--The death of
Major Gen. Wadsworth, who was killed at
Spotsylvania. C. H. has creeled more impression at the
North than that of any officer who has fallen.
In this campaign.
He was a prominent
New York politician as well as soldier.
The
Herald has the following obituary of him.
Gen. James S. Wadsworth, whose death, we deeply regret to say, is reported from the field of ba and who was one of the earliest and most ardent volunteers for the war, was a well known and highly respected citizen of this State.
Been to a rich parsimony in the
Valley of the Genesee, at the opening of the present century
Gen. Wade worth possessed unusual advantages, had he chosen to use them, for taking a front position long again public life.
The son and of the Crossland owner and philanthropist,
James Wadswarth, at Geneses, he had the opportunity, which is accorded to a comparatively small class in there Northern States, of following politics as a profession, on incumbered with pecuniary
But his ambition from an early period of his life appears to have been directed toward volunteer military service.
And he set far higher store, so far as his own feelings were concerned, by the position which his own valor had won for him in the national army, than if he had been the successful candidate for
Governor of his native State, in place of
Mr. Seymour.
His first service in the field was under
McDowell, at
Bull Run.
About the 1st of August, 1861, he was commissioned a
Brigadier General, and during the long drilling months which succeeded
Gen. McClellan's appointment to the command in chief,
Gen. Wadsworth won for himself the credit among the most experienced army officers of having his brigade, long before the close of the year, in the most efficient condition, alike as to drill and discipline.
He chafed exceedingly under the long delays intervening between the first great battle of the war and the advance on
Manassas, nine months later.
And his evidence before the committee on the Conduct of the
War, shows the zealous and ardent temperament which controlled his views of military duty, and which led him straight into the front of danger and death in this last great conflict.
In the spring of 186.
Gen. Wadsworth was appointed
Military Governor of the District of Columbia; and on the advance by
Gen. McClellan to
Manassas, and subsequently to the
Peninsula,
Gen. Wadsworth's command at ended to
Occoquan Bay: and for the range of duty embraced in this wide territory, he was left on the 2d of April, 1862, with some 15,000 infantry and about 4,000 artillery, and of this force one fourth was ordered to the
Peninsula, leaving the defences of
Washington with a garrison of less than half what he considered requisite.
In the winter of 62-3, after his defeat as candidate for
Governor of this State, he passed several months in the field, and was engaged at the battle of Chancellorship.
He was charged later in the season with a mission to the southwest and the
Gulf States, in connection with the organization of colored troops; and his latest position was that of
General of the 4th division of the 5th corps.
He gave his sons as well as himself to the service of his country, and used his means with the utmost liberality to aid the national cause His generosity to the poor, his noble simplicity of character, his pure and heroic patriotism, his high religious tone, combined to give him the reputation by which he will long be remembered, of a Christian gentleman and soldier.
