Civil War Women

Wife of Union General Winfield Scott Hancock

Almira Russell was the daughter of a prominent merchant in St. Louis. Winfield Scott Hancock was born on February 14, 1824, in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania – a small hamlet northwest of Philadelphia – the son of Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth Hoxworth Hancock. Descended from a long line of American soldiers, he was christened with the name of America's greatest living soldier – General Winfield Scott, the hero of the War of 1812.

Winfield had a twin brother, Hilary, who showed some talent in his early years as a geologist, artist and cartoonist, but later became an alcoholic and skid row bum. After teaching school, Benjamin moved his family to Norristown, PA, where he practiced law. Winfield attended Norristown Academy, later transferring to a public school.

Almira Russell Hancock

In 1840, young Hancock received a coveted appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Hancock was then barely sixteen, short and weak; four years later, he was 6' 2" and strong. Hancock was popular and respected by his friends and peers at West Point, who included future Civil War generals: Stonewall Jackson, George B. McClellan, James Longstreet, Ulysses S. Grant, Ambrose Burnside, George Pickett, Don Carlos Buell, and Dana Harvey Hill. Hancock graduated on June 30, 1844, 18th in a class of 44, probably one of the youngest graduates of that year.

Hancock's first years in the army were spent along the Red River in Texas, and on the frontier fighting Indians. The Indian fighting years were spent hunting more wild game than Indians. When war broke out with Mexico in 1846, Hancock requested an assignment in a fighting unit, but he had few achievements to recommend him. Finally, on July 13, 1847, the young officer was transferred to Vera Cruz to serve under his namesake, General Winfield Scott, in the fight against the forces of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. He was there long enough to get commendations for bravery in four different battles. On August 20, 1847, Winfield Scott Hancock was breveted First Lieutenant.

Regimental headquarters returned to St. Louis, and West Point classmate Don Carlos Buell introduced Hancock to Almira (Allie) Russell, the daughter of a prominent St. Louis merchant. After a short courtship, they were married on January 24, 1850. The couple had two children, Russell (1850-84) born in St. Louis, and Ada Elizabeth (1857-75) born in Fort Myers, Florida.

On November 5, 1855, Lieutenant Hancock was appointed Assistant Quartermaster with the rank of captain, and ordered to Fort Myers, Florida, during the Seminole Wars of 1856-7. Hancock's young family accompanied him to his new posting, where Allie was the only woman on the post. It was difficult and arduous service, but Hancock performed his quartermaster duties with apparent ease and competence. He was quickly becoming indispensible in that capacity although, according to Allie, "he very much disliked quartermaster duties."

In 1857, Hancock served at Fort Leavenworth during the violence of Bleeding Kansas, observing firsthand the bitterness and enflamed feelings that the twin issues of slavery and States' Rights had brought to that frontier. Of his own loyalties, he would say: "I shall not fight on the principle of State-rights, but for the union, whole and undivided. I do not belong to a country formed of principalities."

Hancock was stationed in southern California in November 1858, and remained there, joined by Allie and the children, serving as a captain under future Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston. In California, Hancock became friends with several officers from the South. He became especially close to Lewis Armistead from Virginia.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Armistead and the other Southerners were , while Hancock remained in the service of the United States. On June 15, 1861, Hancock and Allie hosted a party for their friends – who were scattering because of the war. No one knew when – or if – they would see each other again. Lewis Armistead gave his Bible and personal effects to Allie for safekeeping – to be opened only if he died in battle. Allie said later that Hancock's men at the Battle of Gettysburg killed three of the six future Confederates who attended that party.

Winfield Scott Hancock headed East to offer his services in the defense of the Union. Arriving in the City of Washington in September, Hancock was summoned to the Headquarters of Major General George B. McClellan, who appointed Hancock, Brigadier General Of Volunteers on September 23, 1861, and an infantry brigade to command in the division of Brigadier General William F. Smith, Army of the Potomac.

Hancock's first action was during the Peninsula Campaign, where he commanded a brigade at the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. McClellan telegraphed to Washington that "Hancock was superb today," and Hancock the Superb was born.

General Winfield Scott Hancock

At the Battle of Antietam, Hancock took command of the First Division in the II Corps, after the mortal wounding of Major General Israel B. Richardson in the horrific fighting at Bloody Lane. Hancock made a dramatic entrance onto the battlefield, galloping between his troops and the enemy, parallel to the Sunken Road. His men assumed that Hancock would order counterattacks against the exhausted Confederates, but he carried orders from McClellan to hold his position.

General McClellan was replaced with General Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac about that time, and he was replaced by Hooker in the spring of 1863. Hancock was promoted to major general of volunteers on November 29, 1862, and led his division in the disastrous attack on Marye's Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg the following month, and he was wounded in the abdomen.

In May 1863, Hancock's division was instrumental in covering the withdrawal of Federal forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville – another terrible Union defeat – and he was wounded again. When General Darius Couch asked to be transferred out of the Army of the Potomac in protest of the actions General Hooker took in the battle, Hancock assumed command of II Corps, which he would lead until shortly before the war's end.

The Battle of Gettysburg
Hancock would provide his most important service at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After hearing that General John Reynolds was killed early on July 1, Major General George Gordon Meade, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, sent Hancock ahead to take command of the units on the field and assess the situation. Hancock thus was in temporary command of the left wing of the army, consisting of the I, II, III, and XI Corps.

At 3:30 PM, on July 1, 1863, Hancock arrived at Gettysburg, and found the commander of the Union XI Corps, Major General Oliver Otis Howard, attempting to establish a defensive position. Federal positions had collapsed both north and west of town, and General Howard had ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill.

General Hancock offered to show General Howard the orders from Meade giving him command of the field, but Howard did not wish to see them and told Hancock to "go ahead." Hancock then went to work establishing the Union battle line that would be known as the Fish Hook, and placed Union forces in a strong defensive position on Cemetery Ridge. Hancock's determination had a morale-boosting effect on the retreating Union soldiers, but he played no direct tactical role on the first day.

The Town of Gettysburg in 1863

On the second day of the battle, General Robert E. Lee attacked both Yankee flanks simultaneously, when US Major General Dan Sickles attempted to move his III Corps forward into the Peach Orchard. Sickles' action exposed the Federal left flank just as CSA General James Longstreet launched his attack toward the Round Tops.

Seeing the trouble, Hancock sent his First Division under Brigadier General John Caldwell to aide Sickles. The second brigade of that division was the famed Irish Brigade. Prior to marching to the relief of Sickles, Father William Corby, the chaplain of the Irish Brigade, gave the soldiers general absolution for their sins.

An officer described the scene as surreal:

The brigade stood in a column of regiments, closed in mass. Father Corby, addressing the men, said that each one would receive the benefit of absolution by making a sincere Act of Contrition, and firmly resolving to embrace the first opportunity of confessing his sins, and reminded them of the high and sacred nature of their trust as soldiers. Then, stretching his right hand toward the brigade, Father Corby pronounced the words of absolution. The service was more than impressive, it was awe-inspiring.

As General Longstreet's divisions slammed into the Union III Corps, it was virtually destroyed as a combat unit, and Sickles' leg was amputated after it was shattered by a cannonball. Caldwell's division was decimated in the Wheatfield. In the evening, the Confederates reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, but couldn't hold the position in the face of counterattacks from the II Corps, including an almost suicidal counterattack by the First Minnesota against a Confederate brigade, ordered in desperation by Hancock.

Day Three
On the third day at Gettysburg, General Meade placed Hancock in command of the I and III Corps, along with his own II Corps. Hancock was then commanding three-fifths of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863.

CSA General Robert E. Lee had not succeeded in his flank attacks, and believed that the Federals might have weakened their center to strengthen their flanks. Therefore, Lee planned to have Longstreet command Pickett's Virginia division plus six brigades from A. P. Hill's Corps in an infantry attack on General Hancock's II Corps position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the attack, Confederate artillery would try to weaken the Union line.

Hancock's Ride
General Hancock rides the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge, preceding Pickett's Charge.
By artist, Dale Gallon

Around 1 PM, between 150 to 170 Confederate guns began an artillery bombardment that was probably the largest of the war. After waiting about 15 minutes, about 80 Federal cannons added to the din. During the artillery attack, Hancock rode along his line encouraging his men to hold their ground. A soldier who witnessed Hancock that day stated, "His daring heroism and splendid presence gave the men new courage."

During the massive Confederate artillery bombardment that preceded the infantry assault, Hancock was prominent on horseback encouraging his troops. When one of his subordinates protested, "General, the corps commander ought not to risk his life that way." Hancock is said to have replied, "There are times when a corps commander's life does not count."

At about 3 PM, the cannon fire subsided, and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and began to cross three-quarters of a mile of open ground, under intense fire from Union artillery massed on Cemetery Ridge, in what would be forever known as Pickett’s Charge.

In addition to the musketry and canister fire from Hancock's II Corps, the Confederates suffered fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions north of Little Round Top. The II Corps stymied the attack on their position, with only a few Confederate soldiers breaking through their line.

Although the Federal line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the Angle, at a low stone fence just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repulsed.

Hancock was not idle during the attack; he seemed to be everywhere on the battlefield, directing regiments and brigades into the fight. As he approached the Vermont Brigade commanded by Brigadier General George Stannard, Hancock suddenly reeled in his saddle and began to fall to the ground. Two of Stannard's officers sprang forward and caught Hancock as he fell.

It was discovered that Hancock had suffered a severe injury, when a bullet struck the pommel of his saddle and penetrated eight inches into his right groin, carrying with it some wood fragments and a large bent nail from the saddle. His aides applied a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding; Hancock removed the nail himself, and is said to have remarked wryly, "They must be hard up for ammunition when they throw such shot as that."

During the infantry assault, General Hancock's old friend, now Confederate General, Lewis Armistead was leading his brigade of Pickett's division, waving his hat from the tip of his saber. He and his men reached the stone wall near the Copse of Trees, which was the charge's objective. Armistead's brigade got farther in the charge than any other, but they were quickly overwhelmed by a Union counterattack. This event has been called the High Watermark of the Confederacy – the closest they ever came to winning Southern independence. Nearly half of the attackers did not return to their own lines.

General Armistead was shot three times just after crossing the stone wall. When he went down, he gave a Masonic sign asking for assistance. A fellow Mason, Captain Henry Bingham, a member of Hancock's staff and later a very influential Congressman, rushed to Armistead and offered to help. Bingham told Armistead that his old friend Hancock had just been wounded a few yards away. This scene is featured in Michael Shaara's novel, The Killer Angels, in which Armistead is a principal character.

Captain Bingham took the news of Armistead's wounding to Hancock, but Hancock couldn't go the aid of his friend because of his own wound, and they would not be reunited. Armistead's wounds weren't believed to be fatal, because he had been shot in the fleshy part of the arm and below the knee. According to the surgeon that tended him, none of the wounds caused bone, artery, or nerve damage.

Armistead was taken to a Union field hospital at the Spangler Farm, where he died two days later. Armistead's biographer, Wayne Motts, believes that Armistead died most likely from a pulmonary embolism, while others have argued that it was a combination of septic shock and heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

General Hancock refused to leave the field until his troops had repulsed the Confederate attack. Though in much pain, he continued to direct and encourage his men. He had been with his soldiers throughout the three-day battle, and he refused to leave them now. The Union victory was largely the result of the leadership of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock. Gettysburg marked the zenith of Hancock's military career.

Recovery and Recruitment
After the repulse of the Confederate attack, Hancock was taken to a field hospital, and eventually to his father's home in Norristown, Pennsylvania to recover. He was received at Norristown by his fellow citizens, and borne to his home on a stretcher, on the shoulders of soldiers of the Invalid Corps. His recovery was gradual but sure. Hancock's Norristown friends gave him a service of nine pieces of gold and silver plate ornamented with the trefoil badge of the Second Corps, and valued at $1600.

When Hancock had recovered enough to travel to West Point, he was honored with public receptions there, in New York, and at St. Louis, where he went to see his family, and where he also received from the Western Sanitary Fair a superb sword. The US Congress would vote a letter of thanks, to Hancock, "…for his gallant, meritorious and conspicuous share in that great and decisive victory."

Ordered to Washington, December 15th, 1863, Hancock promptly obeyed, although his wound was not yet healed, and was detailed to recruit new soldiers for the army. He soon raised 50,000 men for his corps (headquartered at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) with good success — the great cities of New York, Albany, and Boston, offered him every public and private facility for his use.

At Philadelphia, a public reception was given him; resolutions were offered by the city government, and Independence Hall was thrown open to his use, and on the February 22, he reviewed the volunteer troops of the city. In New York City, the Governor's Room in the City Hall was placed at his disposal. At Albany, the Legislature tendered an official testimonial of respect, as did the Legislature of Massachusetts and the merchants of Boston.

In March, 1864, Hancock was again ordered to the front, and he led his old corps through General Ulysses S. Grant's spring 1864 Overland Campaign, from the Rapidan to Petersburg. Grant was committed to a war of attrition, in which the superior Union forces would bleed Lee's army dry. Union casualties would be high, but the Union had greater resources to replace lost soldiers and equipment.

Hancock served with distinction in the strenuous and bloody series of battles that began in the Wilderness in early May, and continued through Yellow Tavern, North Anna, Old Church, Cold Harbor, Trevilian Station, and finally to the ten-month siege at Petersburg, Virginia.

At Spotsylvania Court House, May 12, 1864, Hancock led a magnificent pre-dawn charge at the head of his whole corps of 20,000 men. The target was the Mule Shoe – a salient in the Confederate trenches. In less than an hour, the II Corps broke through the Rebel lines, thanks in part to the absence of Confederate artillery support and wet powder caused by the rainfall the night before. Hancock took close to 4,000 prisoners, destroying a whole division of the Confederate Second Corps.

General Winfield Scott Hancock
Seated, surrounded by Generals Francis Barlow, David Birney, and John Gibbon
At Spotsylvania Court House

Hancock sent a brief despatch to General Grant: "General, I have captured from thirty to forty guns. I have finished up Johnson, and am now going into Early," (Confederate Generals Edward "Allegheny" Johnson and Jubal Early). For those heroic efforts, Hancock earned the rank of major general, but in June, his Gettysburg wound reopened, but he soon resumed command, sometimes traveling by ambulance.

Second Battle of Reams Station
Hancock's only significant defeat occurred during the Siege of Petersburg. Soon after the Union success at the Battle of Weldon Railroad, Hancock's II Corps was ordered to move south along that rail line, destroying track as it went. The intent was to stretch even farther the distance by which General Lee had to move his supplies. By late August 24, 1864, the II Corps was three miles south of Reams Station, when Hancock was informed that CSA General A.P. Hill's infantry and General Wade Hampton's cavalry were moving out of Petersburg's defenses to meet this threat.

During the morning of August 25, Hampton started driving Hancock's troops back up the Halifax Road toward Reams Station. Hill's attacks in the early afternoon only took some outlying trenches from the Union. Hill determined that a large frontal assault was needed to drive the Union forces off the railroad. It was 5:00 pm before the Confederates were ready for their second assault, and it began with a heavy barrage from the artillery.

By 6:00 pm, the assault had lost its momentum, and in return Hancock reminded the Confederates why he was a worthy adversary. Regrouping the II Corps, Hancock sent his men back down the lost trenches and across the field to Oak Grove Church. Initially successful, the counterattack soon failed. In the midst of this, Hancock told a staff officer, "Colonel, I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field!"

Hampton and Hill were finally able to coordinate an attack upon the Union position, and under this pressure, overran the Union position, capturing 9 guns, 12 colors, and many prisoners. The II Corps was shattered, and swept from the field by 7:00 pm. Hancock withdrew to the main Union line near the Jerusalem Plank Road, bemoaning the declining combat effectiveness of his troops. Hancock realized his greatest defeat as a corps commander, losing nearly 3,000 soldiers as casualties or as prisoners.

Hancock had some measure of success at Burgess Mill on October 27, 1864, when the II Corps stood their ground and beat off each attack, though they paid a heavy price for doing so. When night fell, Hancock decided to withdraw, but because of a lack of ambulances, he had to leave many of the most seriously injured soldiers behind.

For his corps' participation in the assaults at Deep Bottom in August 1864, General Hancock was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army, but it didn't make him feel any better. He never quite recovered from Reams Station, where he had lost so many of his men, his friends.

Farewell to the II Corps
In Grant's campaign against Lee, Hancock and his famed II Corps had been repeatedly called upon to plunge into the very worst of the fighting, and the casualties had been terrible. At the beginning of May 1864, the II Corps numbered 30,000 officers and men. Casualties since then had topped 26,000 killed, wounded or missing. These were men he had become fond of, had interacted with on a daily basis, had fought with for months, even years. He felt their losses deeply.

Reinforcements had flowed in regularly, but the damage to the II Corps could not be measured by numbers alone. The new men in the ranks were for the most part inexperienced, and many were bounty men or draftees, distrusted by the surviving combat veterans. Though he but had achieved many significant military victories, the II Corps wasn't Hancock's corps anymore.

General Winfield Scott Hancock asked to be relieved of command of the II Corps on November 25, 1864. With his old wound constantly troubling him – he had never regained full mobility and his youthful energy – and the loss of so many of his men contributed to his decision to give up field duty.

Hancock's farewell message to his soldiers, November 26, 1864:

Conscious that whatever military honor has fallen to me during my association with the Second Corps has been won by the gallantry of the officers and soldiers I have commanded… in parting from them, I am severing the strongest ties of my military life.

Hancock's first assignment after leaving field duty was to command the ceremonial First Veterans Corps, a largely ceremonial post. For the next three months, Hancock was at Washington organizing wounded veterans for service – as much as his health would permit. He did more recruiting, commanded the Middle Department, and relieved General Philip Sheridan in command of forces in the now-quiet Shenandoah Valley.

By spring 1865, the war had ended at Appomattox Court House, and General Hancock - who for three years had been one of the most conspicuous figures in the Army of the Potomac - was not there to take part in the final triumph.

Execution of Lincoln Assassination Conspirators
In April 1865, General Hancock was summoned to Washington to take charge of carrying out the execution of the Lincoln Conspirators. Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14, 1865, and by May 9, a military commission had been convened to try the accused. The actual assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was already dead, but the trial of his co-conspirators proceeded quickly, resulting in convictions. President Andrew Johnson ordered the executions to be carried out on July 7.

Although Hancock was reluctant to execute some of the less-culpable conspirators, especially Mary Surratt. He wrote to Judge Clampitt, Surratt's legal counsel:

I have been on many a battle and have seen death, and mixed with it in disaster and in victory. I have been in a living hell of fire, and shell and grapeshot, and, by God, I’d sooner be there ten thousand times over than to give the order this day for the execution of that poor woman. But I am a soldier, sworn to obey, and obey I must.

Hancock hoped that Mary Surratt would receive a pardon from President Johnson, so hopeful that as commander of the Middle Military District, he posted messengers all the way from the Arsenal to the White House, ready to relay the news to him at a moment's notice, should the pardon be granted. It wasn't.

Hancock remained in the postwar army as brigadier general. In 1866, U.S. Grant had him promoted major general in the regular army, and he served at that rank for the rest of his life. He was sent west, to command the Military Department of Missouri, based at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but his time there was brief.

On November 29, 1868, President Andrew Johnson named him to replace Philip Sheridan as military governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction. It was in this position, that he would issue General Order Number 40, that would essentially allow the civilian government to quickly replace the military government. Hancock's refusal to use military authority to assist Republican radicals strengthened his ties to Democrats and angered Grant.

With the death of General George Gordon Meade, in 1872, Hancock became the senior major general in the US Army, and was assigned to take Meade's place as commander of the Division of the Atlantic, and moved to Governor's Island. The fine living there made Hancock grow fat. He eventually weighed over 250 pounds.

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock
In old age

Winfield and Almira Hancock were devastated by the deaths of their children and grandchildren – their 18-year-old daughter Ada died of typhoid fever in 1875 in New York City. She was buried in Norristown in the same tomb her father would be buried in years later. On July 13, 1880, their four-month-old grandson, also named Winfield Scott Hancock, died. Son Russell, who was always weakly, was married and had three children – Ada, Gwyn, and Almira – when he died on December 30, 1884, in Mississippi.

Presidential Candidate
Democratic strategists had considered Hancock a potential presidential nominee as early as 1864, and his name resurfaced during subsequent presidential campaigns as the military hero who might best challenge Republican claims to a monopoly on patriotism. When Grant entered the White House in 1869, Hancock was ordered to the Department of Dakota, an assignment he regarded as punishment for political disagreement.

Hancock finally received the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1880. He stayed on active duty at Governor's Island in New York harbor. He and Almira found the constant flow of political visitors maddening. The Republicans nominated James A. Garfield, a longtime Ohio congressman, and attacked Hancock's complete lack of political experience.

Neither candidate for the 1880 Presidential Election inspired voters to shift political allegiance, and the outcome hinged upon Republican organization overwhelming Democratic disharmony. Garfield's majority was less than ten thousand votes; the electoral vote (214-155) would have gone the other way had New York's Tammany Democrats not betrayed Hancock at a cost of thirty-five electoral votes. But Hancock was the first Northerner to carry the Southern states in a Presidential election , since the war.

After Ulysses S. Grant died on July 23, 1885, President Grover Cleveland ordered Hancock to oversee the funeral of the former President and General of the United States Army. He organized and led the enormous New York City funeral procession for Grant on August 8, 1885.

In November 1885, Hancock visited Gettysburg and enjoyed reliving the experience with younger soldiers. In January 1886, he went to Washington and was bothered by a boil on the back of his neck. He went home earlier than planned, and by February the boil had turned into a carbuncle – a painful localized bacterial infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue.

Hancock had refused to be examined by his doctor, despite the illnesses that plagued him late in life, maybe because the field surgeons at Gettysburg had caused horrible suffering in trying to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his wound. For several days, his doctors didn't realize that he had severe diabetes, which made the situation deadly. He became delirious on the evening of February 5.

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock died on February 9, 1886, at 2:35 PM, five days before his sixty-second birthday, at Governor's Island, still in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic. After a brief funeral service at Trinity Church in New York City February 12, 1886, General Hancock's remains were taken to his boyhood home of Norristown, PA, and placed in a mausoleum that he had designed alongside his daughter, Ada.

When General Hancock died, he left his wife, Almira, almost no money. She didn't even have her own home. Granted, there were many financial burdens on him [his brother Hilary, and the constant (and necessary) expense of entertaining guests] – but given his contacts and his intelligence, he should have made arrangements for her to be taken care of during her declining years.

Almira Russell Hancock received many requests to write about her husband and his military experiences and his correspondence. She wrote her memoirs, Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock, which was published in 1887 by Mark Twain's publishing firm, Webster & Company. Afterward, she burned Hancock's letters.

New York Times Article, April 20, 1893:
Mrs. Almira Russell Hancock, widow of General Winfield Scott Hancock, is seriously ill at her home, The Gramercy, 34 Gramercy Park. She is suffering from a complication of diseases, but with her splendid constitution has made a brave fight, and it is hoped that she will safely pass through the crisis which will come within the next twenty-four hours.

Almira Russell Hancock died in April 1893, and was buried near her family in St. Louis, Missouri. Although she outlived both of her children, she was survived by the three grandchildren fathered by her son, Russell.

New York Times Article, April 23, 1893:
The funeral of Mrs. Almira Russell Hancock, widow of General Winfield Scott Hancock, who died at her home, the Gramercy, 34 Gramercy Park Thursday afternoon, took place yesterday at noon at the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration on East Twenty-ninth Street.

Equestrian Statue of General Winfield Scott Hancock
Bronze by Sculptor Frank Edwin Ewell
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Winfield S. Hancock was a very able military commander. He successfully commanded the II Corps, Army of the Potomac, during some of the most critical battles of the Civil War. He cared about his men, and would most often be seen, leading from the front, such as when he was wounded at Gettysburg.

To the North, he was known as Hancock The Superb. To the South – The Thunderbolt of the Army of the Potomac. The Sioux and the Cheyenne called him Old Man of the Thunder. A man of great charisma and a commanding physical presence, he was a soldier's soldier, something of an artist, amateur scientist, botanist, and he even wrote some verse.

From Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs:

Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command. He commanded a corps longer than any other one, and his name was never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible. He was a man of very conspicuous personal appearance... His genial disposition made him friends, and his personal courage and his presence with his command in the thickest of the fight, won for him the confidence of troops serving under him. No matter how hard the fight, the II Corps always felt that their commander was looking after them.