416 



HANCOCK, WINFIELD SCOTT. 



attention of the general-in-chief for his just 

 praise." McClellan said, in his dispatch to the 

 Secretary of War: "Hancock has taken two 

 redoubts and repulsed Early's brigade by a real 

 charge with the bayonet, taking one colonel 

 and 150 prisoners, killing at least two colonels 

 and as many lieutenant-colonels, and many pri- 

 vates. His conduct was brilliant in the ex- 

 treme." He added in a subsequent dispatch, 

 " The effect of Hancock's brilliant engagement 

 yesterday afternoon was to turn the left of 

 their line of works." In a letter to Mrs. Mc- 

 Clellan he said that Hancock's " conduct was 

 superb," and, as the letter found its way into 

 print, the somewhat unfortunate adjective was 

 applied to the man rather than his action, and 

 hurt fully as much as it helped his fame. Dur- 

 ing the rest of the campaign he did good serv- 

 ice, but was not so conspicuous as at Williams- 

 burg. He took part in the battle of Fair Oaks, 

 May 31 and June 1, and in the actions at Sav- 

 age's Station, Glendale, and Malvern Hill, June 

 29, 30, and July 1. His brigade covered the 

 withdrawal of the Union trains at Glendale, and 

 endured without flinching a heavy cannonade. 



After the recall of the Army of the Potomac 

 from the Peninsula, and the defeat of Gen. 

 Pope at Manassas, Hancock, still in command 

 of the First Brigade of Smith's division, which 

 had been transferred to the Sixth Corps, ac- 

 companied Gen. McClellan in his march to 

 drive back the Confederate army then in Mary- 

 land. Sept. 17, 1862, he went into action at 

 Antietam with his usual frankness and rapid- 

 ity, and put his troops in a commanding posi- 

 tion, which he held with slight loss. On the 

 field of battle he was transferred to the com- 

 mand of the First Division of the Second Corps, 

 succeeding Gen. Richardson, who was mortal- 

 ly wounded. This was his first connection 

 with the splendid body of troops with which 

 his name will be forever associated. When he 

 took his new command the main fighting for 

 the day was over, and he simply maintained 

 the position to which Richardson had with- 

 drawn the division after its gallant advance 

 to the sunken road. Nov. 29, 1862, he was 

 made major-general of volunteers. 



Dec. 13, 1862, he led his division in the 

 memorable charge on Marye's Heights above 

 Fredericksburg. He was to follow French's 

 division in the assault. The troops were ex- 

 posed to the Confederate artillery even in the 

 streets of the town, and it is estimated that 

 they had to march a distance of 1,700 yards 

 under a murderous fire, while their progress 

 was delayed by obstructions. It is conceded 

 that, of all the gallant men who took that 

 perilous way, Hancock's soldiers pushed the 

 farthest and did the most desperate fight- 

 ing. He commanded 5,006 men that day, and 

 left 2,013 of them on the field. He had seven- 

 teen regiments, and in eight of them, number- 

 ing 2,548 officers and men, 1,324 officers and 

 men were killed or wounded, an average of 

 54 per cent. No one of these regiments lost 



less than 45 per cent., and one lost 60 and anoth- 

 er 67 per cent. Francis W. Palfrey, in his his- 

 tory of the campaign, says that if Hanocck had 

 been allowed any discretion in the manage- 

 ment of the attack, he might have achieved 

 more and suffered less, as he " was one of the 

 very best soldiers in the immediate presence of 

 the enemy that the Army of the Potomac ever 

 had." 



In the miserably mismanaged campaign of* 

 Chancellorsville, May 1, 2, 3, and 4, where the 

 Union commander, with a vast superiority of 

 force, was outnumbered at every point of con- 

 tact, Hancock gained honor, though its harvest 

 was scarce and that of disgrace plentiful. He 

 was in position on the left center, between 

 Chancellorsville and Mott Run, and was slight- 

 ly attacked May 1, and heavily attacked May 

 2, when Lee was bent on creating a diversion 

 to conceal Jackson's march to turn the right 

 of the Union line. May 3, he took the brunt 

 of the desperate fighting, in which the Union 

 forces were pushed back from the position as- 

 sumed after the rout of the Eleventh Corps on 

 the previous evening. Doubleday, describing 

 the gradual melting away of the front, says: 

 "At last only indomitable Hancock remained, 

 fighting McLaws with his front line and keep- 

 ing back Stuart and Anderson with his rear 

 line." Yet he withdrew his division in good 

 order, still fresh and full of fight, losing only 

 a single regiment, that was posted at the south- 

 ern apex of his line, and was not brought back. 

 In his testimony on this battle, before the com- 

 mittee on the conduct of the war, March 22, 

 1864, he said: U I was directed to hold that 

 position until a change of line of battle could 

 be made, and was to hold it until I was noti- 

 fied that all the other troops had gotten off. 

 This necessitated my fighting for a time both 

 ways." But he intimated that the attack made 

 on him was not dangerous. His horse was 

 shot under him in this action. 



June 10, 1863, Hancock succeeded Gen. 

 Couch in command of the Second Corps, and 

 he led it in the movement to repel Lee's sec- 

 ond invasion of the North, which culminated 

 in the battle of Gettysburg. Hancock's head- 

 quarters were at Taneytown, Maryland, July 1, 

 1863 ; and early in the afternoon, Gen. Mcade, 

 who had heard at one o'clock of the death of 

 Gen. Reynolds and the defeat of the First and 

 Eleventh Corps at Gettysburg, went to him and 

 ordered him to ride forward at once, assume 

 command of the broken forces, prevent further 

 disaster, and decide as to whether the position 

 was advantageous for a general battle. Han- 

 cock rode rapidly to the field, where he arrived 

 at 3.30 in the afternoon. Perhaps no better 

 fight was made during the war than that made 

 by the First Corps July 1, 1863; but the rem- 

 nants of that force were streaming back before 

 overwhelming numbers and the Eleventh Cor _ 

 was in utter rout. Francis A. Walker, in hi* 

 account of the battle, says of Hancock's corn- 

 ing: "At this moment two important re- en- 



