HANCOCK, WINFIELD S. 



351 



of the Confederate service. He graduated at 

 "West Point, June 30, 1844 ; was bre vetted sec- 

 ond-lieutenant in the Sixth Infantry, July 1, 

 1844, and assigned to duty at Fort Towson, in 

 the Indian Territory, June 18, 1846; he re- 

 ceived his commission as second-lieutenant in 

 a company of his regiment which was stationed 

 on the frontier of Mexico, where the difficulties 

 which afterward resulted in the Mexican War 

 had already begun. 



He was ordered to active service in the field in 

 the summer of 1847, and reached his regiment 

 at Puebla, under the command of General Pierce, 

 in time to join the army of General Scott in its 

 advance upon the Mexican capital. He partici- 

 pated in the four principal battles (Contreras, 

 Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec), 

 which resulted in the capture of the city of 

 Mexico, and was brevetted first-lieutenant for 

 gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles 

 of Contreras and Churubusco. From 1848 to 

 1855, he was stationed at St. Louis, acting as 

 aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General N. S. Clarke. 

 Lieutenant Hancock was married, January 24, 

 1850, to Almira Eussell, daughter of Samuel 

 Russell, a merchant of St. Louis. November 7, 

 1855, he was appointed quartermaster with the 

 rank of captain, and ordered to Fort Myers, 

 Florida, where General Harney was in com- 

 mand of the military forces operating against 

 tlie hostile Seminoles. He served under this 

 officer during the troubles in Kansas in 1857 

 and 1858, and afterward accompanied his ex- 

 pedition to Utah, where serious complications 

 had arisen between the Gentiles and Mormons. 

 From 1859 to 1861 Captain Hancock was 

 quartermaster of the Southern District of Cali- 

 fornia. At the breaking out of the civil war 

 in 1861 he asked to be relieved from duty on 

 the Pacific coast, and transferred to more ac- 

 tive service at the seat of war. He reported 

 himself for duty at Washington early in Sep- 

 tember. In a letter to a friend at this time he 

 said, " My politics are of a practical kind the 

 integrity of the country, the supremacy of the 

 Federal Government, an honorable peace, or 

 none at all." He was commissioned a briga- 

 dier-general of volunteers by President Lin- 

 coln, September 23, 1861, and at once bent all 

 his energies to aid in the organization of the 

 Army of the Potomac. During the Peninsular 

 campaign under General McClellan he was es- 

 pecially conspicuous at the battles of Williams- 

 burg and Frazier's Farm. He took an active 

 part in the subsequent campaign in Maryland, 

 at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. 

 He was assigned to the command of the First 

 Division of the Second Army Corps, on the 

 battle-field, during the second day's fight at 

 Antietam, September 17, 1862. He was soon 

 after made a major-general of volunteers, and 

 commanded this division in the attempt to 

 storm Marye's Heights, at the battle of Fred- 

 ericksburg, December 13, 1862. In this assault 

 General Hancock led his men through such a 

 fire as has rarely been encountered in warfare. 



In the three days' fight at Chancellorsville in 

 May, 1&63, Hancock's division took a promi- 

 nent part. While on the march through west- 

 ern Maryland after the invading army of Gen- 

 eral Lee, on June 25th, he was ordered by the 

 President to assume command of the Second 

 Army Corps. On the 27th, General Hooker 

 asked to be relieved from the command of the 

 Army of the Potomac ; and orders from the 

 War Department reached his headquarters near 

 Frederick, Maryland, assigning Major-General 

 George G. Meade to its command. On the 

 1st of July the report reached General Meade, 

 who was fifteen miles distant, that there was 

 fighting at Gettysburg, and that General Rey- 

 nolds was killed. General Meade, who knew 

 nothing of Gettysburg, sent General Hancock 

 with orders to take immediate command of 

 the forces and report what should be done; 

 whether to give the enemy battle there, or fall 

 back to the proposed line at Pipe-clay Creek. 

 He reported that he considered Gettysburg the 

 place to fight the coming battle. He continued 

 in command until the arrival of General Meade. 

 In the decisive action of July 3d he command- 

 ed on the left center, which was the main 

 point assailed by the Confederates, and was 

 shot from his horse. Though dangerously 

 wounded, he remained on the field till he saw 

 that the enemy's assault was broken, when he 

 dispatched his aide-de-camp, Major W. G. 

 Mitchell, with the following message : " Tell 

 General Meade that the troops under my com- 

 mand have repulsed the enemy's assault, and 

 that we have gained a great victory. The enemy 

 is now flying in all directions in my front." 

 General Meade returned this reply: "Say to 

 General Hancock that I regret exceedingly that 

 he is wounded, and that I thank him in the 

 name of the country and for myself for the 

 service he has rendered to-day." In a report 

 to General Meade, after he had been carried 

 from the field, he says that, when he left the 

 line of battle " not a rebel was in sight up- 

 right, and if the Fifth and Sixth Corps are 

 pressed up, the enemy will be destroyed." Dis- 

 abled by his wound, he was not again on ac- 

 tive duty until March, 1864, being meanwhile 

 engaged in recruiting the Second Army Corps. 

 He resumed command of this corps at the open- 

 ing of the spring campaign of that year, and 

 bore a prominent part in the battles of the Wil- 

 derness, where the fighting was almost constant 

 from May 5th to the 26th. In the fight at Spott- 

 sylvania Court-House, where General Lee's right 

 center formed a sharp salient "the Angle," 

 General Hancock on the night of the llth 

 moved to a position within 1,200 yards of it, 

 and early in the morning of the 12th stormed 

 it. His heavy column overran the Confederate 

 pickets without firing a shot, burst through the 

 abatis, and after a short hand-to-hand conflict 

 inside the intrenchments captured " nearly four 

 thousand prisoners, twenty pieces of artillery, 

 with horses, caissons, and material complete, 

 several thousand stand of small-arms, and up- 



