Winfield Scott Hancock Totally Explained

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Winfield Scott Hancock (February 14 1824 – February 9 1886) was a career U.S. 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. One military historian wrote, "No other Union general at Gettysburg dominated men by the sheer force of their presence more completely than Hancock." As another wrote, "his tactical skill had won him the quick admiration of adversaries who had come to know him as the 'Thunderbolt of the Army of the Potomac.'" His military service continued after the Civil War, as Hancock participated in the military Reconstruction of the South and the Army's presence at the Western frontier.
After the Civil War, Hancock's reputation as a soldier and his dedication to conservative constitutional principles made him a quadrennial Presidential possibility. His noted integrity was a counterpoint to the corruption of the era, for as President Rutherford B. Hayes said, "[i]f, when we make up our estimate of a public man, conspicuous both as a soldier and in civil life, we're to think first and chiefly of his manhood, his integrity, his purity, his singleness of purpose, and his unselfish devotion to duty, we can truthfully say of Hancock that he was through and through pure gold." This nationwide popularity led the Democrats to nominate him for President in 1880. Although he ran a strong campaign, Hancock was defeated by Republican James Garfield by the closest popular vote margin in American history.

Early life and family

Winfield Scott Hancock and his identical twin brother Hilary Baker Hancock were born on February 14 1824, in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, a hamlet just northwest of Philadelphia in present-day Montgomery Township. The twins were the sons of Benjamin Franklin Hancock and Elizabeth Hoxworth Hancock. Winfield was named after Winfield Scott, a prominent general in the War of 1812 and later the Mexican-American War and the commanding general of the United States Army at the start of the Civil War. Benjamin Hancock was a schoolteacher when his sons were born. A few years after their birth, he moved the family to Norristown, the county seat, and began to practice law. In 1840, Joseph Fornance, the local Congressman, nominated Hancock to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Hancock's progress at West Point was average, and at graduation in 1844 he was assigned to the infantry.

Starting a military career

Mexican War

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. Upon the outbreak of war with Mexico in 1846, Hancock worked to secure himself a place at the front. 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. 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. He was brevetted to first lieutenant for gallant and meritorious service in those actions. Hancock was wounded in the knee at Churubusco and developed a fever. After the final victory, Hancock remained in Mexico with the 6th Infantry until the treaty of peace was signed in 1848.

Marriage and peacetime

Hancock served in a number of assignments as an army quartermaster and adjutant, mostly in Fort Snelling, Minnesota and St. Louis, Missouri. It was in St. Louis that he met Almira ("Allie") Russell and they married on January 24 1850. Ally gave birth to two children, Russell in 1850 and Ada in 1857, but both children died before their parents. Hancock was promoted to captain in 1855 and assigned to Fort Myers, Florida. Hancock's young family accompanied him to his new posting, where Allie Hancock was the only woman on the post.
Hancock's tour in Florida coincided with the end of the Third Seminole War. His duties were primarily those of a quartermaster, and Hancock didn't see action in that campaign. As the situation in Florida began to settle down, Hancock was reassigned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 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. 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.

Civil War

Joining the Army of the Potomac

"Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who didn't 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 2d corps always felt that their commander was looking after them."

Personal Memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant

Hancock returned east to assume quartermaster duties for the rapidly growing Union Army, but was quickly promoted to brigadier general on September 23 1861, and given an infantry brigade to command in the division of Brig. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith, Army of the Potomac.
   In the Battle of Antietam, Hancock assumed command of the 1st Division, II Corps, following the mortal wounding of Maj. Gen. Israel B. Richardson in the horrific fighting at "Bloody Lane." Hancock and his staff made a dramatic entrance to 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. He was promoted to major general of volunteers on November 29 1862. His corps commander, Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch, transferred out of the Army of the Potomac in protest of actions Hooker took in the battle and Hancock assumed command of II Corps, which he'd lead until shortly before the war's end. Hancock and the more senior XI Corps commander. Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, argued briefly about this command arrangement, but Hancock prevailed and he organized the Union defenses on Cemetery Hill as more numerous Confederate forces drove the I and XI Corps back through the town. He had the authority from Meade to withdraw the forces, so he was responsible for the decision to stand and fight at Gettysburg. Meade arrived after midnight and overall command reverted to him.
   On July 2, Hancock's II Corps was positioned on Cemetery Ridge, roughly in the center of the Union line, while Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched assaults on both ends of the line. On the Union left, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's assault smashed the III Corps and Hancock sent in his 1st Division, under Brig. Gen. John C. Caldwell, to reinforce the Union in the Wheatfield. As Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill's corps continued the attack toward the Union center, Hancock rallied the defenses and rushed units to the critical spots. While costly to the regiment, this heroic sacrifice bought time to organize the defensive line and saved the day for the Union army. During the massive Confederate artillery bombardment that preceded the infantry assault, Hancock was prominent on horseback in reviewing and 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 doesn't count." During the infantry assault, his old friend, now Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Armistead, leading a brigade in Maj. Gen. George Pickett's division, was wounded and died two days later. Hancock couldn't meet with his friend because he'd just been wounded himself, a severe injury caused by a bullet striking the pommel of his saddle, entering his inner right thigh along with wood fragments and a large bent nail. Helped from his horse by aides, and with a tourniquet applied to stanch the bleeding, he removed the saddle nail himself and, mistaking its source, remarked wryly, "They must be hard up for ammunition when they throw such shot as that." News of Armistead's mortal wounding was brought to Hancock by a member of his staff, Captain Henry H. Bingham. Despite his pain, Hancock refused evacuation to the rear until the battle was resolved. He had been an inspiration for his troops throughout the three-day battle. Hancock later received the Thanks of the U.S. Congress for "... his gallant, meritorious and conspicuous share in that great and decisive victory." Nevertheless, he performed well at the Battle of the Wilderness and commanded a critical breakthrough assault of the Mule Shoe at the "Bloody Angle" in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, shattering the Confederate Stonewall Division. His corps suffered enormous losses during a futile assault Grant ordered at Cold Harbor.
   After Grant's army slipped past Lee's army to cross the James River, Hancock found himself in a position in which he might have ended the war. His corps arrived to support Baldy Smith's assaults on the lightly held Petersburg defensive lines, but he deferred to Smith's advice because Smith knew the ground and had been on the field all day, and no significant assaults were made before the Confederate lines were reinforced. One of the great opportunities of the war was lost. Despite a later victory at Hatcher's Run, the humiliation of Reams's Station contributed, along with the lingering effects of his Gettysburg wound, to his decision to give up field command in November. He left the II Corps after a year in which it had suffered over 40,000 casualties, but had achieved significant military victories. His first assignment was to command the ceremonial First Veterans Corps. 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. Hancock was directed to supervise the executions of those condemned to death. Although he was reluctant to execute some of the less-culpable conspirators, especially Mary Surratt, Hancock carried out his orders, later writing that "every soldier was bound to act as I did under similar circumstances."

Service on the Plains

After the executions, Hancock was assigned command of the newly organized Middle Military Department, headquartered in Baltimore. In 1866, on Grant's recommendation, Hancock was promoted to major general and was transferred, later that year, to command of the Military Department of the Missouri, which included the states of Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Hancock reported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and took up his new posting. Soon after arriving, he was assigned by General Sherman to lead an expedition to negotiate with the Cheyenne and Sioux, with whom relations had worsened since the Sand Creek massacre. The negotiations got off to a bad start, and after Hancock ordered the burning of an abandoned Cheyenne village, relations became worse than when the expedition had started. There was little loss of life on either side, but the mission couldn't be called a success. There was also considerable friction between Hancock and one of his subordinates, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, over harsh punitive measures by Custer against deserters, which resulted in Custer's conviction by court-martial for being absent without leave. The general who offended Johnson the most was Philip Sheridan, and Johnson soon ordered General Grant to switch the assignments of Hancock and Sheridan, believing that Hancock, a Democrat, would govern in a style more to Johnson's liking. Although neither man was pleased with the change, Sheridan reported to Fort Leavenworth and Hancock to New Orleans. Hancock's order encouraged white Democrats across the South who hoped to return to civilian government more quickly, but discomforted blacks and Republicans in the South who feared a return to the antebellum ways of conservative white dominance.

"The great principles of American liberty are still the lawful inheritance of this people, and ever should be. The right of trial by jury, the habeas corpus, the liberty of the press, the freedom of speech, the natural rights of persons and the rights of property must be preserved. Free institutions, while they're essential to the prosperity and happiness of the people, always furnish the strongest inducements to peace and order."

Winfield Scott Hancock, General Order Number 40 November 29 1867.

Hancock's General Order Number 40 was quickly condemned by Republicans in Washington, especially by the Radicals, while President Johnson wholeheartedly approved. Heedless of the situation in Washington, Hancock soon put his words into action, refusing local Republican politicians' requests to use his power to overturn elections and court verdicts, while also letting it be known that open insurrection would be suppressed. Although Hancock collected a significant number of delegates at the 1868 convention, his presidential possibilities went unfulfilled. Even so, he was henceforth identified as a rare breed in politics: one who believed in the Democratic party's principles of states' rights and limited government, but whose anti-secessionist sentiment was unimpeachable.

Return to the Plains

Following General Grant's 1868 presidential victory, the Republicans were firmly in charge in Washington. As a result, Hancock found himself transferred once again, this time away from the sensitive assignment of reconstructing the South and into the relative backwater that was the Department of Dakota. The Department covered Minnesota, Montana, and the Dakotas. As in his previous Western command, Hancock began with a conference of the Indian chiefs, but this time was more successful in establishing a peaceful intent. Relations worsened in 1870, however, as an army expedition committed a massacre against the Blackfeet. Relations with the Sioux also became contentious as a result of white encroachment into the Black Hills, in violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Still, war was averted, for the time being, and most of Hancock's command was peaceful.

Command in the East and political ambitions

In 1872, General Meade died, leaving Hancock the army's senior major general. This entitled him to a more prominent command, and President Grant, still desirous to keep Hancock from a Southern post, assigned him command of the Department of the Atlantic, headquartered at Governor's Island, New York City. The vast department covered the settled northeast area of the country and, with one exception, was militarily uneventful. The exception was the army's involvement in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. When railroad workers went on strike to protest wage cuts, the nation's transportation system was paralyzed. The governors of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland asked President Hayes to call in federal troops to re-open the railways. Once federal troops entered the cities, most of the strikers melted away, but there were some violent clashes.
All the while Hancock was stationed in New York, he did his best to keep his political ambitions alive. He received some votes at the Democrats' 1876 convention, but was never a serious contender as New York governor Samuel J. Tilden swept the field on the second ballot. The Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, won the election, and Hancock refocused his ambition on 1880. The electoral crisis of 1876 and the subsequent end to Reconstruction in 1877 convinced many observers that the election of 1880 would give the Democrats their best chance at victory in a generation.

Election of 1880

Democratic convention

Hancock's name had been proposed several times for the Democratic nomination for president, but he never captured a majority of delegates. In 1880, however, Hancock's chances improved. President Hayes had promised not to run for a second term, and the previous Democratic nominee, Tilden, declined to run again due to poor health. Hancock faced several competitors for the nomination, including Thomas A. Hendricks, Allen G. Thurman, Stephen Johnson Field, and Thomas F. Bayard. Hancock's neutrality on the monetary question, and his lingering support in the South (owing to his General Order Number 40) meant that Hancock, more than any other candidate, had nationwide support. When the Democratic convention assembled in Cincinnati in June 1880, Hancock led on the first ballot, but didn't have a majority. By the second ballot, Hancock received the requisite two-thirds, and William Hayden English of Indiana was chosen as his running mate.

Campaign against Garfield

The Republicans nominated James A. Garfield, a Congressman from Ohio and a skillful politician. Hancock and the Democrats expected to carry the Solid South, but needed to add a few of the Northern states to their total to win the election. The practical differences between the parties were few, and the Republicans were reluctant to attack Hancock personally because of his heroic reputation. The one policy difference the Republicans were able to exploit was a statement in the Democratic platform endorsing "a tariff for revenue only." Garfield's campaigners used this statement to paint the Democrats as unsympathetic to the plight of industrial laborers, a group that would benefit by a high protective tariff. The tariff issue cut Democratic support in industrialized Northern states, which were essential in establishing an Democratic majority. In the end, the Democrats and Hancock failed to carry any of the Northern states they'd targeted, with the exception of New Jersey. The popular vote was the closest in American history—fewer than 2,000 votes separated the candidates—but Garfield had a solid electoral majority of 214 to 155. Following the election, Hancock carried on as commander of the Division of the Atlantic. He was elected president of the National Rifle Association in 1881, explaining that "The object of the NRA is to increase the military strength of the country by making skill in the use of arms as prevalent as it was in the days of the Revolution." He was commander-in-chief of the MOLLUS veterans organization from 1879 until his death in 1886. He was the author of Reports of Major General W. S. Hancock upon Indian Affairs, published in 1867.
Hancock died in 1886 at Governors Island, still in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic, the victim of an infected carbuncle, complicated by diabetes. 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 Armistead in Southern California before the war have been omitted from the film.

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