Winfield Scott Hancock
Winfield Scott Hancock (February 14, 1824 – February 9, 1886) was a United States Army officer and the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880. He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican–American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War. Known to his Army colleagues as "Hancock the Superb," he was noted in particular for his personal leadership at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. His military service continued after the Civil War, as Hancock participated in the military Reconstruction of the South and the U.S.'s western expansion and war with the Native Americans at the Western frontier. This concluded with the Medicine Lodge Treaty. From 1881 to 1885 he was president of the Aztec Club of 1847 for veteran officers of the Mexican-American War.
Not to be confused with Winfield Scott.
Winfield Scott Hancock
February 14, 1824
Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
February 9, 1886 (aged 61)
New York City, U.S.
2
Hancock the Superb
United States
1844–1886
- Mexican-American War
- American Civil War
- Battle of Williamsburg
- Battle of Malvern Hill
- Battle of Antietam
- Battle of Fredericksburg
- Battle of Chancellorsville
- Battle of Gettysburg
- Battle of the Wilderness
- Battle of Cold Harbor
- Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
- First Battle of Deep Bottom
- Second Battle of Deep Bottom
- Second Battle of Ream's Station
- Battle of Boydton Plank Road
- Indian Wars
Hancock's reputation as a war hero at Gettysburg, combined with his status as a Unionist and supporter of states' rights, made him a potential presidential candidate. When the Democrats nominated him for president in 1880, he ran a strong campaign, but was narrowly defeated by Republican James A. Garfield. Hancock's last public service involved the oversight of President Ulysses S. Grant's funeral procession in 1885.
Early military career[edit]
Mexican War[edit]
Hancock was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Infantry regiment, and initially was stationed in Indian Territory in the Red River Valley. The region was quiet at the time, and Hancock's time there was uneventful.[8] Upon the outbreak of war with Mexico in 1846, Hancock worked to secure himself a place at the front.[9] Initially assigned to recruiting duties in Kentucky, he proved so adept at signing up soldiers that his superiors were reluctant to release him from his post.[10] By July 1847, however, Hancock was permitted to join his regiment in Puebla, Mexico, where they made up a part of the army led by his namesake, General Winfield Scott.[10]
Scott's army moved farther inland from Puebla unopposed and attacked Mexico City from the south. During that campaign in 1847, Hancock first encountered battle at Contreras and Churubusco.[11] He was appointed a brevet first lieutenant for gallant and meritorious service in those actions.[12] Hancock was wounded in the knee at Churubusco and developed a fever.[13] Although he was well enough to join his regiment at Molino del Rey, fever kept Hancock from participating in the final breakthrough to Mexico City, something he would regret for the rest of his life.[14] After the final victory, Hancock remained in Mexico with the 6th Infantry until the treaty of peace was signed in 1848.[15]
Marriage and peacetime[edit]
Hancock served in a number of assignments as an army quartermaster and adjutant, mostly in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and St. Louis, Missouri.[16] It was in St. Louis that he met Almira ("Allie") Russell and they married on January 24, 1850.[17] Allie gave birth to two children, Russell in 1850 and Ada in 1857, but both children died before their parents.[18] Hancock was promoted to captain in 1855 and assigned to Fort Myers, Florida.[19] Hancock's young family accompanied him to his new posting, where Allie Hancock was the only woman on the post.[20]
Hancock's tour in Florida coincided with the end of the Third Seminole War. His duties were primarily those of a quartermaster, and he did not see action in that campaign.[21] As the situation in Florida began to settle down, Hancock was reassigned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.[21] He served in the West during the partisan warfare of "Bleeding Kansas", and in the Utah Territory, where the 6th Infantry arrived after the Utah War.[2] Following the resolution of that conflict, Hancock was stationed in southern California in November 1858.[22] He remained there, joined by Allie and the children, until the Civil War broke out in 1861, serving as a captain and assistant quartermaster under future Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston.[13] In California, Hancock became friendly with a number of southern officers, most significantly Lewis A. Armistead of Virginia.[23] At the outbreak of the Civil War, Armistead and the other southerners left to join the Confederate States Army, while Hancock remained in the service of the United States.[24] When Armistead left, he turned to Hancock and said, "You'll never know what this is costing me, but goodbye, goodbye."[25]
Winfield Scott Hancock is memorialized in a number of statues:
The original Winfield Scott Hancock Elementary School, located at Arch and East Spruce Streets in Norristown, Pennsylvania, was built in 1895 in memory of the General who grew up not far from the site. It was replaced in 1962 by a new building still in use by the Norristown Area School District only a few blocks away at Arch and Summit Streets, which is also named after General Hancock. The original 1895 building still stands and is used by a community non-profit organization.
A Pennsylvania historical marker was dedicated September 11, 1947, along Bethlehem Pike (PA 309), just south of US 202, where Hancock was born.
Hancock's portrait adorns U.S. currency on the $2 Silver Certificate series of 1886. Approximately 1,500 to 2,500 of these bills survive today in numismatic collections. Hancock's bill is ranked number 73 on a list of "100 Greatest American Currency Notes".[91]
Hancock was an important character in the Shaara family's Civil War historical novels: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, and Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure by Jeffrey Shaara. In the films Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and Generals (2003), based on the first two of these novels, Hancock is portrayed by Brian Mallon,[92] and is depicted in both films in a very favorable light. A number of scenes in the novel Gods and Generals that depict Hancock and his friend Lewis A. Armistead in Southern California before the war were omitted from the film.