352 HANCOCK, WINFIELD S. 



HARCOURT, WILLIAM G. G. V. 



ward of thirty colors " (Hancock's official re- 

 port). The fighting at this point was as fierce 

 as any during the war, the battle raging furi- 

 ously and incessantly along the whole line 

 throughout the day and late into the night, 

 General Lee making no fewer than five sepa- 

 rate assaults in his attempts to retake the 

 works, but without success. 



In the subsequent operations of the army, 

 at the crossing of the North Anna, the second 

 battle of Cold Harbor, and the assault on the 

 lines in front of Petersburg, he was active and 

 indefatigable till the 17th of June, when his 

 Gettysburg wound, breaking out afresh, became 

 so inflamed and dangerous that he was com- 

 pelled to go on sick-leave, but resumed his 

 command again in ten days. The battles at 

 Deep Bottom, Beam's Station, and of Boydton 

 Plank-road, were conducted by him. He was 

 appointed a brigadier-general in the regular 

 army, August 12, 1864, " for gallant and dis- 

 tinguished services in the battles of the Wilder- 

 ness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor, and in 

 all the operations of the army in Virginia un- 

 der Lieutenant-General Grant." 



On November 26th he was called to Wash- 

 ington to organize a veteran corps from the 

 honorably discharged soldiers who had served 

 two years. He continued at that duty till Feb- 

 ruary 26, 1865, when he was assigned to the 

 command of the Middle Military Division, and 

 ordered to Winchester, Virginia, to relieve 

 from the command of the Army of the Shenan- 

 doah General Sheridan, who started the next 

 morning with a large force of cavalry on his 

 expedition down the Shenandoah Valley. Gen- 

 eral Hancock now bent all his energies to or- 

 ganizing and equipping a force as powerful as 

 possible from the mass at his command. His 

 success is attested by the following extract 

 from a dispatch f rom the Secretary of War : 

 "I am very much gratified by your energy 

 in organizing and administering the military 

 force of your important command. Your dis- 

 patch of this evening to General Halleck vin- 

 dicates my judgment in assigning you to that 

 position, and shows that you could not in any 

 other render service so valuable and urgent to 

 the Government. I would be glad to have a 

 detailed report of the force and its location, a 

 thing I have never been able to procure. For 

 what you have done already, you have the 

 thanks of this Department." 



After the assassination of President Lincoln, 

 April 14, 1865, General Hancock's headquarters 

 were transferred to Washington, and he was 

 placed in command of the defenses of the capi- 

 tal. July 30th he was assigned to the command 

 of the Middle Department, with headquarters 

 in Baltimore. A resolution approved April 21, 

 1866, tenders him with other officers and sol- 

 diers the thanks of Congress, " for the skill and 

 heroic valor which, at Gettysburg, repulsed, 

 defeated, and drove back, broken and dispirited, 

 the veteran army of the rebellion," and for 

 himself, "for his gallant, meritorious, and con 



spicuous share in that great and decisive vic- 

 tory." July 26, 1866, he was appointed a 

 major-general in the regular army. 



August 6th General Hancock was assigned to 

 the command of the Department of Missouri, 

 where he conducted a successful warfare against 

 the hostile Indians on the Plains, till relieved by 

 General Sheridan, September 12, 1867. He was 

 in command of the Fifth Military District, com- 

 prising Louisiana and Texas, from November, 

 1867, to March, 1868; the Division of the At- 

 lantic from March, 1868, to March, 1869 ; and 

 the Department of Dakota from 1869 to 1872. 

 On the death of General George G. Meade, he 

 was again assigned to the command of the Di- 

 vision of the Atlantic, November 25, 1872, his 

 headquarters being in New York City, till 

 1878, when they were transferred to Gov- 

 ernor's Island, New York Harbor. 



General Hancock's name was favorably men- 

 tioned in 1868 and 1872 as a candidate for 

 Presidential honors. He was unanimously nom- 

 inated the candidate of the Democratic party 

 in the Cincinnati Convention, June 24, 1880. 

 On the first ballot he received 171 votes, in a 

 convention containing 738 members, and Sena- 

 tor Bayard, of Delaware, 153|. The remainder 

 of the votes were scattered among twelve can- 

 didates. On the second ballot General Hancock 

 received 320 votes, Senator Bayard 111 ; and 

 Speaker Randall, of the House of Representa- 

 tives, advanced from 6 to 128^ votes. On the 

 next ballot General Hancock received 705 votes, 

 and the nomination was made unanimous. 



HARCOURT, Sir WILLIAM GEOEGE GEAN- 

 VILLE VEENON, the Secretary of State for the 

 Home Department in the new Liberal English 

 Cabinet, was born in 1827. He is the second 

 son of the Rev. William Harcourt, of Nuneham 

 Park, Oxfordshire, and grandson of the late 

 Archbishop of York. He was educated at 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated 

 there in honors in 1851. Three years later he 

 was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, and 

 in 1866 became a Queen's Counsel. He was 

 elected Professor of International Law at Cam- 

 bridge University in 1869, and was a member 

 of the Royal Commission for amending the 

 Neutrality Laws. He was appointed Solicitor- 

 General in November, 1873, being knighted on 

 his appointment, and held this office until the 

 resignation of Mr. Gladstone's Ministry in Feb- 

 ruary, 1874. He wrote various political pam- 

 phlets and letters on international law in the 

 " Times," under the pseudonym u Historicus." 

 He represented Oxford in the Liberal interest 

 from 1868 to 1880. He was successful at the 

 general election of 1880, but, when he accepted 

 an office in the Cabinet and offered himself for 

 a new election, he was defeated on May 8th by 

 the Conservative candidate. On May 25th he 

 was, however, returned for Derby, which seat 

 Mr. Plimsoll resigned in his favor. His second 

 wife, to whom he was married in 1876, was a 

 daughter of the late J. L. Motley, of the United 

 States. 





