James S. Wadsworth

Wadsworth was born to wealthy parents in Geneseo in Livingston County in western New York State. His father, James Wadsworth, was the owner of one of the largest portfolios of cultivated land in the state, and young Wadsworth was groomed to fulfill the responsibilities he would inherit. He attended both Harvard University and Yale University, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but had no intention of practicing. He spent the majority of his life managing his family's estate. Wadsworth built Hartford House in Geneseo, New York, upon his marriage in 1834 to the former Mary Craig Wharton of Philadelphia. Out of a sense of noblesse oblige, he became a philanthropist and entered politics, first as a Democrat, but then as one of the organizers of the Free Soil Party, which joined the Republican Party in 1856. In the 1860 presidential election, he was a presidential elector for Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. In 1861, he was a member of the Washington peace conference, an unofficial gathering of Northern and Southern moderates who attempted to avert war. But after war became inevitable, he considered it his duty to volunteer. ==Civil War service==

Despite his complete lack of military experience at the outbreak of the Civil War, Wadsworth was commissioned a major general in the New York state militia in May 1861. He served as a civilian volunteer aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 8. McDowell recommended him for command and, on August 9, Wadsworth was commissioned a brigadier general; on October 3 he received command of the 2nd Brigade in McDowell's Division of the Army of the Potomac. He then led the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, of the I Corps of the army until March 17. From March 17 to September 7, 1862, Wadsworth commanded the Military District of Washington. Wadsworth was mortally wounded on May 6, trying to turn his two intact brigades (his other brigade had collided with the Federal units on his left and lost cohesion) when he was shot in the head. Wadsworth fell from his horse. Passing Confederate soldiers looted his body of any valuables--John Belote of the 6th Virginia got Wadsworth's pocket watch, which he returned to the general's widow after the war. Eventually the stricken Wadsworth was taken to a Confederate field hospital but there was not much to be done for him. The bullet entered the top left of his head. Wadsworth was still alive and seen to play with a couple of muskets used to construct a makeshift litter but he did not appear to be aware of his surroundings and attempts to give him food were unsuccessful. He died on the afternoon of May 8. George Meade sent a letter to Robert E. Lee under a flag of truce requesting the return of the body but Lee replied that that was impossible with an active campaign going on. While the high command of the two armies continued to bicker back and forth, the enlisted men came to an agreement on their own initiative. Wadsworth's body was handed over by Confederate troops on May 12 well before Meade or Lee knew about it. Wadsworth's son-in-law, Montgomery Harrison Ritchie, went into the Confederate camp to retrieve his body. The day before he was wounded, he was promoted to major general, but this appointment was withdrawn and he received instead a posthumous brevet promotion to major general as of May 6, 1864, for his service at Gettysburg and the Wilderness. Wadsworth's remains were brought back to Geneseo, New York, and buried there in Temple Hill Cemetery. ==Legacy==

Weeks after his father-in-law's death, Montgomery Ritchie died of disease contracted in battle. Fort Wadsworth in South Dakota was named for him in 1864. Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, one of the defenses of New York Harbor, also is named for the general; it is in the shadow of the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge. Wadsworth, Nevada, was also named in his honor. He married Mary Craig Wharton on May 11, 1834, in Geneseo, Livingston County, New York. • Their daughter Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie Adair (1837–1921) became prominent as matriarch of Glenveagh Castle in County Donegal, Ireland, and the large JA Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. • Their son, James Wolcott Wadsworth Sr. (1846–1926), and grandson, James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr., were successful New York politicians. • Their younger daughter, Elizabeth S. Wadsworth (1848–1930), married firstly Arthur Post in 1875, and secondly in 1889, as a widow, Arthur Smith-Barry, 1st Baron Barrymore (1843–1925), becoming Lady Barrymore. Through this marriage, he was grandfather to Anglo-Irish aristocrat Dorothy Bell. ==See also==