•I ^ 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 JAMES S. WADSWORTH. 
 
 '\ 
 
 IH^ 
 
 5 .^ 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 OV THE LATE 
 
 GEN. JAMES S. WADSWORTH, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 Ueu) H\ov\i Mutt gigrmiUural ^ufiiJty, 
 
 AT THE CLOSE OF ITS 
 
 ANNUAL EXHIBITION AT ROCHESTER, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 23d, 1864, 
 
 By lewis F. ALLEN. 
 
 OF BUFFALO, (eX-PREBIUKNT OF THE SOCIETY.) 
 
 
 ALBANY : 
 
 VAN BENTHUYSEN'S STEAM PRINTIJSTG- HOUSE. 
 
 1865. 
 
i-^T 
 
 u)(3/\4'(^ 
 
MEMORIAL. 
 
 Mr. Presidext, Okkickrs axd Gentlemen 
 
 OF THE New York State AGRicri.TrRAL Society : 
 
 When good and great men die, it is the impulse 
 of generous hearts, in unavailing regrets for their 
 loss, to pay a fitting tribute to their private worth 
 and public services. From time immemorial, 
 States, communities and societies with which 
 they have been connected, or to which they had 
 rendered eminent benefits, have borne prompt and 
 honorable testimony to their virtues and actions, 
 not only as the expression of gratitude and resj)ect 
 to their memories, but to inspire posterity as well 
 as their cotemporaries with an admiration of good 
 deeds and beneficent labors. All worthy societies 
 and associations have had inscribed on their 
 member-rolls names of distinguished men and 
 benefactors — and this Society, although humble 
 in its pretensions, unambitious of worldly renown, 
 and cultivating only the arts of peaceful life, may 
 claim, not boastfully, but with heartfelt satisfac- 
 
tion, names most honorable in their eiforts for 
 human welfare, and deeply lamented in their too 
 early departure from the field of their labors. 
 
 At a meeting of the Executive Committee of 
 your Society in May last it was ''Resolved, That a 
 memorial of the late James S. Wadswortii, of his 
 connections with this Society, with the agriculture 
 of his county, and of the State, and his devotion 
 to his country, be prepared and read before the 
 Society at its annual exhibition in September 
 next at Rochester." 
 
 In obedience to that resolution I come before 
 you to speak of that lamented man, late a Presi- 
 dent of this Society. This rich and populous 
 Valley of the Genesee was his honie, and in and 
 around it was the principal theatre of his action. 
 His name was almost a household world throughout 
 Western New York, and he was loved and honored 
 by all who knew him. This is the place to sjjeak 
 of him, and of his connection with the agricultural 
 interests of his county, of his vicinity, and of the 
 State — of his labors in their behalf, and his influ- 
 ence on their welfjire. Most gladly, yet respect- 
 fully, would I have preferred that this task should 
 be discharged by one who more intimately knew, 
 and better appreciated the life of this excellent 
 
man, than myself; but the ckitj placed upon me 
 by the committee seemed imperative, and I 
 responded to their command with great diffidence 
 in my ability to do justice to the occasion. You 
 will pardon what may, perhaps, seem a digression 
 from the immediate subject of this memorial, but 
 the scope of the "resolution" demands a more 
 discursive notice of the agricultural events and 
 progress of this vicinity than what have passed 
 under our own immediate observation. 
 
 Seventy-four years ago, the spot on which we 
 stand — this opulent and thriving city, ringing 
 with the sounds of human industry — this broad 
 and magnificent valley, reaching from the lake, 
 almost Avithin our sight, to the distant hills on 
 the southern border of our State, was a wild, 
 unbroken wilderness. The victorious army of 
 General Sullivan, under the direction of our 
 recently formed National Government, had just 
 driven the predatory Indian bands from their 
 forays on the border settlements of the Chemung, 
 and Tioga, to their distant forest homes, and they 
 gladly consented to bury their enmities, and live 
 in peaceful intercourse with our people. The 
 broad and fertile lands of Western New York had 
 been purchased by various individuals and com- 
 
6 
 
 panies, both in the Eastern States and Europe, 
 and were about to be laid open for settlement. In 
 the year 1700 two young men, entrusted with 
 agencies for the disposition of large tracts of these 
 lands, left their homes in Connecticut, and after 
 a journey of several weeks through formidable 
 difficulties, a portion of the Avay clearing their 
 forest road with axes, they gained the banks of 
 the Genesee at Big Tree, thirty miles south of 
 what is now Rochester. The name of these two 
 young men was Wadsworth. William, six years 
 the elder, was a man of bold, determined tempe- 
 rament, vigorous, indomitable will, skilled in the 
 stern and rugged arts of life, possessing the power 
 to reduce the forest to culture, and imbued withal, 
 with a military spirit, eminently fitting him as a 
 pioneer in the great work which invited him to 
 its achievement. James, the younger, was of a 
 milder quality. He had been liberally educated. 
 His mind, penetrating and expansive, had been 
 highly cultivated, and his habits trained to busi- 
 ness. System, order, and perseverance, were the 
 rules of his action. Thus, with the extraordinary 
 opportunities laid out before the brothers, success 
 was sure to follow their undertakings. 
 
In the discharge of their agencies they divided 
 and sold extensive tracts of land, and invited a 
 multitude of settlers into the Genesee Valley, and 
 throughout its immediate borders. Industrious and 
 thriving communities grew up, and teeming fields 
 with bounteous harvests opened and ripened all 
 around them. Possessing the love of domain, inhe- 
 rent in their English ancestry, the Wadsworths, 
 as they progressed, invested their earnings in 
 choice tracts of the rich valley, until their acres 
 were counted by thousands, and in process of 
 years "the Wadsworth farms" became famous, 
 not only in the country round about, but in the 
 old settlements of Eastern New York and New 
 England. William was the out-door man and 
 farmer ; the forests fell, and the fields were cleared 
 under his sturdy perseverance : while James was 
 the office-man and financier ; and it was mainly 
 his fine rural taste and wise forecast, aided by the 
 vigorous thought and industry of his brother, 
 which gave outline to their estates and system to 
 their agriculture. Great herds of cattle fattened 
 in their meadows ; numerous flocks of sheep 
 ranged their pastures ; and over their wide uplands 
 the richest wheat ripened for the sickle and the 
 reaper. Even in those early years they sought 
 
inqjroved breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, 
 and introduced them to their farms, and by their 
 example gave tone and impulse to a style of hus- 
 bandry among the farmers around them, which 
 has been continued to the present day. 
 
 Time Avore on. The pioneers of the Genesee 
 country, one after another, were gathered to their 
 fathers, and William Wadsworth, a bachelor, in 
 the year 1833, at the age of seventy-one years, 
 bearing an honorable record as a general officer in 
 the militia of his county, at the memorable battle 
 of Queenstown, on the Niagara frontier, in the war 
 of 1812, and of a life marked by useful labors at 
 home, went down to his grave, bequeathing his 
 share of the Wadsworth estates to his brother and 
 his children. 
 
 James Wadsworth had married at middle age, 
 and established his family home on the spot of his 
 first settlement, then become a neat and thriving 
 village, called Geneseo. Here were born and 
 reared his children, two sons and three^daughters, 
 not one of whom is now living. Thriving in his 
 fortunes, cultivated in his tastes, and accomplished 
 with the advantages of foreign travel during some 
 years' residence in Europe, where the business of 
 his agencies had early called him, he became 
 
9 
 
 widely known for his genial hospitality, his digni- 
 fied manners, and his elevated intercourse with 
 society. Few country gentlemen in the United 
 States — none, certainly, in the State of New York 
 — through their wide business correspondence 
 abroad and at home, were better or more favorably 
 known. His plans of improvement were broad, 
 comprehensive and thoroughly practical. Much 
 of the grand beaut}^ and park-like scenery of the 
 Genesee Valley owe their effect to his refined 
 taste and aesthetic judgment. He patronized edu- 
 cation by donations for the improvement of our 
 common school system, and gave liberally for 
 school and town libraries in his county. He main- 
 tained the systematic plans of agricultural routine 
 adopted by his brother and himself at an early 
 day, and as circumstances required, improved 
 them. After a life of temperance, frugality and 
 usefulness, in the year 1844, at the age of seventy- 
 six years, he died, leaving his family, probably, 
 the finest agricultural estate in the country. 
 
 A historical allusion to the Wadsworths', and 
 their farms, forty-five years ago, may contrast 
 that early day in the Genesee Valley with the 
 present. I find the narrative given in a letter 
 from the late celebrated Dr. Thomas Cooper, then 
 2 
 
10 
 
 of Pennsylvania, dated May 21, 1809, while on a 
 tour throngh Western New York. It was published 
 in The Port Folio in tlie year 1810. He is descri- 
 bing the Home Farm of the W.adsworths : 
 
 " Col. W. Wadsworth, who is unmarried, lives 
 with his brother, Mr. James Wadswortii. The par- 
 ticulars of this noble farm are briefly as follows : 
 The house (a double house of five windows in 
 front, with good-sized rooms) is placed on an emi- 
 nence at the farther end of the village of Cheneseo, 
 which contains about a dozen houses. There is a 
 gentle descent of cleared land in front of the house 
 for about three-quarters of a mile, to the edge of 
 the flats. The flats are a mile and a (juarter across. 
 Of these, full in view from the windows of the 
 house. Col. Wadsworth and his brother own 1700 
 acres, all cleared and laid down in timothy and 
 clover. Besides these 1700 acres of flats, they have 
 three or four hundred acres of cleared upland in 
 front and around the house. Their present stock 
 is twelve hundred sheep, with between six and 
 seven hundred lambs ; of these lambs sixty-eight 
 are half-blood Merinoes, and two hundred half- 
 bred Bakewell's. They purchased a full-blooded 
 Merino ram from Chancellor Livingston, out of 
 the (French) Emperor's flock at Rambouillet. 
 
11 
 
 Messrs. Wads worth <also keep on the same farm 
 two hundred mules. The mules they import young 
 from Connecticut, improve them here, and send 
 them, when full grown, to the Southern States, 
 where they fetch from sixty to one hundred and 
 twenty dollars apiece. They have also a stud of 
 forty horses. On this tract they have three dairies, 
 let out on shares. They furnish each tenant with a 
 house and buildings, and with forty cows. The ten- 
 ant takes care of the buildings, cuts the grass for 
 hay, and retains half the butter and cheese. On a 
 farm farther down the river they have about two 
 hundred and thirty head of horned cattle. They 
 complain of want of capital to stock the land fully. 
 
 " Mr. James Wads worth has arranged a very 
 well-chosen library of about six hundred volumes 
 of the best modern books ; doubtless the best room 
 in this neat and Avell-furnished house. The estab- 
 lishment in all its parts seems to give a full and 
 favorable picture of that truly respectable char- 
 acter, an active, intelligent, industrious gentleman 
 farmer. 
 
 " They fiava no land oj their oiun on the flats foj' sale. 
 What they possess the family mean to retain.'''' 
 
 James Samuel Wadsworth, whose recent sudden 
 and melancholy death we now mourn, was the 
 
12 
 
 eldest son of James Wadsworth, and born in the 
 town of Geneseo, in the county of Livingston, in 
 the year 1807. Endowed with a robust physical 
 constitution, coupled with a bright and vigorous 
 intellect, he was educated, not in the pent-up 
 schools of a crowded city, but as all country boys 
 should be, in the best schools of a country village. 
 His collegiate course was completed at Harvard 
 University. He afterwards acquired the profession 
 of the law, partially in the office of Daniel Web- 
 ster, in Boston, and finished his course of law 
 reading in Albany. Born to the inheritance of 
 great wealth, accomplished in education, profes- 
 sional knowledge, and the advantages of elevated 
 society, on arriving at his majority the most flat- 
 tering allurements to personal ambition, to luxury, 
 and worldly enjojanent, so dazzling to the imagi- 
 nation of a spirited young man, were spread before 
 him. But young Wadsworth was both thoughtful 
 and considerate. Though loving, and reasonably 
 indulging in the pleasures of society, he calmly 
 surveyed his position at the outset of what might 
 become an important life. His uncle William, the 
 out-door manager of the landed property of the 
 family, was in the sere and yellow leaf of declining 
 age. His father, bowed with forty years of toil 
 
13 
 
 and resj)onsibility, had looked hopefully to a time 
 of repose, and James, with a manly resolution, and 
 thorough appreciation of his duty, threw aside the 
 blandishments of fortune, turned his attention to 
 business, and gradually assumed the chief super- 
 vision of the fjimily estates. In the year 1833, at 
 the age of twenty-six, Mr. Wadsavorth married 
 the daughter of John Wharton, Esq., of Philadel- 
 phia, a lad}^ of great personal worth, and a con- 
 nection every way eligible to their mutual hap23i- 
 ness. He established his family home at Geneseo, 
 and erected his dwelling with attachments and 
 surroundings comporting to his condition of estate, 
 and range of life and occupation. There in the 
 midst of congenial society, and the interchange of 
 those amenities which flow in the familiar inter- 
 course of friends and neighbors, he lived, and 
 labored, and dispensed a widely participated hos- 
 pitality. Of his family, Mrs. Wadsvvorth, and six 
 children — three sons and three daughters survive 
 him. 
 
 Probably no agricultural property in the coun- 
 try, so extensive in domain, had been arranged 
 into a better division of individual fiirms, and 
 their husbandry directed with more systematic 
 economy on the part of the landlords, than those 
 
14 
 
 of the Waclsworths. The soils were applied to 
 those crops most congenial to their natures, and 
 which yielded the most profit on their outlay ; 
 and as proof that the mutual interests of landlord 
 and tenant were thoroughly studied, I understand 
 that quite three-fourths in number of the tenants 
 now on the farms are those, and the descendants 
 of those, who occupied them in the lifetime of 
 the elder Wadsworths. 
 
 In noticing the management of an overshadow- 
 ing agricultural estate like this, a remark might 
 be expected upon the tendency of such extraor- 
 dinary holdings, and their influence upon the 
 welfare of those wdio rely on them for support. 
 Such discussion is hardly germane to this occa- 
 sion ; yet I frankly admit, that the system of 
 aggregating land in large bodies by individual 
 proprietors, and holding it under a tenant culti- 
 vation, has not generally proved favorable to the 
 highest prosperity of the communities connected 
 with them. The system is scarcely in accordance 
 with the spirit of our Republican institutions. In 
 this instance, however, it is a gratifying fact that 
 the moral and pecuniary condition of the inhabi- 
 tants dwelling on the Wadsworth farms is as high, 
 and the line of husbandry has been as good, in 
 
15 
 
 the average, as among the smaller farmers who 
 hold their lauds in fee — and the general agricul- 
 ture of Livingston county is of no mean order. 
 Nor can any sensible man throw merited censure 
 upon the conduct of the elder Wadsworths in thus 
 amassing, and holding with tenacious grip, such a 
 noble domain. In the vigor of their young man- 
 hood they went into a wild country, and grappled 
 with all the hardships and diseases incident to a 
 reduction of the broad wilderness to life and civi- 
 lization. Improving their fortunate advantage, 
 they won their possessions fairl}'. God had made 
 the land beautiful in its undulating surface, and 
 blessed it with surpassing fertility. Magnificent 
 landscapes of wood, and meadow, and swelling 
 upland; of crj^stal lakes, and leaping streams, and 
 flowing river stretched far and wide around them 
 a land most goodly to behold ; and with ready eye 
 and sagacious plan they saw, possessed, and 
 enjoyed it. And they used it well. 
 
 In the year 1841, by an act of our Legislature, 
 the State Agricultural Society was reorganized. 
 Through an aj^propriation from the State treasury 
 its funds were augmented, and an exhibition of 
 farm products and mechanical implements was 
 ventured. Under the new administration of its 
 
16 
 
 affairs, the first exhibition was held at Syracuse, 
 in September of that year, and with such degree 
 of success that its annual repetition was demanded. 
 In January, 1842, James S. Wadsworth, of Gene- 
 seo, was unanimously elected president of the 
 Society. For several years he had pursued the 
 business of a farmer on his own account, as well 
 as supervised the chief agricultural affairs of his 
 father's estate, and in his own vicinity was known 
 and esteemed as a thrifty, intelligent husbandman. 
 It was fit and proper that such an one as he should 
 receive the honor and take the responsibility of 
 the office. The Society, although successful, so 
 far as its imperfect organization in a new field of 
 exertion had proved, was yet to be further syste- 
 matized and put in working order. With charac- 
 teristic energy, Mr. Wadsworth entered upon the 
 discharge of his duties, and the good conduct and 
 well-doing of the Society enlisted his heartiest 
 attention. He became, at the same time with his 
 father and brother, a life member, and, with the 
 aid of his spirited associates in office, placed it on 
 a sure basis of success. The next exhibition w^as 
 at Albany, and a most gratifying display of impro- 
 ved husbandry, household art, and mechanical 
 skill was offered to the congregrated and expectant 
 
17 
 
 friends of our agricultural advancement. The 
 degree of tact, aptitude and readiness in the dis- 
 charge of his duties evinced by the young presi- 
 dent, determined the Society to re-elect him, and 
 appoint the exhibition for the year 1843 in the 
 city of Rochester, the vicinity of his home, where 
 his attention could be readily given to its prepa- 
 ration. And most amply was that preparation 
 made. His personal services and ready purse 
 were both yielded for the occasion. The Genesee 
 Valley poured forth the choicest of its agricultu- 
 ral abundance, and the skill and handicraft of the 
 young and active city joined in their rival dis- 
 play, while the more distant country, east and 
 west, met each other with their mutual ofFerino-s. 
 This, the third exhibition of the Society, larger 
 in material and more numerous in attendance 
 than either of the two which preceded it, was 
 but the growth of well directed effort on the part 
 of its managers and the increasing spirit of the 
 people. The career of the Society was no longer 
 a probation; and, assured of its success, Mr. Wads- 
 worth, at the close of his official term, with well 
 won honors, gracefully retired to give room to 
 his successor. 
 
18 
 
 The death of his fjither during the succeeding 
 year threw the management of three-fourths of 
 the Wads worth estates — that j^ortion belonging 
 to himself and sisters — upon James, the other 
 fourth being owned and managed by his younger 
 brother, William. Not only the lands in the 
 Genesee Valley, but other extensive real and 
 personal properties had come to his charge, and 
 he addressed himself to their care with an indus- 
 try, an ability, and a knowledge of their multifa- 
 rious interests quite equal to the necessity. He 
 maintained the system of management which 
 had been long adopted, and had only to extend it 
 over such routine and details as became necessary 
 by changes or aggregations incident to such ex- 
 tended affairs. He continued his labors both in 
 the councils and at the annual exhibitions of the 
 Society, and for many years his flirm stock formed 
 a prominent feature in the prize lists. On all 
 occasions he evinced the liveliest interest in its 
 welfare ; and, as soon as he had a son old enough — 
 and his second one he trained to be a farmer — the 
 stripling appeared among us with his fatted bul- 
 locks, and blooded horses, in honest competition 
 with the hardest-handed farmer in the show 
 grounds. 
 
19 
 
 Nor were the agricultural efforts of Mr. Wads- 
 worth confined to the State Society. He took an 
 active interest in his own County Association, 
 and vigorously assisted its efforts in imj)roving 
 the husbandry of his vicinity. He imported from 
 abroad choice breeds of farm stock, and in various 
 manner promoted the welfare of the farmers of 
 Livingston by his own example, as well as by 
 his aid in the encouragement of new and econo- 
 mical inventions in labor-saving implements. His 
 influence, always active, was persistent and bene- 
 ficial throughout. 
 
 More intimate with the varied interests which 
 build up the prosperity of the community outside 
 of agriculture than the elder Wadsworths had 
 been, James became engaged in several of the 
 active enterprises with which the business men 
 of Western New York were identified. He em- 
 barked a share of his capital in them, and gave 
 to these different investments a portion of his 
 attention. Nor in these was he merely a fair- 
 weather adventurer. In important enterprises 
 with others, he took risks, and heavy ones when 
 his judgment approved, shirking no responsibili- 
 ties upon those less able to bear them, but breasted 
 such emersfencies as in the hazards of business 
 
20 
 
 might arise, and hy the further aid of his capital 
 or credit, when necessary, brought to a successful 
 issue their undertakings. He Avas emphatically 
 a man of the times — a part and parcel of the en- 
 tire community in what concerned their material 
 welfare, and no man among them all was more 
 alive to the prosperity of the people, aside from 
 purely selfish motives, than himself Enjoying 
 the well earned returns of intelligent enterprise, 
 and improving, by a liberal participation Avith 
 others, the fortunes of himself and his family, his 
 action redounded largely to the public good. 
 
 An incident may here be related testifying to 
 the esteem and affection in which Mr. Wadsworth 
 was held in the community where he lived, and 
 was best known. In December, 1851, business 
 having called him to Europe, he took passage in 
 the steamship Atlantic on his homeward voA'age. 
 The vessel did not arrive in New York at the 
 expected time. Some days afterward a report 
 came that she had met with an accident at se^i 
 which might prove fatal to her safety, and so 
 long was further intelligence delayed, that by 
 many the ship Avas given up for lost. It Avas 
 known that he Avas on board, and during tAventy- 
 eight days of weary susj)ense, thousands of sub- 
 
21 
 
 dued voices and anxious hearts outside the a";o- 
 nized circle of his own fireside, testified their 
 sorrow at his jDrobable fate. His loss would have 
 been felt as a public calamity. But a joyous day 
 ere long shone out on both kindred and friends. 
 Intelligence of his arrival in New York was 
 speeded over the wires, and a day or two later he 
 was welcomed to his home in Geneseo by the 
 sound of bells and the congratulations of his 
 assembled friends and neighbors. 
 
 In public affairs the opinion and action of Mr. 
 Wadsworth were decided. He took a lively inte- 
 rest in the leading questions of the day — not the 
 lower issues affecting mere party politics — but 
 questions involving grave principles, and policies 
 worthy the attention of statesmen and philan- 
 thropists, in which his views were thoroughly 
 defined, and inflexibly determined. Had he 
 sought civil promotion, it was always ojDcn to his 
 acceptance ; but the tranquil paths of private life 
 were more congenial to his tastes and feelings. 
 
 But a new and untried field of action was sud- 
 denly destined to open before him. Early in the 
 year 1861 the atrocious rebellion in the Slave 
 States of the Union against the general govern- 
 ment, found him at his temporary residence in 
 
22 
 
 the city of New York. The President of the 
 United States had called for troops to defend the 
 seat of government from sjDoliation, and possible 
 capture at the hands of the rebels. The national 
 treasury robbed; the navy sent abroad and scat- 
 tered in distant seas; the army — what there was 
 of it — dispersed along our wide-spread frontier, 
 and the material of defence squandered or carried 
 away by the parricidal hands of a recently ex- 
 pired administration who had sworn in all solem- 
 nity to support the Constitution of their country ; 
 in this hour of its extremity, Mr. Wadsworth, in 
 the impulsive patriotism of his nature, rushed to 
 that country's rescue. With his own purse and 
 credit he furnished a vessel with a cargo of army 
 supj)lies, went with it to Annapolis, and gave his 
 personal attention to its distribution among the 
 troops which had been hastily called to protect 
 the city of Washington. This assistance on the 
 part of Mr, Wadsworth, so timely rendered in 
 the impoverished condition of the public trea- 
 sury, although afterwards repaid to him, was 
 none the less creditable to both his patriotism 
 and liberalit}^ He then offered his services to 
 the government in any capacity where they 
 could become useful or important, and from that 
 
23 
 
 time forward abandoned liis private affiiirs to the 
 care of his agents, and devoted his entire energies 
 to his country. As a volunteer Aid to General 
 McDowell, he engaged in the first battle of Bull 
 Run, and by his courage and energy, retrieved 
 much of the disaster of that ill-fated en2;aa;ement. 
 In July, 18(31, appointed a Brigadier General, he 
 was assigned to a command in the army of the 
 Potomac. In the succeeding month of March, he 
 was ordered to Washington, as Military Governor 
 of the city, and for nine months discharged with 
 distinguished ability the duties of that difficult 
 and important post. In December, 1862, at his 
 own request, he was ordered to the field. He 
 reported to Major General Beynolds, commanding 
 the First Corps, and was assigned by that distin- 
 guished officer to the command of his First Divi- 
 sion, and afterwards led that division in the bat- 
 tles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At 
 the battle of Gettysburg his w^as the first division 
 engaged, going into action at nine o'clock in the 
 morning, and fighting until four in the afternoon, 
 
 • 
 
 encountering the severest part of the action, and 
 suffering the heaviest loss of any portion of the 
 army. Our troops winning the battle, and rout- 
 ing the enemy from the field, General Wads- 
 
24: 
 
 WORTH, compreliending the vast consequences de- 
 pending on the immediate subjugation or capture 
 of the rebel forces, urged the commanding Gene- 
 ral, Meade, to their pursuit. But in vain. Other 
 and more timid counsels prevailed, and that 
 invading host of rebels was suffered to escape 
 with the mild punishment of a simple defeat. 
 The daring courage and stern energy of General 
 Wadsavorth, on this decisive field, p)lficed him, in 
 all the high qualities of a soldier, second to no 
 other general officer in the army. 
 
 Nor was he, of his family, alone in his devotion 
 to the public service. Two sons followed him 
 into the army. The elder one, Charles, was 
 attached to the Department of the Gulf — served 
 as captain under General Banks, and participated 
 in the attack on Port Hudson. With a year of 
 active service, at the call of imperative duties at 
 home, he resigned his command. The younger 
 son, Craig, was attached to General Wadsworth's 
 staft' for a time, and afterwards held responsible 
 and hazardous positions with other general officers 
 in various departments, until May last, when 
 important domestic duties called him home. The 
 son-in-law of General Wadswortii, Capt. Ritchie, 
 also joined the army early in the war. He was 
 
25 
 
 engaged in General Burnside's first expedition, 
 afterwards served in the several battles at Port 
 Hudson, and continued in active service until 
 the melancholy event of the Wilderness compel- 
 led his resignation. If, in the annals of time, an 
 instance of higher patriotism and intenser devo- 
 tion to the honor of their country has been shown 
 by a father and three sons, possessing millions of 
 wealth, and beckoned by all the allurements 
 of ease and luxury from personal danger, that 
 instance has yet to be written; and would that 
 the narrative of hard fought battles and bloody 
 sacrifice would stop here. 
 
 General Wadsworth took an active part in the 
 arrangements and preparations of the campaign 
 of General Grant in the spring of 1864 against 
 the rebel army in Virginia. His judgment in 
 council and energy in action had placed him 
 in such estimation with the military authorities, 
 that, at the outset of the campaign, he was 
 charged with a leading command. A decisive 
 work was before the army of the Potomac. The 
 country had become impatient of delay in its 
 long anticipated advance, and anxiously expect- 
 ant of better results than had, in the past, marked 
 its checkered fortunes. This feeling was known 
 4 
 
26 
 
 to no one better than to AVadsavorth. He re- 
 sponded to it with all the fervor of his unfalter- 
 ing nature, and with a determination, on his own 
 part, that it should not be disappointed. The 
 incidents attending the opening of the campaign 
 and its first brtttle of the Wilderness, so melan- 
 choly in its results, are of such interest that I 
 shall be excused for laying some of them before 
 you, which I obtained from Captain Craig W. 
 Wadsworth, a son of the General, who was in a 
 part of the battle : 
 
 "When the army of the Potomac was re- 
 organized last spring, my father was placed in 
 command of the fourth division, fifth corps. This 
 division was made up of his old division of the 
 first corps, with the addition of another, the third 
 brigade. He crossed the Rapidan on the 4th of 
 May. On the evening of the 5tli his command 
 was engaged for several hours, and lost heavily. 
 On the morning of the 6th he was ordered to 
 report to General Hancock, commanding the 
 second corps, and by him was ordered into action 
 on the right of that corps. My father made seve- 
 ral charges with his division, and finally carried 
 quite an imjDortant position, but was unable to 
 hold it, the enemy coming down in superior num- 
 
27 
 
 bers. This was about eight o'clock a. m., the 
 fighting having commenced, at daylight. About 
 this time General Hancock sent for my father, 
 and told him he had ordered three brigades, 
 Generals Ward's, Webb's, and one from General 
 Burnside's corps, to report to him, and he wished 
 him, if possible, with the six brigades under his 
 command, to carry a certain position. Three or 
 four assaults were made withouj: success, the 
 fighting being terrific. My father had two horses 
 killed under him. General Hancock then sent 
 word to my father not to make any further 
 attempts to dislodge the enemy at present. This 
 was about eleven o'clock a. m. The enemy did 
 not show any further disposition to attack. It 
 Avas Hill's corps which my father had been 
 fighting. Everything remained quiet until about 
 twelve o'clock, when Longstreet precipitated his 
 corps on my father's left, and hurled back Ward's 
 brigade at that point, in some confusion. My 
 father, seeing this, immediately threw his second 
 line, composed of his own division, forward, and 
 formed it on the plank road, at right angles to 
 his original line, the ditch at the side of the road 
 affording his men some protection. It was in 
 trying to hold this line, with his own gallant 
 
28 
 
 division, then reduced to about sixteen hundred 
 men, that he felL His third horse was killed 
 that morning, about the time he was wounded. 
 The enemy was charging at the time, and got 
 possession of the ground before my father could 
 be removed. He was carried back to one of the 
 rebel hospitals that Friday afternoon, and lived 
 until Sunday morning." 
 
 To illustrate somewhat the carnage of war and 
 its uncertainties, I may relate the whereabouts of 
 the son. Captain Craig Wadswortii, at " The 
 Wilderness " battle : " During the 5th and Gth of 
 May, the division of cavalry to which I was 
 attached, was guarding the wagon train. On the 
 morning of the Gth, I obtained permission from 
 my General, Torbert, to go up to the front, and 
 remain two or three hours with my father. I 
 reached him between eight and nine o'clock, and 
 remained with him until he received the order 
 from General Hancock not to make any further 
 attempt to dislodge the enemy. I got word about 
 this time that General Torbert was moving, so I 
 rejoined my command. We started out with 
 General Sheridan on his raid, the next morning, 
 and I never knew positively of my father's death 
 until we reached the White House." 
 
29 
 
 This narrative will scarcely be complete with- 
 out the letter of Patrick McCracken, to the 
 widow of General Wadsworth, a copy of which 
 has been kindly furnished me. It reads as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Spotsylvania Court House, Va., ? 
 May 9th, 18G4. 5 
 Mrs. General Wadsworth, JVew York : 
 
 Dear jNIadam — You have heard, before this reaches you, of the 
 death of your brave husband. General Wadsworth. I saw him in 
 the hospital, near the battle-field, on Saturday last, about ten o'clock ; 
 he could not speak or take any notice to anything; he held a paper in 
 his hand with his name and address written on it ; he was surrounded 
 with the most eminent surgeons in the Confederacy, who done every- 
 thing for him that could be done ; one of them took the paper out of 
 his hand, and when he laid the paper back against his hand, he 
 oijened his hand and took it back again ; he did not seem to suffer 
 much, the ball had entered the top, or rather the back of his head. I 
 saw him again on Sunday, about nine o'clock. I had carried some 
 sweet milk to the hospital, and wet his lips several times, and let a 
 little go down his mouth. But when the surgeon raised him up, he 
 could not get him to let any go down. When I returned to the hos- 
 pital, about three o'clock, he was dead and in a box ready for inter- 
 ment. I told the surgeon in charge that I was a prisoner nine weeks 
 in the Old Capitol, while the General was Military Governor of Wash- 
 ington, and that I would have a coffin made for him, and bury him in 
 a family burying ground; he cheerfully consented. After much 
 trouble, I had a coffin made for him, as good as any could be made in 
 the countrJ^ When I went for his remains with the coffin, General 
 Lee had given special orders, (not knowing I was going to take 
 charge of his remains,) that he should be buried by a large tree, the 
 tree to be cut low, and his name marked on it. I had given the sur- 
 geon satisfactory evidence that I would take care of the body, and 
 with the advice of Captain Z. B. Adams, Co. F, 56th Mass. Regt., 
 they gave me the body. I removed it from the box to the coffin, and 
 brought it home last night, and buried it this morning in the family 
 burying ground at my house; he is buried with all his clothing, as he 
 fell on the battle-field. The grave is dug with a vault or chamber, 
 the coffin covered with plank, and then dirt. When arrangements 
 are made by our government for his removal, I will take pleasure in 
 having him moved through our lines to his friends. I live about a 
 mile to the left of the plank road, as you go from Fredericksburg to 
 Orange Court House, near New Hope Meeting House, on the plank 
 road, twenty miles from Fredericksburg and eighteen from Orange 
 Court House. 
 
 I had a large plank planed and marked for a headstone, and placed 
 it at the head of the grave. He received all the attention and kind- 
 
30 
 
 ness fit the liands of the Confederate authorities that could be be- 
 stow^ed upon hiin,^%s will be attested by Captain Z. B. Adams, Co. F, 
 5Gth Mass. lieginient. 
 
 AVith great.^esjTe'ct, I remain yours, 
 
 PATRICK McCRACKEN. 
 
 Thus, on the soil of his country's foe, far from 
 the soothing hand of sympathy, or the loved 
 embraces of those he held most dear — his brain 
 shattered — his mind unconscious, but a glorious 
 memory awaiting him — died, and was temporarily 
 buried, this noble, generous soldier. Though 
 slain upon a distant battle-field, his remains now 
 rest in the burial ground of his native village. 
 The hand of filial affection rescued them from a 
 profixned grave. They were tenderly removed, 
 and, under the escort of a detachment of Invalid 
 Corps, from Washington, arrived at Geneseo on 
 the morning of the 21st of May, after a lapse 
 of fifteen days from the time he fell, and were 
 deposited within the walls, and amid the heart- 
 stricken circle of his now desolated home. A 
 multitude from the surrounding and even distant 
 country, had come to meet the arrival of the 
 Dead Soldier, and pay their last tribute of respect 
 at his grave. His burial was simple, as was fit- 
 ting to his grand and simple life. In the after- 
 noon of the day, the remains were removed to 
 the Episcopal church of the village. The solemn 
 
31 
 
 ritual of his own Christian faith was said, and 
 then, preceded by a veteran corps of the 21st 
 Volunteer Regiment, from Buffalo — one of the 
 earliest which entered the war, and himself had 
 led to battle — and followed by a great concourse 
 of those who had long loyed, and now mourned 
 him, his body was borne to its final rest. 
 
 " And there he sleeps till at the Trump Divine, 
 The Earth and Ocean render up their dead." 
 
 It may apj)ear superfluous to speak further of 
 General Wadsworth, or to delineate his character 
 to those who knew him so well as you; but to 
 those who did not know him — and his fame is the 
 property of his country — it is but just to S23eak of 
 him as he deserved. An allusion might be made 
 to the more matured policy and opinions which 
 influenced him, beyond mere impulse, to enter 
 into the military service of his country ; but this 
 is not the time, nor is it the j)lace, for such allu- 
 sion. The graver and more deliberate pen of his- 
 tory Avill do justice to both, when it shall write 
 the full measure of his intentions and contem- 
 plated action, had his life been spared to disclose 
 them. That they were wise and beneficent, as 
 they were entirely unselfish — reaching far be- 
 yond any aspiration to mere military fame or 
 
32 
 
 the applause accorded to temporary success — is 
 known to those who were intimate with his 
 thoughts. 
 
 To a friend who carelessly asked him one day, 
 why, with so much to care for at home, he sought 
 the hazards of the battle-field, he nobly replied, 
 that " they who had the most at stake should not 
 shrink from the heaviest risks for their country's 
 safety !" 
 
 He was not ambitious of political distinction, 
 as shown by his declining the office of Governor 
 of the State, some years ago, when his simple 
 assent to the wishes of his party friends, then in 
 a powerful majority, would have elected him. 
 Nor did he aspire to high military command. At 
 the breaking out of the rebellion, he magnani- 
 mously urged upon the President of the United 
 
 States the appointment of General Dix to the 
 
 f 
 office of Major General, on account of his greater 
 
 military experience and fitness, although a poli- 
 tical opponent, when they had both been named 
 by the Executive of New York for that position, 
 and under the rule of the War Department, at 
 Washington, but one of them could be accepted. 
 He did, indeed, discharge one civil deliberative 
 trust, but that scarce a legally official one. He 
 
33 
 
 attended, with severcal other delegates from the 
 State of New York, in February, 1861, the so- 
 called " Peace Co;igress," at Washington, in an 
 effort to adjust the sectional difficulties between 
 the Free and Slave States, just preceding the 
 rebellion. But with the chronic traitors of the 
 South, in that body, he could have no affiliations. 
 He could yield no rights which he knew the Free 
 States to possess under the Constitution; nor 
 would he admit the arrogant pretensions of the 
 South to privileges for slavery which the Consti- 
 tution had not given them. No one sustained the 
 integrity and honor of the Northern States with 
 more firmness or decision than Wadsworth ; and, 
 after exhausting all honorable efforts on the part 
 of the Northern delegates in composing, without 
 success, their differences, the congress adjourned, 
 and he, with his associates, withdrew to their 
 several homes. He had also previously, in the 
 year 1856, discharged the duty of a Presidential 
 Elector for the State at large ; and again, in 1860, 
 that of an Elector for his own congressional dis- 
 trict, to which offices he was severally elected by 
 the people. 
 
 To an intimate friend of General Wadsworth, 
 (the Hon. Daniel H. Fitzhugh, of Geneseo,) I am 
 5 
 
34 
 
 indebted for some relations of his private life 
 which I have given jou, and in addition I repeat 
 some of his words: 
 
 " I have known General Wadsworth since he 
 was a boy of ten years old, and his early years 
 gave promise of what his manhood would be. 
 Although never quarrelsome, he was always 
 ready to resent insult, or resist oj^pression. His 
 friendships were fixed and unwavering, and to 
 serve a friend, he would risk to any extent either 
 person or property. His domestic relations were 
 most happy. A more kind, indulgent, or affec- 
 tionate husband and father, I have never known. 
 His hospitality was unbounded, and as a host, I 
 have met with few who possessed so happy a 
 faculty of entertaining their guests ; his conversa- 
 tion always animated, amusing and instructive. 
 He lived a truly Christian life, although not a 
 professor of religion. He loved his fellow-men, 
 and was always foremost when any charity was 
 to be dispensed, or any project was on foot for 
 enlightening, elevating, or benefiting, in any 
 way, the human family. He was liberal to his 
 tenants, in the abatement of rents, when their 
 crops had been destroyed, or injured by insects, 
 floods or droughts. Brave to rashness, he was 
 
35 
 
 generous, liberal, humane. Highly intelligent 
 and well educated, he possessed all the qualities 
 which make men good and great. In short, I 
 have seldom known an instance where so many 
 high qualities have been combined in one indivi- 
 dual, and would to God we had more like him in 
 this trying crisis of our country !" 
 
 Such is the testimony of one who knew him for 
 nearly fifty years. In a personal acquaintance 
 with General Wadswortii for more than thirty 
 years, I have seldom or never known one for 
 whom I had a greater respect. You all knew 
 his athletic person, his cheerful look, his wel- 
 come greeting — and, if I may sjoeak of so small 
 a thing, his plainness of dress, the absence of 
 bodily decoration, and utter disregard of personal 
 trifles — yet always mindful of conventional ipro- 
 prieties ; there was no nonsense about him. His 
 bearing was manly, his words sincere, his senti- 
 ments outspoken. He was direct and cordial in 
 manner, genial in his associations, affable to all 
 with whom he had intercourse, irrespective of 
 rank, or condition in life, yet decided in opinion, 
 and frank in its expression. If any quality of 
 his mind stood out conspicuously, it was that of a 
 vigorous common sense, coupled with a ready 
 
36 
 
 judgment, apj)lied to all matters which arrested 
 his attention. This was manifested in various 
 23ublic questions which agitated the community, 
 as well as in the management of the large estates, 
 both real and personal, under his control, not 
 only to the benefit of the estates themselves, but 
 to the welfxre of the communities with which 
 they were connected. In all his business rela- 
 tions, I have never heard of an act of injustice or 
 oppression at his hands. On the other hand, I 
 knew him to pay an obligation of more than 
 twenty thousand dollars which he had unwarily 
 incurred, to assist a friend, and afterwards be- 
 came void by its own tenor. It was uncollect- 
 able, and he knew it ; and the party to whom it 
 was given — a rich man — would be no real suf- 
 ferer by its non-payment. But Mr. Wadsworth, 
 declining to avail himself of the illegality, or 
 incur an imputation on his honor, joaid the 
 amount and submitted to the loss. 
 
 His faithfulness to the duties of any kind 
 which he had undertaken, was a striking feature 
 of his character. In the three years of his con- 
 nection with the war, he did not altogether spend 
 eight weeks of time at his family home. His 
 soul was in his country's service. Nor was his 
 
o/ 
 
 attention alone absorbed, in the simple official 
 duties of the Commander. In camj), he was 
 among his soldiers, in tent or in hospital, looking 
 after their wants, ministering to their comfort, 
 promoting their welfare, and correcting abuses 
 where they existed — thus adding to the efficiency 
 of his corps by every exercise of humanity, as 
 well as by the sterner demands of the field. No 
 General was ever more beloved by his troops 
 than he. 
 
 Those who recollect the Irish dearth, of the 
 year 1847, when the famished cry of millions of 
 down-trodden sufferers reached America, will not 
 forget the merciful bounty with which he con- 
 tributed to freight a ship with corn, and gratui- • 
 tously sent it out for distribution to the hunger- 
 stricken people. Nor was he vaunting in his 
 charities, timely and liberal as they were. It 
 was characteristic of his benevolence to do o'ood 
 by stealth, rather than to be seen of men. He 
 demeaned himself as one of the great human 
 brotherhood, and I might even speak of his ex- 
 pression of indignant commiseration over the 
 victims of a boasted " domestic institution," as in 
 their crouching helplessness, side by side, he and 
 myself, some years ago, stood over them at a 
 
38 
 
 human chattel market in one of the " chivah^ous" 
 Southern States. He had little respect for wealth, 
 simply, or the hoarded gains of those who were 
 altogether absorbed in its accumulation ; and he 
 respected just as little mere moneygetters. Man- 
 hood, character, liberality, and patriotic impulse, 
 accompanied with their wealth — or those quali- 
 ties without it — were the passports to his con- 
 fidence and esteem. 
 
 His tastes were elevated and liberal. He 
 esteemed his wealth less for his own pleasure, 
 than for the benefit and happiness of others. He 
 indulged in no idle display ^of luxury, yet the 
 elegancies of life and the adornments of art found 
 • in him an appreciating admirer and patron. He 
 promoted education and literature by frequent 
 sifts, and left eisrht thousand dollars to erect a 
 building for a town library and museum in Gene- 
 seo. His ruling taste Avas for rich lands, and 
 their development to the prosperity and wealth 
 of the country. He loved the soil in all its 
 breadth of vegetable or mineral production. He 
 loved to talk of agriculture, and its advance- 
 ment — of crops, and their improved modes of 
 cultivation — of horses and of cattle. He loved 
 the broad landscapes of his native valley, the 
 
39 
 
 grand old trees in his ancestral meadows, and 
 every natural and artificial thing which beauti- 
 fied the earth, and ministered to the benefit of 
 man. « 
 
 In remarking upon the wealth of General 
 Wadsworth, it may j^ossibly be inferred that 
 undue merit has been given him for the accident 
 of its possession. Not so. It was not because he 
 had wealth, but because he knew how to use his 
 wealth, that I speak of him in terms of approba- 
 tion. I strive to measure him the man he was. 
 In this age of lax education, irregular habits, and 
 impulsive action — an age in which money is the 
 God of most men's adoration — he had wealth 
 enough to spoil twenty common men, and it was 
 a rare merit in him that with all the tempting 
 opportunities at his hand, he withstood their 
 fascinations. The wonder is that he was not a 
 profligate, or — a miser. 
 
 But the last great labor of his life — his devo- 
 tion to a country which he loved beyond all else — 
 proved the virtue that was in him. Possessed of 
 all that could render life enjoyable — friends, 
 fortune, domestic love, and the consciousness of 
 duty well discharged — he abandoned them all at 
 the coming of his country's danger, went forth 
 
40 
 
 to its rescue — and, if might be, to die for its 
 deliverance. He could equally well, as men would 
 say, have served his country in contributing of 
 his treasure to its necessities, instead of leading 
 its soldiers to battle, and his valuable life been 
 spared to his family, to the community and to 
 the State. But such was not his own sense of 
 duty, and his blood has paid the sacrifice of his 
 devotion. In his death we, as a Society, mourn 
 a friend and associate ; the community in which 
 he lived, a useful citizen ; the State, an enlight- 
 ened patriot; the army, a heroic soldier; and the 
 nation a man worthy of its noblest honors. A 
 life of active duty, crowned with achievements 
 of loftiest intent, has written him high in the roll 
 of illustrious men — the peer of an}' other in the 
 annals of his time. Sleep ! hero — patriot — bene- 
 factor ! Peacefully sleep in your honored grave ! 
 And may that Almighty Power, who holds the 
 destiny of nations in His hand, lift your beloved 
 country from its present calamity, and redeemed 
 from all servile oppression and bloodguiltiness, 
 establish it a monument of righteousness to the 
 world ! 
 
41 
 
 On the conclusion of the memorial, the Honor- 
 able Ex-Gov. John A. King (ex-president of the 
 Society), offered the following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, As the sense of the members of the 
 Society, that the death of our lamented associate 
 and friend, James S. Wadswortii, fills our hearts 
 with unfeigned regret and sorrow — that his ab- 
 sence from our deliberations and exhibitions is 
 felt and acknowledged by all who knew his worth 
 and intelligence. He was no common man. Libe- 
 rally educated, with a sound, firm and discrimi- 
 nating mind; inheriting the broad lands of an 
 honored father, the cultivation and management 
 of which was his delight and occupation, he stood 
 forth a noble example of an American citizen in 
 all his relations. Foremost in the cultivation of 
 the arts of peace, he gave his life in the defence 
 of the Union and the Constitution of his country, 
 when rebel hands were raised against them. 
 Honored, therefore, be the memory of such a 
 man, whose life and death were alike distin- 
 guished and glorious, and w^iose name must ever 
 be a household w^ord among the free homes of his 
 native State. 
 
 The resolution was unanimously adopted. 
 
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