James S . Wadsworth James Samuel Wadsworth ( October 30 , 1807 – May 8 , 1864 ) was a philanthropist , politician , and a Union general in the American Civil War . He was killed in battle during the Battle of the Wilderness of 1864 . Early years . 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 , NY 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 1861 , he was a member of the Washington peace conference , an unofficial gathering of Northern and Southern moderates 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 . During the preparations for Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan ' s Peninsula Campaign , Wadsworth complained to President Abraham Lincoln that he had insufficient troops to defend the capital due to McClellan ' s plan to take a large number of them with him to the Virginia Peninsula . Lincoln countermanded McClellan ' s plan and restored a full corps to the Washington defenses , generating ill feelings between McClellan and Wadsworth . Seeing no prospects for serving in McClellan ' s army , Wadsworth allowed his name to be put into nomination for governor of New York against antiwar Democrat Horatio Seymour , but he declined to leave active duty to campaign and lost the election . After McClellan left the Army of the Potomac , and after the serious Union defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg , Wadsworth was appointed commander of the 1st Division , I Corps on December 27 , 1862 , replacing Brig . Gen . John Gibbon , who had been promoted to command of the 2nd Division in the II Corps . He led this division until June 15 , 1863 , with two brief stints commanding the I Corps in January and March for about ten days combined . Wadsworth was widely admired in his new division because he spent considerable effort looking after the welfare of his men , making sure that their rations and housing were adequate . They were also impressed that he was so devoted to the Union cause that he had given up a comfortable life to serve in the Army without drawing pay . Wadsworth and his division ' s first test in combat was at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 . He made a faltering start in maneuvering his men across the Rappahannock River below Fredericksburg and they ended up being only lightly engaged during the battle . His performance at the Battle of Gettysburg was much more substantial . Arriving in the vanguard of Maj . Gen . John F . Reynolds ' s I Corps on July 1 , 1863 , Wadsworth ' s division bore much of the brunt of the overwhelming Confederate attack that morning and afternoon . They were able to hold out against attacks from both the west and north , providing the time to bring up sufficient forces to hold the high ground south of town and eventually win the battle . But by the time the division retreated back through town to Cemetery Hill that evening , it had suffered over 50 % casualties . Despite these losses , on the second day of battle , Wadsworth ' s division was assigned to the defense of part of Culp ' s Hill . When most of XII Corps was ordered to the left flank of the army , Wadsworth sent three regiments to reinforce the brigade of Brig . Gen . George S . Greene , which was holding the summit of the hill . I Corps had been so significantly damaged at Gettysburg that , when the Army of the Potomac was reorganized in March 1864 , its surviving regiments were dispersed to other corps . After an eight - month leave of absence , much of it spent inspecting colored troops on duty in the Mississippi Valley , Wadsworth was named commander of the 4th Division , V Corps , composed of troops from his old division and that formerly led by Maj . Gen . Abner Doubleday . This speaks well for his performance at Gettysburg , because a number of his contemporaries were left without assignments when the army reorganized or were sent to minor assignment elsewhere . The Wilderness and death . At the start of Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant ' s 1864 Overland Campaign , Wadsworth led his division in Maj . Gen . Gouverneur K . Warren ' s V Corps at the Battle of the Wilderness . On this day Wadsworth was Grant ' s oldest divisional commander at 56 years old , about nine older than the next oldest . On May 5 , Wadsworth was ordered to counter march and help defend the left of the Union position . However , he had lost his direction in the dense Wilderness underbrush and drifted to the north , exposing the left of his division to a sudden and harsh attack , which in turn led to the same treatment of the Union division next to Wadsworth . 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 back of his head . Wadsworth fell from his horse and was captured by Confederate forces that were pursuing his retreating men . He would die two days later in a Confederate field hospital . 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 Verrazano Narrows Bridge . Wadsworth , Nevada was also named in his honor .