War so often brings out the worst in people.  At times, though, the worst events often bring out the best of humanity. 

James S. Wadsworth, born in the fall of 1807, was one who was well past the age of enlistment when the clouds of war broke on the horizon.  A Harvard graduate and well-known politician from western New York, he was a member of the unsuccessful peace conference in Washington in 1861.  While having hoped to avert war, he felt he should offer his services to preserve the Union.  He participated in the Battle of First Bull Run on the staff of General McDowell.  He was commissioned a brigadier general the following month.¹

Beginning in March 1862, Wadsworth served as the military governor of Washington, D.C.  At the time, he also ran a campaign for governor of New York – although he was not elected.

Washington was filled with spies during the war, and the captured ones were usually brought before Wadsworth for arraignment.  One who had been taken by the provost guards was a farmer from Virginia.  After being jailed for many days, the man pleaded his case before the military governor.  After briefly examining the man’s background and his reason for being in the city, Wadsworth realized that the farmer was indeed innocent.²  

The man, after his arrest, had spent all his meager funds while waiting to have his case heard.  He had no financial means for returning home.  Wadsworth gave him money from his own pocket, and sent him on his way.³

The grateful farmer never forgot the kindness.

After the Battle of Fredericksburg, there was a need to replenish the officers of the Army of the Potomac.  Wadsworth was promoted to division command, as part of General John Reynolds’s First Corps.  General Wadsworth and his troops did not significantly participate in the Battle of Chancellorsville, but at Gettysburg they were part of the horrific first day’s battle.  While he did not have any formal military training, Wadsworth’s personal courage and ability to lead helped his division heroically stave off the onrushing Confederate forces.  His subordinates called him “a glorious man”, “absolutely fearless,” and “ a braver man never lived.”⁴

Gettysburg had been the general’s baptism of fire and he came through it well.  Wadsworth “displayed…marked ability and gallantry” in battle.  He personified in every aspect “an able soldier.”⁵

After Gettysburg, because of its heavy casualties, the Federal First and Third Corps were absorbed into the Second and Fifth Corps.  Wadsworth was sent to serve in the Union Fifth Corps, led in 1864 by General Gouverneur Warren, the former Chief Engineer on General Meade’s staff.

The Battle of the Wilderness, occurring on May 5 and 6, 1864, was the first battle since Gettysburg in which the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia actively participated.  (The planned Mine Run Campaign, in the fall of 1863, had not culminated in a battle.)

While scouting a good attack position in the woods, General Warren, the new Union Fifth Corps commander, saw the Confederates well entrenched in a small clearing.  Realizing a frontal assault there would be suicidal for his corps, Warren decided an attack from the left, where the woods were “a tangled jungle”, seemed better.  General Wadsworth and his division were ordered to lead the attack.  “General Wadsworth orders a charge ,” wrote one account, “cheered loudly by his men.  One horse is shot under him.  He mounts a second and spurs to the front, hat in hand …”  He was then suddenly shot in the head, and fell lifeless to the ground.  The men behind him were unable to procure his body.  They thought he was instantly killed, but Wadsworth was still alive. Fallen behind enemy lines, the good general was mortally wounded, and never regained consciousness.⁶

The Virginia farmer, whom Wadsworth had aided in 1862, lived nearby.  He heard the news, and hurried to Wadsworth’s side.  Taking the dying general to his farm, the Virginian nursed the fallen general until he died two days later.  The man then buried Wadsworth on his property and notified the general’s family.  Under a flag of truce, the body was later recovered and buried in his native Owego, New York. ⁷

Though the stories of human kindness are rarely preserved in war time, they did occur; and the story of Wadsworth’s favor to a humble southern farmer is a noteworthy one.