James Samuel Wadsworth

Wadsworth, James Samuel (1807-1864) U.S. army officer and politician. Born in Geneseo, New York, James Samuel Wadsworth was active in the state Republican party before the outbreak of the Civil War. He gave up a political appointment as a major general and volunteered his services as an aide to Gen. Irvin McDowell. Wadsworth displayed great courage at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861) and earned a commission as a brigadier general. He caused great controversy as commander of the defenses of Washington in 1862 when he claimed that Gen. George B. McClellan had not left sufficient forces behind, and consequently President Abraham Lincoln held back a corps from the Peninsula campaign. McClellan never forgave Wadsworth, and he could only get field duty after McClellan's removal. He commanded a division in the Army of the Potomac that saw only limited action at Chancellorsville, but suffered heavy casualties buying time for the army to arrive at Gettysburg on the first day of that engagement (1863). Afterwards he asked to be relieved, but after he served a short tour in the Mississippi Valley, Ulysses S. Grant reassigned Wadsworth to command another division in the Army of the Potomac. He was mortally wounded heroically rallying his soldiers in the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. He died in a Confederate hospital two days later. A soldier there who had been treated kindly while Wadsworth's prisoner had the general given a proper burial, and then wrote to his wife so she could arrange to retrieve the body and return it to Geneseo.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.