HANCOCK, WINFIELD SCOTT. 



417 



forcemeats to the Union side were approach- 

 ing the field. One consisted of tne stout 

 Twelfth Corps, marching rapidly along the road 

 from Two Taverns; the other was a man, a 

 great captain galloping f;ist to the front, to 

 bring order out of chaos and life from the 

 dead." He adds as to the effect of his pres- 

 ence : " Upon this field of wreck and disorder 

 now appeared Hancock. And, as the sun shin- 

 ing through a rift in the clouds may change a 

 scene of gloom to one of beauty, so did the 

 coining of this prince of soldiers bring fresh 

 life and courage to the disheartened bands 

 which were halting uncertainly upon the new 

 line of defense. At his call the braver spirits 

 named to their height ; the weaker souls yield- 

 ed gladly to the impulse of that powerful, ag- 

 gressive, resolute nature. At once the doubt- 

 ful halt on Cemetery Hill was transformed into 

 a confident assumption of a new line of battle ; 

 the fearful stream down the Baltimore road 

 was peremptorily stopped. Shattered regi- 

 ments as they reached the hills were halted 

 and re-formed." At 4.30 Hancock sent a staff- 

 officer to Meade, saying that Gettysburg offered 

 a good position for defense, though liable to 

 be turned by the left. An hour later, Gen. 

 Slocum coming upon the field, Hancock turned 

 over the command to him, and rode back to 

 confer with Meade, after halting his own corps 

 three miles back in a position to prevent the 

 turning moving that he considered feasible for 

 the enemy. July 2, Hancock was in charge of 

 the whole left center of the Union line after 

 the wounding of Sickles, and beat back the as- 

 sault of Longstreet. Doubleday says of him : 

 " Hancock, who had been placed in command 

 of the First, Second, and Third Corps, was in- 

 defatigable in his vigilance and personal super- 

 vision, 'patching the line' wherever the ene- 

 my was likely to break through. His activity 

 and foresight probably saved the ridge from 

 capture." July 3, Hancock was in charge of 

 the left center and commanded all the troops 

 that took part in the repulse of Pickett's charge 

 against the Union center, consisting of the 

 First, Second, Third, and Eleventh Corp^. 

 One of the picturesque incidents of the war 

 was his riding the lines with his staff during 

 the terrific artillery-fire that preceded the Con- 

 federate advance. He understood that Meade 

 was to put in the Fifth and Sixth Corps, then 

 in reserve, if the Confederate assault failed, and 

 he ordered the commander of the left division 

 of his own corps to swing in on the flank of 

 the charging column if it bore to the right. 

 This order was not obeyed, probably because 

 the reserves were not pushed forward to fill 

 the line ; but the charge of Pickett did bear to 

 the right, and Hancock was ready for the op- 

 portunity. Walker says : " This has left open 

 Pickett's flank on that side, and Hancock, easily 

 the best tactician of the Potomac Army and al- 

 ways on the very front line of battle, eagle- 

 eyed, sees and seizes his opportunity. Gallop- 

 ing to Stannard's brigade, he directs him to 

 VOL. xxvi. 27 A 



move his regiments to the front and attack the 

 flank of the assaulting force." The charge 

 spent its strength as Pickett pierced the Union 

 line, and the charging column was shattered. 

 Just at the final struggle Hannock was desper- 

 ately wounded, and it was while leaning on 

 his elbow and looking through a gap in a stone 

 wall that he gave his last orders in regard to 

 the repulse. A ball broke his saddle tree and 

 pierced his thigh, carrying some of the wood 

 into the wound with it and lodging at the 

 bone, and his fall probably prevented the Con- 

 federate failure from being turned into a rout. 

 "When asked for his opinion on this subject by 

 the committee on the conduct of the war, 

 March 22, 1864, he said: "I think it was 

 probably an unfortunate thing that I was 

 wounded at the time I was, and equally unfor- 

 tunate that Gen. Gibbons was also wounded, 

 because the absence of a prominent command- 

 er, who knew the circumstances thoroughly, 

 at such a moment as that, was a great disad- 

 vantage. I think that our lines should have 

 advanced immediately, and I believe we should 

 have won a great victory. I was very confi- 

 dent that the advance would be made. Gen. 

 Meade told me before the fight that if the ene- 

 my attacked me he intended to put in the Fifth 

 and Sixth Corps on the enemy's flank ; I there- 

 fore, when I was wounded and lying in my 

 ambulance and about leaving the field, dictated 

 a note to Gen. Meade, and told him if he would 

 put in the Fifth and Sixth Corps I believed he 

 would win a great victory." Out of fewer than 

 10,000 men the Second Corps lost at Gettys- 

 burg about 4,000 killed or wounded. It capt- 

 ured 4,500 prisoners and about thirty colors. 



As it was supposed that Hancock had been 

 a favorite of McClellan and was a favorite of 

 Meade, he got very little credit at first for his 

 share in the battle of Gettysburg; and in the 

 absurd joint resolution passed by Congress, 

 Jan. 28, 1864, thanking Hooker, Meade, How- 

 ard, and the officers and soldiers of the Army 

 of the Potomac for the victory, he was not 

 named ; but he was made major-quartermaster 

 in the regular army, Nov. 7, 1863. Still, justice 

 was only delayed, and April 21, 1866, Congress 

 passed a joint resolution thanking him for his 

 services in the campaign of 1863. Hancock 

 did not report for duty again until December, 

 1863. He was then sent into the various 

 States from which the regiments of the Second 

 Corps had come, in order to fill them up by re- 

 cruiting, and was occupied in this duty until 

 the beginning of spring. On March 22, 1864, 

 when he testified before the committee on the 

 conduct of the war, he was passing through 

 Washington on his way to the front. 



In the memorable movement of Grant against 

 Lee, begun at midnight, May 3, 1864, Hancock 

 led the van of the army with the Second Corps, 

 and reached the point designated for a halt in 

 the vicinity of Chancellorsville at one o'clock in 

 the afternoon, after helping to lay two bridges 

 and marching more than twenty miles. The 



