Meet General Hancock
Gettysburg National Military Park Kidzpage

Gen. Winfield S. Hancock (National Archives)

"One felt safe when near him," recalled a former staff officer. Winfield Scott Hancock is one of the many unsung heroes of the Battle of Gettysburg. He was born near Norristown, Pennsylvania on February 14, 1824, the son of a lawyer. He went to school in Norristown until 1840 when he accepted an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point and graduated eighteenth in the class of 1844. Hancock went onto posts in Indian Territory until the War with Mexico in 1848 during which he was cited for gallantry in action. After the war, he participated in military operations against the Seminole Indians and against the Mormons in Utah. At the beginning of the Civil War, then-Captain Hancock found himself in California. Many of his army friends were torn as to loyalties and several left the army post for the south. Among them was Lewis Armistead who Hancock was destined to face in battle at Gettysburg. Hancock did not question his own loyalty and applied to the War Department for assignments in the east. Late in the summer of 1861, Hancock received orders to go to Washington where he was immediately appointed as a brigadier general of volunteers. Assigned to command a brigade in General "Baldy" Smith's Division of the Fourth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, Hancock proved his worth during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. At the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862, Hancock's heroic efforts saved the Union troops from a humiliating defeat though he defied orders from a superior officer to hold the field. Despite this, he was acknowledged for his bravery and the gallantry of his brigade which had fought superbly for their first major battle. Hancock fought through the remainder of the campaign but was relegated to inactivity after the end of the fighting.

At the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, General Hancock was thrust into a command position which would ever after identify him with the Second Corps of the army. At the height of the fighting that day, General Dick Richardson, commanding the First Division of the Corps, was mortally wounded. General McClellan sought out Hancock and ordered him to immediately take command of the division which he led through the remainder of the battle. His appearance on the field was most dramatic and inspiring to the soldiers of the division. He undertook every effort to rally his men and place them in positions to hold the ground taken at such a high cost.

General Hancock commanded the First Division, Second Corps through the Battle of Fredericksburg and again at the Battle of Chancellorsville where his troops acted as the rear guard of the army during the retreat across the Rappahannock River. He masterfully handled the situation in which he was outnumbered, but kept the Confederates at bay until the last of the troops had crossed. In the shakeup of army command that followed the Union defeat, Hancock was assigned to command the Second Corps which he would lead through the next major campaign northward.

General Hancock would find himself at his military pinnacle on the bloody fields of Gettysburg. The general was sent to the battlefield on July 1st by General Meade. Hancock arrived on Cemetery Hill and immediately began the task of directing the battered Union troops into a defensive line. During the next two days, General Hancock was everywhere on the battlefield. At the height of the bombardment of the Union line prior to "Pickett's Charge" on July 3, the robust general rode calmly along Cemetery Ridge. Ignoring the whizzing shells that flew about him, the general both bewildered and inspired his soldiers with his courage. Hancock was seriously wounded while directing Vermont troops in a counterattack on Pickett's men and was forced to leave the field.

General Hancock did not return to the army until the following year when he again assumed command of the Second Corps and led them through the Wilderness Campaign and to Petersburg. The rigors of the campaign trail aggravated his Gettysburg wound and the general was forced to leave his old corps and return to Washington where he was placed in command of the Veteran Reserve Corps.

At the end of the Civil War, General Hancock assumed command of the Department of the East with headquarters at Governor's Island, New York. He received many accolades for his services including the official thanks of Congress for his services rendered at Gettysburg. Apart from a brief stint as the democratic candidate for president in the election of 1880, General Hancock remained at this post until his death on February 9, 1886. He is buried in a family crypt at Norristown, Pennsylvania. The general was one of the finest field commanders the Army of the Potomac ever had and was nicknamed "Hancock the Superb."

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Gettysburg National Military Park
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