Winfield Hancock

Hancock, Winfield Scott (14 Feb. 1824-9 Feb. 1886), soldier and presidential candidate, was born at Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, the son of Benjamin Franklin Hancock, a schoolteacher and later a lawyer, and Elizabeth Hoxworth, who named him in honor of Winfield Scott, a military hero of the War of 1812. Raised at Norristown, Pennsylvania, he attended the local academy, where he organized a military company before his appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduating in 1844, eighteenth in a class of twenty-five (with fifty-five nongraduates), Hancock was assigned to the Sixth Infantry. He barely arrived in time for the last month of fighting in the Mexican War, winning brevet promotion to first lieutenant. While stationed at St. Louis, in 1850 he married Almira Russell; they had two children.

Following his marriage, Hancock served at several posts, including Fort Leavenworth, where his regiment calmed disorder in "Bleeding Kansas," and in Utah, where the "Mormon War" ended before the Sixth Infantry arrived. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he ranked as captain and served as chief quartermaster, Southern District of California.

Appointed brigadier general of volunteers as of 23 September 1861, Hancock served in Major General George B. McClellan's (1826-1885) Army of the Potomac. After the battle of Williamsburg (5 May 1862), the first in which Hancock fought, McClellan referred to him as "superb," bestowing a nickname that Hancock retained. At Antietam (17 Sept. 1862), Hancock commanded a division and won promotion to major general. Distinguished service at Chancellorsville (1-4 May 1863), where he conducted a stubborn rearguard action that saved a demoralized Union army from total destruction, advanced Hancock to corps command on the eve of Gettysburg. There he assumed command of the entire army late in the first day of battle before the arrival of Major General George G. Meade and placed Union forces in a strong defensive position on Cemetery Ridge. Hancock's II Corps fought valiantly on all three days (1-3 July). On the second day, Hancock redeemed the blunder of an advance by Major General Daniel Sickles and stabilized the left center before confederates could turn the Union flank. Severely wounded in the thigh on the third day, Hancock refused to leave the field until his troops had repulsed Confederate General George E. Pickett's charge. Gettysburg marked the zenith of Hancock's military career.

After six months of medical leave, Hancock commanded his corps through the spring 1864 campaign of Ulysses S. Grant from the Rapidan to Petersburg. Hancock served with distinction in the strenuous and bloody series of battles that began in the Wilderness and continued through Spotsylvania, the North Anna, and Cold Harbor to the trenches of Petersburg before his wound reopened in June. Hancock soon resumed command, traveling by ambulance, but poor health forced him back to Washington in November to organize wounded veterans for service.

Hancock remained in the postwar army as brigadier general. Promoted to major general as of 26 July 1866, he served at that rank for the rest of his life. Sent to command in the West, he campaigned on the Plains and on 29 November 1868 was assigned to the Fifth Military District (La. and Tex.) under Reconstruction legislation. His restoration of civil jurisdiction in Louisiana and refusal to use military authority to assist Republican radicals strengthened his ties to Democrats and angered Grant, who soon reassigned Hancock to New York City. Politically conservative, Hancock's view of Reconstruction too closely resembled that of President Andrew Johnson to suit Grant. 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.

As early as 1864 Democratic strategists considered Hancock a potential presidential nominee, and his name resurfaced quadrennially as the military hero who might best challenge Republican claims to a monopoly on patriotism. In 1880 Hancock finally received the nomination. Republicans nominated James A. Garfield, a longtime Ohio congressman, and attacked Hancock's complete lack of political experience and his reference to the tariff as a "local" issue, disregarding the justification for the thought and portraying Hancock as ludicrously ignorant. In fact, he meant that the tariff "affects localities differently," hardly a monumental gaffe. Neither candidate 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, more concerned with retaining power in New York City than with gaining the White House, not betrayed Hancock at a cost of thirty-five electoral votes.

Hancock remained in the army until his death at Governors Island, New York. At his last major public appearance in 1885, he organized and led the enormous New York City funeral procession for Grant, who had made a major political speech in 1880 in behalf of Garfield, Hancock's opponent. Grant's posthumously published Memoirs (1885-1886) included a generous tribute to Hancock's wartime services. Hancock's presidential potential remained unknown, but as a soldier he always retained his reputation for dependability and heroism.

Bibliography

Almira Russell Hancock apparently destroyed personal papers after drawing upon them for Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock by His Wife (1887). Former aide Francis A. Walker wrote General Hancock (1894). A popular biography with emphasis on the Civil War is Glenn Tucker, Hancock the Superb (1960); the current standard biography is David M. Jordan, Winfield Scott Hancock: A Soldier's Life (1988). Documentary sources on Hancock's military career include The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 vols., 1880-1901) and John Y. Simon, ed., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant (1967-). Useful specialized studies include Edwin B. Coddington, The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command (1968), and Herbert J. Clancy, The Presidential Election of 1880 (1958).

John Y. Simon

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American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.

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