward to defend the capital. The assistance was most timely, and met a want the Government was totally unable to supply. Having the confidence of the Administration, and being a personal friend of General Scott, from that time to the battle of Bull Run he was employed in executing delicate and important civil and military commissions. In May, 1861, the Governor of New York, appreciating his great usefulness, commissioned him a major-general of the volunteer force of the State, and urged its acceptance upon him.

When the army in front of Washington started on its march, in June, 1861, he volunteered upon the staff of General McDowell, and in the ensuing battle of Bull Run won the commendations of his chief, and the admiration and respect of his companions in arms. In awarding credit to his staff on that day, General McDowell says of Major Wadsworth: "The latter, who does me the honor to be on my personal staff, had a horse shot from under him in the thickest of the fight." He rendered his chief the most important services, and distinguished himself throughout by his coolness, courage, and capacity. "He exerted himself to rally the forces when they first began to fall

back; and towards the close he seized the colors of the wavering New York 14th, and called on the boys to rally once more for the glorious old flag." General McDowell also says in his report: "Major Wadsworth stayed at Fairfax Court-House, late in the morning after the retreat of the Union army, to see that the stragglers and weary and worn-out soldiers were not left behind." He spent the whole of the night after the battle. in bringing up the rear with the soldiers who had been abandoned, saving Government property, and ministering to the wants of the wounded, and not till the enemy were in sight did. he leave the field.

Shortly after this battle, President Lincoln requested the several State Congressional delegations to recommend suitable officers for high military commands. General Wadsworth was unanimously proposed by the New York delegation, and upon the urgent request of the Government, accepted the commission of a brigadier-general of volunteers, which bore date August 9th, 1861. He was assigned the command of a brigade in front of Washington, which took part in the occupation of Munson's Hill-the only movement that broke the monotony of those long months of golden opportunities wasted in idleness by the young Commander-in-Chief.

General Wadsworth had brought his brigade to a high state of drill and discipline, when he was, much against his will, taken from the field, on the 15th of March, 1862, and assigned to duty as military governor of Washington and commander of the defences of the capital. His command extended from Aquia Creek to Leesburg, a distance of seventy miles, and proved to be a post of great labor, with many unpleasant and thankless duties, all of which were performed in the most faultless manner. To the fullest extent of his power he prevented wrong and outrage, and made that part of the "Old Dominion" under his control free soil and a refuge for the oppressed. "Contrabands" flocked into the city in great numbers, and the numerous questions continually arising in regard to them were promptly settled by him upon his own responsibility, for the Government was then "neutral" upon that subject, entirely ignoring their existence, and promulgating no policy in regard to them. But General Wadsworth made a policy for himself, founded on right and justice, and afterwards had the satisfaction of seeing the same policy extended over large areas of the South and Southwest.

The rebels having arrested, imprisoned, and otherwise cruelly treated a number of peaceful Union men, from the region in front of Washington, General Wadsworth arrested Judge Rogers, Mr. Gunnel, and other prominent citizens of the same region, who were rebel sympathizers, and held them as hostages until he effected an exchange. In this way he accom

plished the release of about one hundred and fifty Union men confined in the loathsome prisons of Richmond, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Although the position of military governor is unknown to our laws and army regulations, he avoided collision with the civil authorities, save in but a single and unimportant instance. His administration was marked throughout by great judgment, wisdom, prudence, and mercy.

On the 24th of September, 1862, he was unanimously nominated for the office of Governor of the State of New York, by a convention of the unconditional Union men of the State, called without distinction of party. The contest was an exciting one, for the issue before the people was plain and wide, and affecting in its result the policy and interests of the General Government-party and no party; loyal and disloyal. Just upon the eve of election, when all things seemed to be in favor of the supporters of the Government, the treachery of pretended friends turned the scale, faction won the day, and by a small majority, Horatio Seymour was elected Governor of the Empire State.

General Wadsworth several times urgently requested to be relieved and sent into the field, and at length, on the reception, on the night of December 13th, 1862, of the news of the death of several general officers that day in the battle of Fredericksburg, he received orders to report to General Burnside. Leaving Washington before daylight, he was at the front in time to witness the recrossing of the river, and ten days later he assumed command of the First Division of the First (Reynolds's) Corps, relieving General Doubleday. A long period of inaction followed this disastrous battle, broken only by the famous "mud campaign" in January, when Burnside moved up to Bank's Ford, but was prevented from crossing, and his plans frustrated by a most terrible storm, which rendered the roads well-nigh impassable. Wadsworth, however, got his command all up, and General Burnside himself bears grateful testimony to the efficiency and fidelity with which that indefatigable officer supported him. Indeed, had he been as well sustained by the rest of his officers, the movement would probably have been suc

cessful.

The army returned, and went into camp again near Falmouth. "Road-making and corduroying were now the order of the day, and General Wadsworth not only personally superintended this disagreeable work, but occasionally took an axe or pick himself to show the men how it was done. Some of the boys, greatly pleased at this, christened him 'Old Corduroy.' I wonder what they called him afterwards, when he swam his horse across the Rappahannock alongside the forlorn hope sent over in boats to dislodge the rebel sharpshooters? It was then evident that, however much he liked a good road, he

was by no means particular, when the object was to get at the enemy."

He also organized a number of expeditions which went down the Rappahannock and were entirely successful, capturing a large number of horses, mules, and rebel agents, breaking up rebel signal, commissary, quartermaster, and other stations, and otherwise doing the enemy considerable damage.

An officer who served with him says: "His zeal in every thing pertaining to the well-being of his men; his constant personal attention to the minor economies, so that every useless expenditure of Government money might be avoided; his manifest self-forgetfulness and entire devotion to the great cause, at once impressed us all, and commanded the affectionate regard of the division." "The General was absolutely indefatigable. Superintending the passage of artillery and wagons over the worst places, the last to leave his saddle at night, the last to seek a shelter from the cold, biting rain, the influence of such a general in inspiring his troops under such adverse circumstances can scarcely be appreciated. Unconscious of fatigue himself, he worked his staff after the same style, but the men were thus cheered and spared as much as possible."

It was a part of the plan of Hooker's Chancellorsville campaign, that the Sixth and First Corps should make a diversion by crossing the river below Fredericksburg while the main army crossed and attacked above. To Wadsworth's Division was assigned the impracticable task of carrying by hand the pontoon boats, weighing over fifteen hundred pounds each, a mile and a quarter, without disturbing the enemy's pickets on the opposite bank; but they undertook it despite the General's protest against its feasibility. After a dark and rainy night, the day broke with the work not yet completed, when a heavy volley from the enemy told them of their discovery. General Wadsworth ordered the passage to be forced at all hazards, and selected the 6th Wisconsin and 24th Michigan Regiments to do it. Amid a murderous fire from the rebel rifle-pits, they hurried the boats into the water, leaped in and pushed desperately across, their gallant General swimming his horse after the first boat, and being one of the first to land. On gaining the bank, a charge was ordered on the rebel riflo-pits, which resulted in their capture, together with two hundred of their occupants. Here the division made for themselves rifle-pits, and otherwise sheltered themselves from the storm of shot and shell that rained down from the enemy's batteries during their two days' sojourn there. On the third day they recrossed the river, under a heavy artillery fire, which sunk one pontoon, just in advance of the rear-guard, and made a forced march to Chancellorsville, crossing at United States Ford, where they passed the night. Early next morning they marched into the Wilder