ness, and were posted on the extreme right, where they threw up intrenchments, but were not further engaged. On the recrossing of the river, General Wadsworth halted his division. at the bridge, and formed it in line to protect the rear of the army from any pursuing foe; and for his soldierly qualities, displayed in a high degree in this campaign, he received the commendations of his superior officers.

On the 12th of June, 1863, after resting meanwhile in the old camp at Falmouth, IIooker took up the line of march to the north, intercepting Lee in his endeavors to reach the capital. After long and weary marching, during which many succumbed to fatigue and illness, Wadsworth's Division, on the 1st of July, led the First Corps on the Emmittsburg and Cashtown roads, to a point a quarter of a mile west of Gettysburg, where it rapidly filed off to a ridge running north and south about four hundred yards west of the Seminary. Here General Reynolds himself superintended the posting of the troops, but almost at the very commencement of the fight the gallant and lamented leader fell, instantly killed by a ball through the head. General Wadsworth was thus left in command, and sustained with his single division, for two hours, the terrible assaults of two of the best corps of the rebel army, and holding them at bay until the arrival of Doubleday, about noon, with the rest of the corps, followed soon after by Howard with the Eleventh. Almost single-handed his division fell upon the advancing rebel ranks, capturing General Archer and almost his entire brigade, and, under orders from Howard, held Seminary Ridge until four o'clock in the afternoon, gallantly fighting against the overwhelming numbers of Lee's army, which was rapidly coming up. At this hour, the Eleventh Corps had fallen back from his right, and the rest of the First Corps from his left; and being in imminent danger of being flanked upon both sides, he was obliged to fall back, and the two corps moved steadily back through Gettysburg, and took up a new position on Cemetery Ridge.

The severity of the conflict, and the heroism and valor of the gallant First Division, may be gathered from the fact, that it went into action with four thousand and one hundred men, and the next morning but one thousand six hundred answered to their names; and a large majority of the missing were either killed or wounded. On the second and third days of the battle the little remnant was posted on the right, and did good service in aiding the Twelfth Corps to repulse two more of Ewell's terrific onslaughts.

In the celebrated Council of War, called by General Meade at Williamsport, General Wadsworth was one of the three who were in favor of, and urged an attack on the defeated and dispirited rebel army, hemmed in in front by our victorious sol

diery, and in the rear by the swollen and impassable Potomac. No doubt now exists in the mind of any unprejudiced observer, that had this course been adopted, the army of Lee would have been entirely captured or put to rout.

The First Division being now reduced to fifteen hundred men with five general officers, and the corps to seven thousand men with eleven general officers, General Wadsworth was, at his own request, relieved from command, and was then sent down the Mississippi from Cairo to New Orleans, to inspect the camps of freedmen, hand and Government plantations, and to investigate and report upon the whole African question. On his return from this duty, he was appointed a member of a court of inquiry upon the conduct of Generals McCook, Crit tenden, and Naglee at the battle of Chickamuga. This court, of which Major-General Oglesby was president, convened at Louisville, Kentucky, in October, 1863, and completed their labors by the full acquittal of those gallant officers in February, 1864. On his return to Washington from this duty, he was for some time employed as commissioner for the exchange of prisoners, which position he filled to the full satisfaction of his Govern

ment.

In accordance with General Orders No. 115 of the War Department, dated March 23d, 1864, and General Orders No. 10 of the Army of the Potomac, issued on the following day, the First Army Corps was consolidated into two divisions and attached to the Fifth Corps, Major-General Warren commanding, of which they formed the Third and Fourth Divisions. The Fourth consisted of Wadsworth's old division, with the addition of another which formed its Third Brigade, and was commanded by General Cutler, whom General Wadsworth relieved, the following month. Shattered and decimated by the shocks of battle and ravages of disease, the little band of braves hailed with joy their old heroic chief, whom they loved even as a father. But, alas! the sad hour of parting was not far distant, and he had come to them but to take a long farewell. The great Army of the Potomac was soon to open a campaign, unsurpassed in its previous history in glory and in bloodshed, in mighty deeds of valor, glorious victories and great results, heroic achievements, courage, and fortitude; which was to light up the land with the brightest rays of hope, but which, alas! was destined, also, to carry black, agonizing tidings into thousands of households, and to lay low in death on that Virginia soil, now sacred by its baptism of brave blood, that good, grayhaired old man, the noblest type of the true chivalry and heroism of the nineteenth century.

On Tuesday, the 3d of May, the army broke camp, and a little before midnight the Fifth Corps took up its line of march for Germania Ford, where it crossed the Rapidan, and then

moved towards Parker's Store, near where it arrived on Thursday, the 5th. Here Hill attempted to press in between Warren and Hancock, attacking the latter with terrible fury, but being flanked by Wadsworth and Robinson, he was at length repulsed and attacked in turn. Hostilities ceased only at nightfall, and at the very dawn of day on Friday were resumed, each army being bent on making an overwhelming attack. In the morning, General Wadsworth was ordered to report to Hancock, and went into action immediately, on the right of the Second Corps, which drove the enemy some two miles towards Parker's Store. He bore himself with his usual fiery courage, making several gallant charges, and finally carrying quite an important position, but which he was unable to hold, as the re-enforced enemy came down in overpowering force. At this moment, about eight o'clock A. M., Hancock sent him. Ward's, Webb's, and Stevenson's Brigades, and ordered him to carry, if possible, a certain position. Gallantly the six brigades charged on the enemy, but Hill's superior numbers stood firm in their advantageous position. Again and again, and yet a fourth time did Wadsworth lead them on the foe with terrible

fury, but without success. For three hours the carnage was awful, and our intrepid hero, ever in the thickest of the fray, had three horses shot under him. At length orders came to make no further attempt at present to dislodge the enemy, and, as they showed no disposition to renew the offensive, all remained quiet until about noon, when Longstreet precipitated his corps upon General Wadsworth's left, hurling back Ward's Brigade in confusion. Throwing forward his second line, composed of his own old division, whose thinned ranks numbered but sixteen hundred men, to the plank-road (where the ditch, by its side, afforded the men some protection), at right angles to his original alignment, General Wadsworth attempted to check the enemy's advance. But a rebel rifle-ball pierced his noble head, and the old warrior and his steed sunk together to the ground. The advancing torrent poured over them, and he was borne to the rebel hospital near the battle-field; but he never spoke again, and about noon on Sunday, the 8th of May, his spirit rose to the Father who gave it, having accomplished upon earth its glorious and most noble mission.

A patriotic Irishman, Patrick McCracken, procured for him a coffin at his own expense, and had him buried in his family burying-ground. About a week later, his body was exhumed by permission of General Lee, and he was carried to his old home at Geneseo, which so long had known his skilful and loving care. The nation, joyful as it was with the glad tidings of victory, dropped tears of sorrow and of reverence for the fallen ones, and fitly honored them who had honored it. As the mortal remains of James S. Wadsworth passed northward to

their last resting-place, tolling bells, and long-muffled dirges, banners draped and at half-mast, and the slow, measured tread of the soldiery with reversed arms, bright, glorying eulogies, uncovered heads and tearful eyes, told how the people loved and honored that old man, and mourned his loss. On the quiet sunny afternoon of May 21st, 1864, he was borne to his last earthly resting-place in the burial-ground of his native village. No, he is not dead, for the good and brave die never! His whole earthly life was spent for humanity-humanity in its broadest, deepest, noblest sense; and at last, in the shadows of the Wilderness he laid it down freely, gladly, on the altar of human freedom. Dying, he lives still,-in the hearts and on the tongues of thousands, his spirit a seed that brings forth good fruits of patriotism, philanthropy, self-abnegation!

THE YANKEE AS A FIGHTER.'

BY COLONEL JAMES F. RUSLING, A. Q. M.

BROTHER JONATHAN is dead. Born in another age, and of the day of small things, he has passed away. His name, even, bids fair to become a myth among the people. He expired with the sound of the first gun from South Carolina against Fort Sumter, and, in his stead, there stands the game-cock, W. T. Sherman. The old-time beaver, the high collar and big cravat, the long-tailed coat, abbreviated breeches, cowhide boots, and 'cute individual "from 'way deown East,"-all these have passed into history, and to-day the true Representative American is the Union Soldier. Yankee Doodle is decidedly looking up. The traditional Eagle, abused as buzzard-like, has become a fierce and warlike bird again. Uncle Sam, once so old and gouty, has "renewed his strength like the eagle," and means now a trim volunteer in blue, inured to the march and the bivouac, and who, like Paddy in the old song, would "rather fight than not." Who now thinks of the Yankee anywhere, by land or sea, the wide world over, but as a grim and obstinate fighter, a most determined and desperate antagonist, "shouting the battle-cry of freedom," and whom even the bravest and most powerful of nations might well hesitate long before concluding to grapple with?

Instead of this proud, not to say haughty, confidence of the nation now, who does not remember the sorry figure we cut four years ago? For years before the South had taunted the North with her mean-spiritedness, not to say cowardice, and without provocation had brow-beaten and bullied our public men so often, none, so to speak, striking back, that the common opinion among her Hotspurs was, that the North, as a section, was incapable of being even goaded into a fight. We had

swallowed the insult of the Missouri Compromise. We had consented to the Mexican War-a swindle and a crime for slavery, under the specious plea of "extending the AREA OF FREEDOM!" We had borne in comparative silence the iniquities of 1850, Fugitive Slave Bill and all. We had acquiesced in the Dred Scott decision and the execution of John Brown. at last, in 1860-'61, when the South grew indignant because we had dared to speak our minds at the ballot-box, where it had been the peculiar boast of Americans that our printed opinions

"Fall light and still

As snow-flakes fall upon the sod,
Yet execute a freeman's will

As lightning does the will of God,"

And .

why she supposed, of course, that all she had to do was to swell and swagger away as usual; or, if she could not cow us by this old-time method, then-unmindful of her past pledges, and the great traditions of the Republic-to smash the Union, and "secede" at her leisure. In truth, she had fair cause to think so, at first, during the interregnum of that pious milk-sop, or rather dirty dough-face, James Buchanan, when supposed great statesmen, even, from the North, the very chiefs of the incoming Government, were yet uncertain what to do and how to do it, and the Union, like some ancient castle, with its lord gone and halls long deserted, seemed crumbling hopelessly and helplessly to ruin. How could it be otherwise, after the public announcement of the wretched policy, or rather no policy, of the Annual Message, wittily and tersely summed up at the time as consisting of but two propositions, to wit: "1st. No State has a right to secede, unless she wants to; 2d. The Union is bound to defend itself, unless somebody opposes it." History will suspect that Mr. Buchanan had the Circumlocution Office and "How not to do it," constantly on the brain while penning that Message, and we judge her suspicion will not be far wrong. Under the baleful influence of such convenient cowardice, or compliant treason, of course Senators marched out, "with flying colors," from the capitol at Washington into the rebel capitol at Montgomery, and even slammed the Senate doors in the face of the nation-half dumb with astonishment and sorrow-as they strode Tarquin-like away. Said the traitor Mason, "I owe no fealty to the Union! My allegiance is due alone to Virginia!" Said the swash-buckler Wigfall, "The Star of the West, flying your flag, swaggered into Charleston Harbor, South Carolina struck between the eyes, and she staggered back. And now what are you going to do about it?" Said the Senator from Oregon (alas for General Lane's shamelessness!), "They have gone. They have seceded. And now what does your Government propose to do with the seceding Senators?" Thank heaven! there was one man there who had