ii: 1 - -■•';> ■•■J; j5J^;-''''.'' '.< 'if 'h pir- "■• ;^ 3 '^^'•'- i^:'.'^• /99^ LIFE OP WiNFiELD Scott Hancock, MAJOR-GENERAL, U.S.A. HIS CHILDHOOD, YOUTH, EDUCATION, MILITARY CAREER, SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. BY FREDERICK E. GOODRICH, n AUTHOR OF " LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND," ETC. "War is a terrible trade; hut in the cause that is righteous, sweet is the smell of powder. " Longiellow. BOSTON : PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1886. Copyright, B. B. RUSSELL, 1886. TO THE PEOPLE OF A REUNITED COUNTRT THIS STORY OP A PATRIOTIC LIFE Is Dedicated. Part I,— BOY AND MAN. Part II.— THE SOLDIER. Part III.— THE PATRIOT. Part IV.— THE STATESMAN. PREFACE. To tell the story of the life of a successful general is to recite a romance. Hard and cruel as the work of war may be in reality, it is only while it is doing that its hardships and its roughnesses are seen. When it is done, the glory of the result smooths the crudenesses, and gilds the dark places, and rounds the whole into a picturesque completeness. The love of conflict is as much a part of human nature as the love of peace ; and delight in tales of war lies deep down in man's heart. Stories of heroes and of saints, of warfare temporal and spiritual, form the earliest literature of mankind. But when to this is added the element of patriotism, and the successful warrior is one who fights not alone for glory or for the love of fighting, but for the love of country, a new zest is given the chronicle of his deeds. And when, still further, this love of country is the love of a free, popular government, — when the struggle is for the sake of liberty and for maintaining the will of the people, — the soldier in such a cause becomes a hero, whether successful or not. The subject of this sketch is such a hero, and a most suc- cessful one. But, great as is his glory in war, the impartial historian will accord him at least equal honor for the display of rare administrative talent in civil aflairs, — most rare, indeed, in connection with such superlative military genius as he has shown. 8 PREFACE. In writing the life of this patriot, soldier, and statesman, the only embarrassment is that of a superabundance of ma terial. His life has been one long romance of duty well per- formed, filled with adventure, with great deeds, and with noble actions. To select from the history of the American Republic during the past forty years such facts as may show the part which General Hancock has taken in the work of making and saving our country is the purpose of the writer of this volume. Much has to be left untold in the limits of a work of this sort. It is sought simply to show the man as he appears in the history of his country. In collecting facts for this work, especial care has been taken to secure absolute authenticity ; and the author ac- knowledges his indebtedness to the courtesy of Hon. B. E. Chain and Hon. B. M. Boyer, of Norristown, Penn., inti- mate companions of the boy Winfield and trusted friends of the General ; to Gen. William B. Franklin, Gen. St. Clair A. MulhoUand, Gen. George H. Gordon, Hon. George L. Thorndike, and others of his companions in arms ; to Town- send Ward, Esq., Secretary of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and to many others. The story of General Hancock's public services is chiefly taken from the official reports and documents of Congress and the War Depart- ment; and, among unofficial sources, from Moore's *' Record of the Rebellion," Greeley's "American Conflict," and Swinton's ''Army of the Potomac" and "Twelve Great Battles." The heroes of the great civil wfir are fast passing away. Within a few short months the country has mourned the loss ct Grant, McClellan, and Hancock. Their lives and their PREFACE. 9 deeds have become history. It is a history in which any nation might take pride, and in no page is it more brilliant than in that which records the career of Winfield Scott Hancock. F. E. a. Independence Square, Boston, February, 1886. OONTEIfTS. Page Preface 7 PART I. — BOY AND MAN. CHAPTER I. THE HANCOCK FAMILY. Its Services in tlie "War of the Revolution. — Marriage of Benjamin F. Hancock and Settlement in Norristown, Penn. — Early Strug- gles of the Young Couple. — School-Teaching and Law. — Edu- cation of the Twins, Winfield and Hilary 21 CHAPTER II. BIETH AND BOYHOOD. His Name, and its Influence upon his Career. — The School-boys' Train-band. — Captain Winfield. —The Champion of the Weak. — Anecdotes of his School-days 28 CHAPTER III. THE WEST-POINT CADET. One of Winfield Hancock's Chums. — His Home Life. — A Student in Norristown Academy. — The Baptist Sundaj^-School. — A Cadet at West Point. — How he was appointed. — His Classmates . . 34 PART II.— THE SOLDIER. CHAPTER I. ON THE FRONTIER. Lieutenant Hancock enters the Sixth Infantry. — Protecting the Advance Guard of White Settlers. — The Outbreak of the Mexi- can War. — Hancock's Request to be ordered to the Front. — He is sent to Mexico. — He begins to make a Record 45 11 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. HIS FIRST BREVET. Battle of Churubusco. — The Advance upon the City of Mexico. — General Worth's Brigade ordered to carry the Fortification. — Lieutenant Hancock's Company leads the Charge.— The Repulse. — Lieutenant Hancock wins his first Brevet for Gallantry in Action . 53 CHAPTER IIL MOLINO DEL REY. Situation of Scott's Army before the City of Mexico. — Lieutenant Hancock again foremost in the Post of Danger. — He leads his Company against the Battery at Molino del Rey. — Hancock saved amid the Carnage 59 CHAPTER IV. CHAPULTEPEC. Hancock describes his Feelings while confined to the House by Fever. — The Entry into the City of Mexico. — Lieutenant Han- cock's Letters Home. — End of the War 65 CHAPTER V. PEACE AND A HOME. Lieutenant Hancock returns to the Department of the West. — He becomes Regimental Quartermaster, and then Adjutant. — His Marriage at St. Louis. — The Seminole War. — Brigham Young's Declaration of Independence. — Hancock ordered to California, 70 PART III. — THE PATRIOT. CHAPTER L THE CALL OF HIS COUNTRY. The Fire upon Sumter. — How the News was received in California. — Captain Hancock's ElTorts to keep the State in the Union. — He asks to be ordered into Active Service 79 CONTENTS. 13 CHAPTER 11. ON THE PENINSULA. The Peninsular Campaign. — Siege and Capture of Yorktown. — The Battle of Williamsburg. — Hooker rej)ulse(l at Fort Magruder. Hancock turns the Enemy's Flank 85 CHAPTER III. ORGANIZING AN AKMY. Hancock again brevetted for Gallantry. — His Work in the Prelimi- naries of the Peninsular Campaign, — Military Discipline. — Raids upon the Virginia Farms. — Mr. Vollin 94 CHAPTER lY. ON TO RICHMOND! The Advance towards Richmond. — Battle of the Chickahominy. — Golding's Farm. — Hancock repulses Toombs's Assault. — He holds the Enemy at Bay at White Oak Swamp 100 CHAPTER Y. ANTIETAM. Pope's Campaign in Northern Yirginia. — Hancock joins in the Movement to Centreville. — McClellan's Maryland Campaign against Lee. — Forcing Crampton's Pass. — Antietam. — Hancock takes Command of a Division 106 CHAPTER YI. FREDERICKSBURG. Opening the Campaign of the Rappahannock. —Hancock receives his Commission as Major-General of Volunteers. — He commands a Division on the March to Fredericksburg. — Hancock wounded, 112 CHAPTER YIL THE CLOVER-LEAF BADGE. Cbancellorsville. — " Fighting Joe" Hooker in Command of the Army of the Potomac. — Hancock again leads his Division across the Rappahannock. — Occupation of Chancellorsville. — Hancock takes Command of the Second Corps 118 14 CONTENTS. CHAPTER YIII. THE INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. The March to Gettysburg. — Lee resolves upon an Invasion of the North. — Hooker's Resignation. — Tlie Camp on the Rappahan- nock broken up. — Hancock's Corps the Rear Guard 123 CHAPTER IX. GETTYSBURG. — THE FIRST DAY. Meade arrives at Taneytown. — The Advance Guard strikes the Enemy. — "For God's Sake send up Hancock." — Meade puts Hancock in Command at the Front. — He selects the Battle- ground 130 CHAPTER X. GETTYSBURG. — THE SECOND DAY. Hancock in Command at the Left Centre. — Sickles's Corps cut up. — Hancock to the Rescue. — The Absolution of the Irish Brigade. — Fight for the Ridge in Front of the Wheat-field 139 CHAPTER XL GETTYSBURG. — THE THIRD DAY. The Storm of Fire. — Hancock's Wonderful Deed of Valor. — The Final Desperate Assault of the Confederates. — Hancock beats them back. — Struck down in the Moment of Victory 146 CHAPTER XIL THE WOUNDED HERO. After Gettysburg. — General Meade's Report. — Hancock's Fight "terminated the Battle." — His Opinion of the Battle and its Results. — Hancock's Wound. —The Surgeon's Story. — His Journey Home. — Invalid Soldiers carry him on their Shoulders to his Father's House. — He returns to Duty 154 CHAPTER XIIL IN THE WILDERNESS. Grant takes Command of all the Armies. — Hancock leads the Advance. — The Story of One of the Gallant Second Corps.— Hancock leads the Charge 104 CONTENTS. 15 CHAPTER XIV. SPOTTSYLVANIA. Hancock fights the Battle of the Po. — General Sedgwick's Death. — The Bloodiest Battle of the War. — Hancock takes and holds the Famous " Salient Angle." — Hancock's Retort 171 CHAPTER XV. A RACE BETWEEN TWO ARMIES. Cold Harbor. — The March from Spottsylvania toward Richmond. — A Race between Two A rmies. — Hancock finds Lee at the North Anna. — He carries the Bridge 179 CHAPTER XVI. THE PETERSBURG MINE. Petersburg. — Hancock celebrates Bunker-hill Day. — He leads Successful Movements. — His Old Wound re-opens. — The Ex- plosion of the Petersburg Mine 184 CHAPTER XVII. LEE AT APPOMATTOX. About Petersburg. — Hancock commands at Deep Bottom. — Pro- motion. — His Horse shot under him at Reams' Station. — Battle of the Boydton Plank-Road. — Recruiting a Veteran Corps. — Brevet Major-General for Gallantry at Spottsylvania. —In Com- mand of the Middle Military Divison when Lee surrenders . . 190 CHAPTER XVIII. HANCOCK AS A COMMANDER. The Love and Admiration of his Soldiers for their General. — General Walker describes his Character and Habits. — Custer sketches him at Williamsburg.— The Secret of Hancock's Genius, 195 PART IV. —THE STATESMAN. CHAPTER I. A WELL-ROUNDED CHARACTER. Hancock's Character. — How it developed under the Influence of his Career. — A Man of the People. — His Strong Purpose in Life. —The Discipline of Army Service. — His Administrative Ability, 209 16 CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. THE ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY. Assassination of President Lincoln. — Arrest and Trial of the Con- spirators. — Execution of Mrs. Surratt. — Charges of Cruelty against General Hancock. — Mrs. Surratt's Counsel makes a Statement. —Also her Spiritual Adviser. — General Hancock's Tenderness toward the Unfortunate Woman and her Daughter. — He posts Couriers to carry Pardon 214 CHAPTER III. RECONSTRUCTION. Hancock again at the "West. — He is called back to take Command of the Fifth Military District. — Sketch of the Progress of Recon- struction. — The Quarrel between the Executive and Congress. — The South divided up into Satrapies. — Sheridan removed, and Hancock called to take his Place 231 CHAPTER IV. GENERAL ORDER NO. 40. Hancock takes Command of the Fifth Military District. — His Reception at Washington. — The Vast Powers placed in his Hands. — His Opening Proclamation. — The Famous " Order No. 40." — Judge Black's Letter 240 CHAPTER V. THE CONFLICT OF LAW AND ARMS. Reception of " General Order No. 40." — Civil Government resumes its Sway. — The Laws to be sustained by the Military Arm. — The Qualifications of Jurors. —Disposition of Property by the Courts. — Registration of Voters 249 CHAPTER VL CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT. General Hancock and the Carpet-Baggers. — Governor Pease and Constitutional Government. —Hancock refuses to supjilant the Courts by Military Commissions. — Riparian Rights not to be adjudicated ui^on by Courts-Martial 264 CONTENTS. 17 CHAPTER VII. THE SUPREMACY OF CIVIL LAW. Troops at the Polls. — Hancock's Famous Order. — Hancock de- clines to use his Troops for the Collection of Taxes. —The Art of Law and of Civil Government. — Hancock's Letter to General Howard 274 CHAPTER VIIL RESIGNATION AS MILITARY GOVERNOR. The Carpet-Baggers protest against Civil Government. — Governor Pease's Open Letter. —General Hancock's Reply. — Congress attempts to get rid of Hancock. — Hancock's Resignation . . . 283 CHAPTER IX. IN THE PRESIDENTIAL FIELD. General Hancock's Patriotism. — He is sought to lead the Demo- cratic Party. — The National Convention of 18G8. — Tilden's Nomination in 187G. — Hancock's Letter on the Electoral Con- test. — The Cincinnati Convention. — Hancock nominated unani- mously. — The Campaign. —Garfield's Election 300 CHAPTER X. SENIOR MAJOR-GENERAL. Hancock assigned to the Division of the Atlantic. — Life at Gov- ernor's Island. — A Quiet and Honored Existence. — Duties of the Senior Major-General. — His Home Life. — Family Bereavements. — Death of General Grant. — The Funeral Pageant CHAPTER XL THE END OF EARTH. Last Days. — Hancock's Short and Fatal Illness. — On Duty to the Last Moment. — A Nation in Mourning. — Funeral Services in Trinity Church. — Return of the Hero to the Home of his Child- hood. — The Cemetery at Norristown. — Tributes of Honor, Respect, and Affection , » LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. Steel Portrait of General, Hancock .... Frontispiece. " Hancock's Early Home, Norristown, Penn 32 ' Foraging Party 97 >■ Antietam Ill t Hancock at the Battle of Gettysburg 147 - Crossing the Rapidan 165 ^ Cavalry Charge 175 v General Hancock's Residence, Governor's Island . . 323 ^ Hancock at the head of the Grant Funeral Pro- cession 333 ^ Hancock's Tomb, Norristown, Penn 348 C, l^ WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. I'.A.ia T I BOY AND MAK. CHxiPTER I. The Hancock Family. — Its Services in the War of the Revolution. — Marriage of Benjamin F. Hancock and Settlement in Norris- town, Penn. — Early Struggles of the Young Couple. — School- Teaching and Law. — Education of the Twins, Wintield and Hilary. — Character and Public Services of the Father of General Hancock. - Early in the year 1828, a little family moved into the village of Norristown, Penn., from the farming country near by, and set up their modest household. This family consisted of Benjamin F. Hancock, his wife Elizabeth, and their twin sons. The boys, Win- field Scott Hancock and Hilary B. Hancock, were at that time four years old. Both father and mother came of the farming families of Montgomery County. Their English ancestors had lived upon the soil in the old country ; their fathers and grandfathers had found more bountiful subsistence in the cultivation of the broad meadows along the Schuylkill and the rich intervales of the new land which they had possessed and made free ; Benjamin F. Han- cock was himself a farmer ; Elizabeth Hexworth was a farmer's daughter. It was a sturdy, patriotic stock, and it flourished in a section crowded with patriotic memories. German- town, Brandy wine, Valley Forge, Paoli, are names indissolubly associated with the history of our struggle 24 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF for independence as a Hepublic ; and it was among the associations clustering about these places that the Han- cock family grew up. These associations, too, were interwoven with their family histor}^ The grandfather of Elizabeth Hancock was one of the patriot farmers of the Revolution. He \von and honorably carried a captain's commission in Washington's army, and gave his life for his country, dying of the effect of hardships and privations in the Ijeld shortly after he saw the land made free for his children. Her father, Edvvard Hexworth, although a boy in his teens, also joined the patriot army, and fought hy the side of his father, returning to enjoy the fruits of the liberty for which he had given his youthful strength and enthusiasm. He attained great age, dying Jan. 29, 1847, upwards of 90 years old. Benjamin F. Hancock's father, Hichard Hancock, was a mariner. He was captured at sea, and, with so many other patriots, was given the choice of service against his country in the British navy, or consignment to the notorious Dartmoor Prison, whose name was a terror. He chose the patriot's part, and did not pass the double barricades of that melancholy enclosure until the close of the war. On his release, he returned to free America. In the war of 1812, when the British ad- vanced their troops as far as Red Bank, and the safety of Philadelphia and all the towns in that section was threatened, Benjamin F. Hancock himself, then a mere lad, made one of the local company that garrisoned Camp Dupont. This was the family whose youngest members took WIXFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 25 up their residence in Norristown in 1828. It was good stock, — of the people, of the soil ; it had the traditions of earnest patriotism and honest labor; with neither crest nor pedigree, it held a place in the peerage of the Republic. Benjamin F. Hancock, although born in Philadel- phia, was brought up as a farmer; and it was while farming in the country near Montgomeryville that he paid his suit to Elizabeth Hexwoilh, a famier's daugh- ter, and won her for his wdfe. Even at the time of his marriage he had aspirations for a different career, and with quiet earnestness he set himself to accomplish it. He had no means of his own ; his support, and that of his family, was the income that his own labor brought him. Farmer Hexworth was a man of moderate prop- erty, comfortably Avell off, but not of wealth sufficient to endow his daughter on her marriage. Indeed, such was not the custom among the farmers of Pennsylva- nia. The man who took upon himself the responsi- bilities of marriage was expected to know his ability to provide for his own. So the young couple set out in life dependent upon themselves, confident and brave. The husband, whose education was above the average, turned his talent to account in teaching a country school. The wife attended to domestic duties. Then the children came ; and, under his increasing responsibilities, the father was impelled to push for- ward more rapidly in the career which he had marked out for himself. His ambition was not great ; but his purpose was steady : it was to place his children in a better position for starting in life than he had occupied. 2G LIFE AXD PUBLIC SERVICES OF This it was that led him to remove to Nonistown, where there were opportunities for advancing himself and for eduoa(in«; his bo3's. In ^'onistown, Avith then* young family, Benjamin Ilaneoek and his wife began their new life in a most modest way. They were poor; but they both had eoniideneo in themselves. The husband continued to teach school in Norristown, and meantime studied law in (he olHce of «Iohn Friedlcy, Esq. The wife, who was a true helpmeet, bravely took her share in the work of su})porting the family, and opened a milliners store in the house ; turning her talent, taste, and dex- teritv to the best account in aid of her hard-workins: husband. Benjamin F. Hancock was admitted to the Montgomery County bar at Norristown, Aug. 19, 1828 ; and, long after this, the wife continued her occupation as milliner in i)leasant rooms on one side of the house, Avliilc the husband carried on his law business in his ollice on the opposite side. The Hancock funily prospered, as they must have prospered with such earnest endeavor. Another son was born. The Vither was appointed justice of the peace ; and, while yet young, he began to receive proofs of the contidence and respect of his fellow-citizens, which naturally followed from his upright life. He was a (juiet, unassuming man, of sterling abilit}^ and gi-eat integrity. In his profession he was a counsellor, rather than a barrister : and he was much souijht for such business. Many were the trusts committed to his hands ; his character for uprightness standing high even in a borough whose lawyers have a proverbial WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 27 reputation for honesty, and his strong good sense findin^'- reco^rnition from all his fellow-citizens. One matter in which he took a special and active interest was public education. When he established himself in Norristown, the free-school .'system was not known in the State. Squire Hancock thoroughly be- lieved in the system,— not as a pedagogu3, but as a practical man who had himself taught children, and who tad children of his own to educate. He was an earnest promoter of free pul)lic schools ; and, when the school' law was passed, he devoted his energies at once to the work of securing its advantages for his town, and accomplished as much as any other man in the formation and arrangement of the school system in Norristown. His own boys, whom he was educating at a private academy in the town, were taken out, and sent to the public schools ; and by example as well as by labor he urged the development of the system. From 1830 until his death, a period of thirty-one year^, he was a prominent and active member of the School Board of Norristown. Mr. Hancock was further honored by the appoint- ment as Collector of Internal Revenue by President Johnson, — a position which he held at the time of his death. He lived to see his son Hilary established in his own profession as a practising lawyer, his son John a colonel of volunteers in the war of the Rebellion, and Winlield wearing the stars of a major-general in the United States army. He died on the 1st of Febru- ary, 1867, leaving to his children as the chief part of their inheritance the example of an honorable, Christian life. Mrs. Hancock survived her husband twelve years. 2S LITE AKD rUBLIC SERVICES OP CHAPTER II. Birth and Boyhood. — His Name, and its Influence upon his Career. — The School-boys' Train-baud. — Captain Winfield. — The Cham- pion of the Weak. — Anecdotes of his School-days. — How he Met a Schoolmate in after Years. WiNEiELD Scott Hancock, son of Benjamin F. and Elizabeth Hancock, was born near Montgomery ville, Penn., on the 14th of February, 1824. His name was given him, not because of any relationship with the general who at that time held so high a popularity, but from admiration of the man. The Hancock family, on both the father's and the mother's side, had military traditions ; and the influence of this may have had its efiect in the choice of a name for one of the twin boys who came to the young couple that February day in the little farm-house in Montgomery County. There is much in a name, especially when associated with hereditary tendencies ; and it can hardly be doubted that in this case the career of the young Penn- sylvanian was in some degree determined by the name which he bore. It is, of course, natural to expect that, after the development of such exceptional military genius in the man, incidents of his boyhood should be recalled which seem to show that the bent of his mind was always in that direction. General Hancock's friends and school-mates tell with peculiar zest of the school -boy militia that used to train under his captain- WINFIELD SCOTT HAI^COCK. 29 ship. They describe the wooden muskets with tin bayonets, the paper hats, and the home-made uniforms and flags, that distinguished their soldiery, and recount the parades and the drills in which they participated under the buddinor commander of thousands. But it may be considered doubtful whether young Hancock really had any more than the usual boyish fondness for military display. One fact, however, is quite evident ; and this is, that even at an early age he showed the talent for leadership which developed to such a remarkable degree in the man. He was not only the captain of the school-boys' train-band, but the leader in sports, the chosen referee in boyish disputes. It was the frequent course, in case of a diflerence between the boys, for them to " leave it out to Win- field." And Winfield usually settled it with expedi- tion, and with a good deal of sound common-sense. Gray-headed members of that juvenile militia company now relate with a chuckle — as illustratins: Winfield's readiness in an emergency — how he quelled insubor- dination that threatened to become a mutiny, by order- ing the ringleaders to report at home to their mothers. Discipline was restored at once. The boy Winfield was tall and slim, with no indica- tions of his present figure ; and, indeed, he retained this physique until after he returned from the war. He was sound in body, mind, and morals ; for his home was a Christian one, and all the influences about the household of the Hancocks were wholesome and manly. One of his distins^uishiniic traits was an entire absence of fear in doing vyhat he considered his duty. He 30 LIFE AND PUBLIC SEEVICES Or would tolerate no bullying of the smaller boys when he was about. As one of his school-mates says, "If a big boy undertook to worry a small boy, he'd find Winfield atop of him in short order." Another story runs thus : There was a tumult among the boys returning home from school one day, just in front of Lawyer Hancock's office. The scuffle devel- oped into a stand-up fight between two of the young- sters, which brought Mr. Hancock to his office door, as he recognized Winfield in one of the combatants. " Come here, my son," called the father, in his inva- riably calm manner. The boy walked directly up to the office door, and with flushed face looked his father straight in the eye. "What is the matter, Winfield?" asked Mr. Han- cock. "That big boy tried to whip me," was the reply, " and I wasn't going to let him." "But he is a great deal larger than you, my son." " I know he is, father ; but I can't let him whip me." The boy's persistence in his purpose of establishing the principle of equality had, however, to yield to the paternal judgment of the fitness of things, and the combat was closed then and there. Keverence for parental authority was a characteristic of young Hancock, and so was filial afiection. His mother — whom he venerated through life, and deeply mourned when death removed her to rest beside her hus- band and General Hancock's only daughter in the quiet cemetery of Norristown — used to relate with happy pride an incident in point. It was when the twins WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 31 were yet young that one evening she was left alone by the necessary absence of the father on public busi- ness until a late hour. She was engaged on some household work ; but she noticed that she was never alone. When bedtime came for the twins, one of them went, the other remained. After the lapse of an hour, the one who had been sitting quietly with her left the room, and the other came in to take his place. She found that the little fellows had, of their own motion, decided that mother was not to be left to sit up alone all that long evening, and had organized a watch to keep her company. One was to sit up the first hour ; the other, the next ; and so on. Those who knew General Hancock as a boy speak always of his generosity as a leading trait in his char- acter. There was nothing mean about him. He was thoughtful for others before himself. He always wanted his friends to share what good fortune he had, — to have as ofood as he had himself. This trait remained with him throu<2:hout his career, and won for him stanch friends in whatever station he found himself placed. There is a story told which in a measure illustrates this quality, although its most curious interest is found in its sequel. A poor little orphan boy came to Nor- ristown when Winfield was about eleven years old, sent there at the death of his parents to be cared for by dis- tant relatives. Winfield, in a manner, took the little fellow under his protection. He was the youngest and the smallest boy in the school which they both attended, and was consequently on occasion the butt of those who were inclined to bully or tease. Young Hancock was 32 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF alrcadj^ developing into a manly boy, and he stood be- tween his little protege and his persecutors, fought his battles for him, made a place for him among the others, and divided with him his not very lavish supply of pocket-money in those treats which school-boys delight in. This little fellow left Norristown as poor as he had come into it, going to Philadelphia to work for his own living as soon as he had passed the dependent age, and reaching that city with only one cent in his pocket. But he was fortunate in finding work, and he worked so well at his trade, carpentering, that before long he was at the head of a gang of men ; and, to make a long story short, in the course of years he accumulated wealth, and, going into politics, was elected a member of the city council. During the same years, Winlield had also grown to man's estate, and made his own career in another field ; and it was the little forsaken fellow whom he had befriended in his school-days, who, in the city government of Philadelphia, introduced the resolutions of thanks and welcome to Major-Gen. Winlield Scott Hancock, in the name of the city, and offering him the use of the historic Independence Hall for a reception on his visit to Philadelphia. The chances of life had brou2:ht a^i^ain into immediate asso- ciation John AV. Everman and Winfield S. Hancock, through paths so widely separated since the Norristown school-days, It was Everman, too, who, as chairman of the committee of the city government, presented the engrossed resolutions to his former school-mate and champion. These recollections of the early boyhood of Vv^infield Hancock's early home, norristown, pa. WINTIELD SCOTT HAJVCOCK. 33 Scott Hancock are cherished as precious memories at his old home in the Schuylkill Valley ; having little value, indeed, in themselves, but serving to bring into closer sympathy the hero whom a united country honors, with the people from whom he came and one of whom he is. 34 LITE AND PUBLIC SERYICES OF CHAPTER in. One of Winfield Hancock's Cliiims. — His Home Life. — A Studeut in Norristowu Academy. — The Baptist Sunday-School. — A Cadet at West Point. — How he was Appointed. — His Class-mates. — Courtship and Marriage. — Birth of Children. — Honors received. Among the intimate friends of General Hancock's school-boy days was Hon. B. E. Chain, now one of the leading lawyers of the Montgomery County bar. The friendship, which began in boyhood, has continued even to the present day ; Mr. Chain having had the settle- ment of the elder Hancock's estate, and in other ways giving the General and his family the benefit of his legal knowledge and business ability. A more vivid picture of General Hancock as a youth cannot be found in brief space than that which Mr. Chain gives in his own words, as follows : — " I have known him for over forty years, and, boy and man, am glad to claim him as a friend. In 1828 he came from Montgomery township, near Montgomer3'ville, about ten miles from here, to this town, with his father and mother and twin brother, Hilary. He was then about four 3'ears old. The family went to reside in a two-story stone house, still standing, but very dilapidated. This house at that time was one mile west of the town, on the old Ridge pike. It is now in the cit}^ limits, near the cemeter}^ He first went to school to Eliphalet Roberts, in the academy, which then stood where the present market-house stands. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 35 •'From my earliest acquaintance with him, we boys ac- knowledged him as a kind of a leader. He was quiet, but firm, in all he undertook. I remember that his tastes earlier ran in a soldierl}^ direction. He used to get us boys back of the academ}^, and, improvising cocked hats of paper and guns and swords of sticks, put us through all manner of manoeu- vres, that to our boyish ideas were the acme of military perfection. " At that time his father was in poor circumstances, and it was a struggle for him to gain sustenance for his family. As business improved in his profession as a lawyer, he moved into town, and occupied a three-story brick house on Swede Street, close to Lafayette Street, having his office in a small brick building adjoining. Winfield and his brother, Hilary, at that time looked so much aUke that it was hard to dis- tinguish one from the other across the street. ' ' His father and mother were Baptists of the strictest school, and kept their children in theh' earlier years under the most rigid moral training. The consequence was, that up to the time Winfield went to West Point he had no vices. He was then in his seventeenth year, was tall for his age, but very slender. " He never forgot his old friends ; and after he graduated he would visit them at times, never assuming any superiority, but on the footing estabUshed in the boyhood days. His life after leaving West Point has become historical, and needs no repetition from me. With regard to his religious predilec- tions, he is not connected with any denomination. While the General was quite young, his father and mother connected themselves with the Baptists in this town ; and the General, then a small boy, attended the vSunday-school of that chm-ch, his father being the superintendent." The a-ttachment of General Hancock for his boy- 36 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP hood's home was equally sincere. Soon after he assumed command of the Military Division of the Atlantic, he remarked to a friend, "Now, if the gov- ernment will only remove my headquarters to Phil- adelphia, I shall be able to realize the desire of my heart by making my residence in Norristown, the home of my childhood." This was not to be ; but if Gen- eral Hancock could have witnessed the universal joy that pervaded Norristown, without regard to party, when the news was received there of his nomination to the presidency by the Democratic convention at Cincinnati, he would have realized how fully his feel- ings were reciprocated, and how proudly his native town watched the brilliant career of the stripling youth whom it had sent forth. Along the streets, in all public places, in private offices, everywhere in and about the town, party feel- ing was laid aside, and general rejoicing prevailed. Eive hundred guns were fired, the town was illuminated in the evening, and the whole population turned out at an impromptu ratification meeting. Old men, who had almost reached the allotted " threescore years and ten," forgot political strife as they shook hands, and discussed their boyish recollections of " Winfield Han- cock." It was no longer General Hancock to them, but old Ben Hancock's boy, "Winfield." The old two- story stone house near the Montgomery cemetery, that has been in so dilapidated a condition for years that it has not been habitable, where General Hancock's child- hood days were spent, became at once a place of im- portance ; and during the day not a few who had passed WINTIELD SCOTT IIANOOCK. 37 it for years without giving a thought to the old struct- ure stopped to gaze upon it. Youno: Hancock received the best education that his paronts could provide for him ; and he improved his opportunities. He was placed at school in the Norris- town Academy, where Eliphalet Roberts was his first teacher. When the public school system was adopted, his father being one of the promoters of the system, and also actively engaged in carrying out its opera- tions as one of the school board of Norristown, he was sent to a free school. He was a studious boy, and a bright one ; and, as early as his fifteenth year, he was selected to read the Declaration of Independence on the occasion of the public celebration of the anniversary. In the year 1840, when he was sixteen, Winfield Scott Hancock received the appointment to the Mili- tary Academy at West Point. It was the natural course for the career of a boy who, by descent, by family tradition, and by native preference, had a military bent. The profession of arms was one to which he inevitably tended. The appointment was made by Hon. Joseph Fornance, at that time repre- sentmg the district in Congress. Mr. Fornance was a friend of young Hancock's father, respected him as a citizen and as a man, knew his struggle to educate his boys properly, and saw also in Winfield the evidence of a spirit and ability that would do credit to the coun- try under the training of the Military School. But there is a curious story of the way in which the appointment was brought about, which, whether it is PUBLIC SERVICES OF bridge and dam, swarmed up the bluff and captured the redoubt. With equal expedition a road was made for the artillery, which was speedily dragged across. Twelve hundred yards in advance was another re- doubt, which was taken in the same manner. It was a masterly stroke, and one w^hich proved of the first importance in the battle of Williamsburg. By one quick movement, Hancock had turned the enemy's flank and debouched upon his rear ; and un- less he could be stopped and driven back, the whole Confederate line would be untenable. When Hancock formed his brigade in line of battle within the enemy's fortifications on the crest of the hill which he had seized, and brought up his artillery, he found there were two more redoubts between him and Fort Magruder and directed his fire upon these. Send- ing his two batteries to the front, he began im artillery duel. But the situation was a dangerous one. Han- cock's little command was shut ofi* by a deep and almost impassable ravine from the rest of the troops, while in front was the whole rebel army, an overwhelm- ing: force. He sent for reinforcements, but none came. On the contrary, he received orders to retire. But Hancock, realizing the commanding importance of the position he had taken, delayed as long as possible exe- cuting the order from General Sumner. He knew that, with adequate support, the Confederate army was at our mercy. It was not until five o'clock that he gave the com- mand to fall back. Then, the rebel General Johnston had finished with Hooker at Fort Mao^ruder, and was WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 89 making preparations to avei-t the danger on his left flank by overwhelming Hancock's audacious advance. Hancock saw that the Confederates were in motion on his front, and that they had reoccupied the two redoubts from which they had last been driven ; but hardly had he called back his batteries from their advanced position, when, with a tremendous cheer, Early's troops poured out of the woods on his right, and formed in two splendid lines of battle, advancing rapidly. Tliis was, perhaps, the most critical point of Han- cock's military career. He had ventured all on this, his first really important separate movement in the cam- paign. He had led his brigade into a position where it was confronted by a vastly larger force, with the road of retreat cut off. Retreat, indeed, could mean nothing but rout, overthrow and capture ; and with this, a shock to his rising reputation from which it might never recover. On the other hand, victory against such odds meant immediate fame. If he could trust his men, he might yet wan. He could trust them. More than that, they could trust their commander. They stood firm. Hancock formed his line, as Early's troops marched on with shouts. He had about sixteen hundred men. His two batteries played upon the advancing Con- federates, but without checking their onset. Forward they came, regardless of shell, and hardly stopping for canister, swept around and almost enveloped the artillery, which turned quickly, rattled up the hill, and went into battery again upon the slope. Backward the brigade retreated slowly, firing steadily as if at practice- 90 LIFE AND rUBLIC SERVICES OF drill. Now the impetuous charge comes nearer, and the taunting shouts of Early's men are heard above the crack of the rifles : "Bull Euu ! Bull Run ! That flag is ours ! " Hancock had been sitting on his horse close behind the centre of the line, watching with impenetrable face the phases of the action. What he thought at this supreme moment, no one can tell. What he did the world knows. The yelling Confederates, in double line, were swarm- ing up the slope of the hill on which his little brigade was drawn up. The flush of anticipated victory was upon every face of that advancing multitude ; the tone of victory was heard in every voice. They were within thirty yards when Hancock, waving his hat in his hand, dashed forward in front of his men, and shouting, " Gentlemen I charge ! " led the advance, bare-headed, down the hill and upon the enemy. It seemed madness to attempt to turn back the mass that was sweeping up the hill. There it was, surging upward, vast, irregular, apparently irresistible, so near at hand that the men on either side could see the features of their opponents. But Hancock knew his own power and the power of his men. It was not a mad venture ; it was a triumph of personal courage, and of that military genius which divines by instinct when safety lies in rashness, Hancock risked his own life and the lives of his men ; and he won the day. At one instant the bristling and grisly line of the Confederate charge was in front of the brigade ; the next there flashed between them and WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 91 the line this vision of valor incarnate ; and with a shout that drowned the crackling of musketry his men followed where Hancock led. With lowered bayonets, and with line as perfect as if on parade, the brigade advanced. The rebel line faltered, stopped, turned with a com- mon impulse and slowly retreated down the hill before this gallant onslaught. They were not cowards ; they only lacked the inspiration of such a leader as Hancock. They were, indeed, brave men. This was one of the few occasions during the war where bayonet-wounds were received in an actual charge of infantry. It is in official evidence that Hancock's men were obliged to bayonet the foremost of their assailants before the line broke. Down the hill they went, the martial figure of Hancock on his horse marking the point where the hostile forces were joined in combat. They fought well and des- perately, leaving five hundred corpses on that hillside. Others held up white handkerchiefs and surrendered. Of Hancock's little brigade, one hundred and twenty- nine were killed. Then it was that reinforcements were sent to Han- cock. General McClellan, arriving at the front, ap- preciated the value of the position taken by Hancock, and immediately ordered that he should receive the support he had asked for. By this time it was night. The firing in front of Fort Magruder had ceased, and the troops, wet, tired, and hungry, slept on their arms in the mud. But AVil- liamsburg was won. Hancock, in his first engagement 92 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF as a general commander, had by one bold and masterly movement seized the key of the position ; by his fiery personal valor he had snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat, and had turned disaster into glorious success. Leavinof the srround covered with their dead and wounded, the Confederates hastened away under cover of the night to join the rest of Johnston's army, now marching rapidly towards the Chickahominy. Hancock had made Williamsburs: untenable. This was Hancock's first glory ; and it was a sub- stantial one. In that single day he rose from an obscure subordinate officer to a general whose name and whose praises w^ere heralded from Maine to Cali- fornia. His opportunity had come, and he had seized it. He had won a national reputation. Few of the generals of the Army of the Potomac, if any, would have taken the chances which Hancock took when he moved his little brigade across the ravine to flank the whole rebel army. But it was not reck- lessness wdiich led him to take this chance. It was the ready judgment of the trained leader which gave him that prescient knowledge which passes for good for- tune. Hancock knew what he could expect from his men, and he had confidence in himself. He was not disappointed, nor did he disappoint the country whose anxious attention was then centred upon the advance of the army of the Potomac up the Peninsula. In his telegraphed report of this battle, made to President Lincoln, General McClellan said : ** Hancock was superb." All who saw his tall figure dashing down the hill, leading his troops against the advancing army WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 93 of Early and Longstreet, acknowledge the accuracy of this description. In his more detailed and formal ac- count of the battle, McClellan says : " Before Generals Smith and Nagle could reach the field of General Hancock's operations, although they moved with great rapidity, he had been confronted by a superior force. Feigning to retreat slowly, he awaited their onset, and then turned upon them, and after some terrific volleys of musketry, he charged them with the bayonet, rout- ing and dispersing their whole force, killing, wound- ing and capturing from five hundred to six hundred men, he himself losing only thirty-one men. " This was one of the most brilliant engagements of the war, and General Hancock merits the highest praise for the soldierly qualities displayed and his perfect appreciation of the vital importance of his position." The troops with which General Hancock achieved this brilliant success were the Seventh Maine and Thirty-third New York from Davidson's brigade, which was unde: Hancock's command at that time, and the Sixth Maine, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania, and Fifth Wisconsin, detailed from his own brigade. 94 LIFE A^^D PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER III. Hancock again Brevetted for Gallantry. — His Work in the Prelimina- ries of the Peninsular Campaign. — His Care of his Men. — Military Discipline. — Skirmishing and Foraging. — Raids upon the Virginia Farms. — The Foragers' return to Camp with Spoils of War. — ^ Mr. Vollin. — Capturing a Sleeping Beauty. It was for the bravery and skill shown in these earlier battles of the Peninsular Campaign that General Hancock received the brevet rank of Major in the regular army. Indeed, his merit and his capacity were promptly recognized at the War Department ; and the honors which the regular service confers only for sub- stantial achievements came thick and fast. Before the campaign was over, Hancock had received his tliird brevet since Churubusco, and held the honorary rank of Colonel in the United States army. During his early connection with the Army of the Potomac, he was a husy commander. All his energies were taxed to their utmost to prepare his troops for active duty ; and how well this was done, their valiant service in critical periods subsequently testified. With- out effective troops, Hancock could never have won the wonderful successes that he did ; witliout Hancock's faithful and skilful labor, his troops could never have been brought to such a degree of efficiency. He was a strict disciplinarian, but nothing of a martinet. He exacted from those under him the same WLNTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 95 implicit and prompt obedience to orders which he him- self rendered to his superiors ; but he was, at the same time, the kindliest, most sympathetic, and most inspir- ing of commanders. All who served under him came to love and even worship him, such was the admiration he excited ; his subordinates prized his smile as highly as they dreaded his reproof. That part of Virginia in which the Army of the Potomac was operating was aflame with rebellion. There, too, the first pinching necessities of the war were felt. The country was transformed into a camp, where every male capable of bearing arms was held to be a soldier, and every crop was regarded as pledged to the support of the Southern troops. Parties of the Confederate cavalry scoured the country for recruits and for provisions. Every farm-house was an outpost of the enemy, or even an arsenal. Every tramp was a spy in disguise. Every bush might afford conceal- ment for a sharp-shooter. It was a desultory sort of warfare during the earlier part of the campaign, but not devoid of incident. A few weeks after General Hancock had assumed com- mand of his brigade at the front, a scouting-party, sent out alono^ the roads leadinsr to Fairfax Court House and Hunter's Mills, encountered an equal number of Con- federate cavalry on similar business. They immedi- ately gave chase, the rebels taking to the woods. In the hurry of the pursuit, while passing through a fruit- orchard, they did not observe that one of the rebels had dismounted and concealed himself behind a tree ; whence, resting his revolver against a branch, he fired 90 LIFE AND PUBLIC SEIIVICES OF three shots at the Major commanding the Union scouts. The luiUets missed their mark. But Avhen, returning from tlieir unsuccessful pursuit of tlie rebels, they found this man endeavoring to make his escape, they "gathered him in," as the army phrase was, and 1)rought him before the General at headquarters. Han- cock at once recognized him as a notorious spy, through whose successful operations in our lines the enemy had received important and damaging information. "Your name is Vollin, 1 believe?" inquired the General. "Yes, sir," answered the spy, taken off his guard by the quick recognition and sharp interrogatory. " Ah ! Mr. Vollin, I am glad to see you ; we have been looking for you for some time." Vollin was not loni2: left in doubt as to the conse- quences of his actions. Plancock was never cruel ; but be was uniiinchins: in executins: the laws of war. " You are aware of the fate prescribed for spies, Mr. Vollin ? " continued the General. " I suppose I am," stammered the unfortunate fellow. " Then you will please i)repare for it at your earliest convenience. Good morning, sir." The Maine and WisconsiH men in Hancock's brigade possessed a wonderful talent for the somewhat diffi- cult and delicate work of procuring supplies. The army, to a consideral)le extent, subsisted upon the country. To l)e sure, the Confederate troops scoured it pretty thoroughly ; and they had this advantage — that the Virginia farmers of that section were Southern TTINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 97 patriots, not Northern ones, and were more readily induced by them to contribute of their stores. But Hancock's men were active. They were largely country-bred, and knew by instinct where the poultry and the live-stock would be found, even amid the unfamiliar surroundings of a Virginia farm. This instinct they cultivated by constant forays from camp through the farms for miles around, bringing in hay, corn, sheep, and beef-cattle as spoils of war for the sub- sistence of the invaders. Nor were delicacies wanting. The entrance into camp of a returning foraging party, with chickens dangling by the legs from their musket- barrels, with pigs thrown across their saddles, and with shirt-fronts decorated with fresh vegetables, or bulging with carefully-carried eggs, would be greeted with shouts of admirinof merriment. It was fun and food to our men ; it was anything but that to the poor farmers who found themselves by mis- fortune occupying a middle position between two con- tending armies, each with an inordinate appetite for fresh meat and early vegetables. They were robbed on both sides. One party took their bacon in the name of Southern patriotism ; the other carried off their beef in the name of Federal supremacy. Between the two, they were impoverished and ruined. Plere at the North, hard as we thought the war to be, we knew nothing of its real and necessary cruelties. But, for all that, it is doubted whether the most delicate produc- tions of our most artistic cooks ever had the flavor of one of these lean and scrasTiry stolen Viro^inia chickens, speared with a bayonet and broiled on a ramrod. 98 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF Southern historians state that at even this time Lee's army was reduced to great extremity ; that there was seen the day when the Confederate chief had neither the means to cook the next meal for himself, nor to serve the next ration to his soldiers. Laro^e foraofinfic parties were sent out, and as these frequently met those of the Union army on the same errand, some important skirmishes resulted. It was on one of these occasions that Ord met Stuart and routed his four regiments and a six-gun battery. General Hancock's britrade also took part in the fre- quent reconnoissances that Avere required at this time, often taking on the form of a considerable march, and usually involving a skirmish which sometimes had almost the character of a battle. On one of these occasions, after a detachment of Hancock's command had driven a small body of Con- federates across the York Ri^er, they proceeded, under orders, as usual in such cases, to search the neighbor- ing houses, all being presumptively occupied by rebel sympathizers, and possibly having granted shelter to some of the enemy. As the men entered one of these houses, they were accosted by the housewife : " What do you want ? " "We are lookins: for Johnnies, madam." "Well, there ain't none in this house, an' you better clear out quick." "It is our orders to search every house, madam, and we cannot leave until we have searched yours." " Search my house I I'd like to see Yankees do that ! " WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 99 '* You shall have that pleasure," was the reply, as some of the troops went down cellar, and others ex- amined the ground floor. " Now we will go up stairs," said the officer in com- mand. " Well, if jou will, you must. But you won't iind nobody up there but a poor old sick one." " Is it a sick man ? " "No, it ain't. It's my husband's aunt Betty; been sick going on ten years." "Where is she?" "Up chamber there." Up they went, and there, as the woman said, they found a bed-ridden crone. But the form wjiich the bed- clothes outlined was more extended and ample than the shape of an old woman woukl warrant ; and mod- estly turning down the coverlet, they disclosed an armed Confederate, lying at length with his boots on. The boys named him at once the " Sleeping Beauty," and gathered him in. Hancock's brigade, during the preliminary week of the Peninsular Campaign, bore its share of the labors, and claimed its share of the s[)orts and humors of the camp, the march, and the foray ; and it was in splendid condition when its gallant leader took it into battle. Such a test as that at Williamsburg could be succeSvS- fully l^orne only by troops who had learned to have confidence in their commander, and who had by him been brought to a high state of military efficiency. 100 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER IV. The Advance toward Richmond. — General Hancock's Letter to his Mother. — Battle of the Chickahominy. — Golding's Farm. — Han- cock repulses Toombs' Assanlt — Ho holds the Enemy at Bay at White Oak Swamp. — The Seven Days' Retreat to Harrison's Landing. Hancock having decided the day at Williamsburg, and turned the enemy in flight toward Richmond, the advance of McClellan's grand army was made with such rapidity as the horrible condition of the roads would permit. Those who have experienced it do not need to be told what Virginia nmd is. Those who have not known it by experience can never realize it by description. It is deep, treacherous, and tenacious. It pervades everything. To walk in it is a toil of Her- cules. To ride is a constant misery. To drive a vehicle is to plough through sticky soil to the depth of the axles. Through this mud, reinforced by the heavy rains of the season, the Army of the Potomac was advanced alonof the line of the retreatinor Confederates. A base of supplies was established at White House, on the Pamunkey River, and, slowly repairing the line of tlie York River and Richmond Railroad, the column was pushed on in that section. By the 21st of May they had reached the Chickahominy River, behind which Johnston had retired with the purpose of making an WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 101 aggressive demonstnition at this point, with all the force he could command from Richmond. We find General Hancock writing: home about this time : — 'O In Camp neak Richmond, ) May 23, 1862. j My Dear Mother : — I wi^ote to father a few days ago. It has been some time since I heard from him or you. I pre- sume some of 3^our letters have missed me in consequence of the changes of the field. I am well, and so also is brother John. We are not in Richmond j^et ; but trust we shall be there, all in good time. I hope that God in his good mercy wiU permit both your sons to reach that city in safety and in honor. I have not much time to wi'ite. Give my best love to father ; and beheve me. Your devoted son, Winfield S. Hancock. Here the tide of war took a turn. The country just beyond the Chickahominy was the limit of the advance of the Union arms in this direction toward Richmond. From May into June there were sldrmishes, demonstra- tions, and slow manoeuvres ; toward the end of June came the famous "seven days" and the retreat. In all these movements, Hancock fought among the foremost. His brigade continued in General Smith's division, now a part of a new provisional army corps, in command of Gen. W. B. Franklin, posted on the right of the main body. In the pestilential swamps of the Chickahominy his labors were arduous ; and, sharing the dangers and fatigues of all the principal attacks, he rendered impor- 102 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF tant aid in the retreat, by conducting the safe with- drawal of the men under his command. The battle of the Chickahominy, June 27, was fol- lowed by the engagements of Golding's Farm, Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, and the retreat to Harri- son's Landing, on successive days. General Hancock was prominent in all these fights, his brigade usually occupying the post of danger, and gaining new honors for bravery and persistence. At Golding's Farm, Hancock sustained and repulsed an attack of the enemy in force. The closing part of the fight showed on Hancock's part the tactics which he practised first at Williamsburg, and for which he became famous. That is, he held his position tena- ciously until the critical moment in the attack of the enemy arrived, and then carried demoralization before him by an impetuous charge. The best and most thoroughly disciplined troops can hardly stand under such a stroke ; but to accomplish this movement, it is necessary that the commander should have the full con- fidence of his men. The secret of gaining and holding this confidence was possessed by Hancock. It was that the commander should share the peril of his troops and be seen by them. When a brigade commander, he was always among his men, riding up and down close behind his line of battle, encouraging them by voice and example, and not only sharing their danger, but tak- ing yet greater risk than that to which he required them to expose themselves. As he rose in rank, he continued the same practice, trusting less to his aids than perhaps any other general officer, but pushing his WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 103 orders through his personal presence, here, there, and everywhere over the field. He was always at the criti- cal point at the critical moment, and his troops always knew that they were fighting under the eye of a com- mander who did not know what fear was, and who would tolerate it in no one else. In illustration of this trait of character, the story is told of one of his subordinate oflicers, who, when he had his men in a tight place, rode up to the General, and said : "General, my men are all being killed; may I not withdraw them a little out of the fire ? " "No," replied Hancock, "I hope we shall be able to advance soon." "Then we shall all be killed," despondingly replied the officer. "Very well," said Hancock, "return to your troops, and if you fall you will have the satisfaction of know- ing you have died for your country." The fight of Golding's Farm was remarkable from the fact that it extended into the night. The scene of the contest, with the opposing forces blazing away at each other at close quarters all along the line, is described as one of the finest spectacles of the war. It was now no longer a question of taking Richmond, but of making a safe retreat to the James River, with a victorious enemy in the rear ; and the metal of Hancock and his troops was tested under these most trying cir- cumstances. The next assault which he had to sustain in protecting the rear of the retreat, was at Garnett's Hill. It was the purpose of the Confederates to force him 104 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF back and separate his command from the main body of the army. The attack was opened with a heavy artil- lery fire of grape, shell, round shot, and shrapnel ; suc- ceedinir which, General Toombs led the assault of five regiments of Confederate infantry upon Hancock's force. The fi2:ht became almost hand to hand. It was short and sharp, and ended in repulse of the Con- federates. On the following morning, Toombs returned to the attack, but was again repulsed with heavy loss, Hancock holding the enemy in check at this point until he was able to make connection with the remainder ot his division. The day after, June 29, he was engaged in similar hot work at Savage Station. The line of retreat to the James passed across White Oak Swamp, and Keyes' corps, which w^as in advance, had made the passage on the 28th, followed by the long train of five thousand wagons, and twenty-five hundred beef-cattle, all of which had to cross the morass by one narrow defile. Hancock's brigade had to protect this passage from the assault of the Confederate troops, hurried forward and massed in the rear of the retreating army. Sixty pieces of rebel artillery were posted on the other side of the ravine, whose opposite bank Hancock occupied, and poured their fire upon his men. The Confederate position could not be attacked, and no reply could bo made to this terrible bombardment, except by two or three of the Union batteries. Hancock's men, more- over, had for three days been marching by night and fighting by day, and were worn out by fatigue and loss of sleep. In such circumstances the best troops ar^ WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 105 liable to give way under the demoralizing effect of a heavy, concentrated, and continuous fire of artillery ; and the fact that these troops endured it without flinch- ing, told volumes of their bravery and discipline. Han- cock held his position throughout the day, sustaining the artillery fire and repelling the attacks of the infan- try, until the last wagon of the immense train of the retreating army was safely across the swamp. In the same arduous services General Hancock con- tinued until the Peninsular Campaign came to an end, four days after, by the arrival of McClellan's army at Harrison's Landing. He had mounted another step on the ladder of patriotic fame, and won his brevet of Colonel in the regular army " for gallant and meritori- ous conduct in the Peninsular Campaign." 106 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER V. Pope's Campaign in Northern Virgiaia. — Hancock joins in the Move- ment to Centreville. — McClellan's Maryland Campaign against Leo. — Hancock at Sontli Monntain. — Forcing Crampton's Pass. — Antietam. — Hancock takes Command of a Division. — His First Connection with the Second Army Corps. The Army of the Potomac having returned from its unsuccessful attempt to reach Richmond by forcing its path up the Peninsula, the following month of August was chiefly occupied w^ith auxiliary operations. General Pope's campaign in Northern Virginia, so weak and disastrous, covers most of the military events of this month. General Hancock took a subsidiary part in this campaign, marching with his brigade to Centreville in support of one of Pope's blundering movements. This was a dark day for the country. Not only had the attempt to reach Richmond failed, but Pope's fol- lowing campaign, conducted with such a profusion of boastful and glowing despatches and proclamations, had resulted disastrously. The North was despondent ; the South was exultant. Lee had proved his strength to hold the Confederate territory against all invaders ; now he })urposed reversing the situation and becoming an invader himself. It is doubtful whether, when he set his columns in motion from Richmond, he intended to carry the Con- federate ilixz across the river that formed the dividinsj WIKFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 107 line between the warring powers. It is certain that his army was wretchedly equipped and poorly provided. Lee himself says that thousands of his troops at this time were destitute of shoes. But, whether induced by incorrect representations of the popular feebng in Maryland, which Lee thought would lead the people to flock into his army as soon as he set foot on Northern soil, or for whatever reason, the whole Confederate army crossed the Potomac at Leesburg, by the fords near that place, in three days, between the 4th and 7th of September, 1862, and encamped in the vicinity of Frederick. There *the standard of revolt was formally raised, and the people of Mary hmd were invited by proc- lamation of General Lee to join the Confederate force. Lee was disappointed when no recruits came. The ragged and shoeless condition of his troops operated strongly to quench the enthusiasm for service in the cause of the Confederacy. But there he was, across the border ; and the moral effect, as well as the military necessities of the campaign, required that he should hold his position. He could not retreat without at least measuring strength with the powerful army which he knew must be sent to repel his invasion. So it was that the Maryland campaign came into existence. When the shattered battalions that sm- vived General Pope's disastrous campaign in Northern Virginia returned to Washington, President Lincoln requested General McCiellan to resume command of the Army of the Potomac, which was increased in num- bers by the addition of other corps. " McClellan's reappearance at the head of affairs," says Swinton, 108 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 'had the most beneficial efiect on the army, whose Tnorale immediately underwent an astonishing change. The heterogeneous mass, made up of the aggregation of the remnants of the two armies and the garrison of Washington, was reorganized into a compact body, — a work that had mostly to be done while the army was on the march ; and as soon as it became known that Lee had crossed the Potomac, McClellan moved toward Frederick to meet him." It was Lee's plan to dislodge the Union forces from Harper's Ferry before concentrating his army west of the mountains, and his arrans^ements and orders were all made for this enterprise. But, through a stroke of good fortune, a copy of Lee's order for the movement of troops fell into McClellan's hands, on the day of his arrival at Frederick, and forthwith there besran a race for Harper's Ferry. The South Mountain range had to be passed by the Union army, and toward the two principal passes, Turner's Gap and Crampton's Gap, the columns hastened. Lee had information of McClel- lan's movements, and had sent troops to the passes to meet them. Our men found the Confederates in pos- session, and forthwith proceeded to break through. Hancock was with Franklin's corps at Crampton's Pass, six miles below Turner's Gap, where the other column was forcing its passage and where the gallant Reno was killed. It was hot work where Hancock was as well. The rebel General McLaws held the pass under orders not to permit the passage, " even if he lost his last man in doins: it ; " and he held it well. But the forces under Hancock, whose duty it was to advance WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 109 along the left of the road through the steep and naiTow pass, drove back the Confederates from their position at the base of the mountain where they were protected by a stone wall, and forced them back up the slope of the mountain to near its summit. Here Hancock and his determined fellow-soldiers fought for three hours, until the crest was carried and four hundred prisoners taken. The battle of South Mountain was won, though at great cost, and not soon enough to save Harper's Ferry, which surrendered to the enemy the very morning that the relieving army burst through the passes of South Mountain, with Hancock at the front. As the Confederates retired on the morninir of the 15th of September, McClellan pushed forward his whole army in pursuit; but after a few miles' march the heads of the columns were brought to a sudden halt at Antietam Creek, where, on the heiirhts crowninof the west bank of the stream, Lee had taken his stand to oj)pose McClellan's pursuit. It was absolutely neces- sary for him to make a stand and give battle here, and he was ready to do it. Late in the afternoon of the 15th, the Union army drew up before the Antietam, and there rested over night. On the following day there was an artillery duel and some considerable skirmishinsf. On the 17th the great battle was fought, contested with an obstinacy which certified the valor of both sides, and ending in a victory of which the honors were almost as great for the vanquished as for the ^dctors. From five o'clock in the morning until seven o'clock at night the armies 110 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF contended with great slaughter. At the time, all ^vho participated in it were fully convinced that they fought the greatest battle of the war ; and, indeed, it was the bloodiest and the most hotly contested up to that time. Both armies were almost exhausted when the sun went down. An army correspondent told the story of the situation at the close in this way ; — '' McClellan's glass for the last half-hour has seldom been Vurued away from the left. He sees clearly enough that Burn- side is pressed — needs no message to tell him that. His face gi'ows darker with anxious thought. Looking down into the valley where fifteen hundred troops are l3ing, he turns a half- questioning look on Fitz John Porter who stands by his side, gravely scanning the field. They are Porter's troops below ; are fresh, and only impatient to share in this fight. But Porter slowly shakes his head, and one may believe that the same thought is passing through the minds of both generals. * They are the only reserves of the army ; they cannot be spared.' " McClellan mounts his horse, and with Porter and a dozen oflScers of his staff rides away to the left in Burnside's direc- tion. It is easy to see that the moment has come when every- thing may turn on one order given or withheld, when the history of the battle is only to be written in thoughts and purposes and words of the general. "Burnside's messenger rides up. His message is : ' I want troops and guns. If 3"ou do not send them, I cannot hold my position half an hour.' McClellan's only answer for a moment is a glance at the western sky. Then he turns and speaks very slowly : ' Tell General Burnside this is the battle of the war. He must hold his ground till dark at any cost. I will send him Miller's batteiy. I can do nothing more ; I WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. Ill have no infantiy.' Then, as the messenger was riding away, he called hiin back : ' Tell him if he cannot hold his ground, then the bridge, to the last man ! Alwaj^s the bridge ! If the bridge is lost, all is lost/ ' ' The sun is already down ; not half an hour of daylight is left. Till Burnside's message came it had seemed plain to €very one that the battle could not be finished to-da3\ None suspected, how near was the peril of defeat, of sudden attack on exhausted forces — how vital to the safety of the army and the country" were those fifteen hundred waiting troops of Fitz John Porter in the hollow. But the rebels halted instead of pushing on ; their vindictive cannonade died away as the light faded. Before it was quite dark the battle was over. Onty a soUtary gun thundered against the enemy, and presently this also ceased, and the field was still." There was great slaughter among the troops, and havoc among their generals. The sun went down in blood. But here it was, on this sanguinary field, that Hancock won his next promotion. General Richardson, commanding the first division of the Second Corps, was mortally wounded, and Hancock was ordered to take his place in the field, and fight the battle where Rich- ardson was struck down. From this time dates General Hancock's connection with the old Second Army Corps which has become historic. His name and his fame are inseparably con- nected wjth the corps which carried as its emblem the clover-leaf, omen of good-luck. They came together amid the shrieking bullets of Antietam, and they earned glory together through the war. 112 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER VI. Fredericksburg. — Opening the Campaign of the Rappahannock. — Burnside succeeds McClellan. — Hancock receives his Commission as Major-General of Volunteers. — He Commands a Division on the March to Fredericksburg. — The Bloody Fight in the " Slaughter- Pen." — Hancock Wounded. The Confederate campaign in Maryland came to an end with the battle of Antietam, in which Hancock so distinguished himself. It lasted just two weeks ; and instead of passing into history as an invasion, it degen- erated into a raid. While its purpose was to raise the standard of revolt in Maryland and rally the citizens of that State about the Confederate flag, it resulted in the almost complete destruction of Lee's army. In- stead of receivinsr flocks of recruits from the rebel sympathizers in Maryland, Lee saw his own forces dwindling away so rapidly that he was forced to confess that liis army was "ruined by straggling." In his oflicial report, he says : — " The arduous service in which our troops had been engaged, their great priva- tions of rest and food, and the long marches without shoes over mountain roads, had greatly reduced our ranks before the action [at Antietam] began. These causes had compelled thousands of brave men to absent themselves, and many more had done so from unwor- thy motives. This great battle was fought by less than forty thousand men on our side." After Antie- WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 113 tarn, Lee was quite ready to get back across the Potomac, taking with him less than thirty thousand of the seventy thousand troops with which he had entered Maryland. A short period of rest for the Army of the Potomac followed the battle of Antietam, in which General Hancock had for the first time assumed command of a division ; but when it became necessary to make a reconnoissance in force from Harper's Ferry to Charles- town, Ya., it was naturally the dashing and successful Hancock who was ordered to lead the way. This was done about the middle of October, Hancock striking the line of the enemy, and driving him with the sharp fighting and the indomitable persistence for which he was already distinguished. Following this reconnois- sance, McClellan crossed the Potomac about five miles below Harper's Ferry, this movement ending his com- mand, General Burnside being appointed to take his place. Burnside's plan was to advance on Richmond by way of Fredericksburg ; and to accomplish this he proposed to move by the north bank of the Eappahannock to Falmouth, nearly opposite to Fredericksburg, then cross the river by a pontoon bridge, and seize the blufi*s on the south bank. The advance was made in three columns, Hancock bein PUBLIC SERVICES OF Capital, would not have been the only loss. There would have been practically nothing to prevent the cap- ture of Baltimore, Philadelphia, possibly New York. There would have been recosrnition of the Southern Confederacy by European Powers ; the destruction of the Union, or, at the best, its preservation only after years of bloody war. All these probabilities hung on the success or defeat of Lee, who was now forging ahead on Northern soil, toward the North Star and ex- pected victory. Not to intercept him ; not to strike him at a place where the Union troops would have the advantage or an equality of position ; or, having struck Lee, to fail to overwhelm him — and all those results were possible — and the cause of the Union was lost. Probably every private soldier in the Army of the Potomac knew that a tremendous conflict was not many hours distant, and had some clear idea of what failure meant. But there were some on whom rested supreme responsibility. With tliem there must be neither mediocrity as to ability, judgment, or execution. With them there must be no mistake, or all would be lost. Chief among the men on whom was laid this momentous duty was Hancock. How he performed it the country knows. It was on the IStli of June that Hooker, who at that time still retained his command of the Army of Poto- mac, broke his camp on the Rappahannock, and moved after Lee in the direction of Washinsfton. General MulhoUand, then holdins: a command in Hancock's corps, thus describes the breaking up and the start on the long march : — WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 127 *' When on that lovely summer evening in June, 1863, we looked for the last time on Marj^e's Heights and the monu- ment of Washington's mother, which had been shattered and broken by the shells of both armies, and stood out there on the plain back of the city, as though protesting against this fratricidal strife, a mute and sorrowful Niobe weeping for the misfortunes of her children, every heart beat with a quick- ened throb, and all the men rejoiced to leave the scenes of the last six months. We withdrew from the line of the river after the shades of night had fallen over the landscape ; and it seemed to be an appropriate hour, for had not the great army, while here, been in shadow, without a ray of sunshine to gladden our souls ? and we had been here so long, we were beginning to be forgotten as the Army of the Potomac, and letters came to us marked, ' Army of the Rappahannock/ As we marched away in the darkness, our joy was not un- mingled with sorrow ; for was there a veteran in the ranks who did not leave behind the graves of noble and well- beloved comrades, who had fought beside him from the be- ginning of the great struggle? We did not march away with all the army. When our camp fires — which on this night burned with unusual brightness — went out and left the valley of the Rappahannock in darkness, the living army was gone, to be sure ; but twenty-five thousand of our members lay over on the other side of the river — the heroes of Fred- ericksburg and Chancellorsville : — an army of occupation, indeed ; the corps of honor, forming a great and permanent camp — the bivouac of the dead." General Hancock's corps held the position of rear guard, and its route to Gettysburg was over two hun- dred miles in length. Some days they marched fifteen, on others eighteen miles ; and on June 29 this corps completed the longest march made by any infantry 128 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF during the war, leaving Frederick City, Md., m the morning and halting at 11 o'clock at night two miles beyond Uniontown, a distance of thirty- four miles. This march was one of the severest as well as the longest of the war. "On one day," writes General Mulholland, " I tliink the second out from Falmouth, our corps lost more than a dozen men from sunstroke ; they fell dead by the wayside. On another day we crossed the battle-field of Bull Run, where the year before Pope had met with disastrous defeat. No effort had been made to bury the dead properly ; a little earth, which the rain had long ago washed away, had been thrown over them where they fell, and their bodies, or rather their skeletons, now lay exposed to view. In some parts of the field they were in groups, in other places singly, and in all possible positions. One cavalryman lay outstretched, with skeleton hand still grasping his trusted sword. Another, half-cov- ered with earth, the flesh still clinging to his lifeless bones, and hand extended as if to greet us. Wg rested for a short time on the field, and one of the regiments of our brigade (the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts) halted on the very spot on which they had fought the year previously, and recognized the various articles lying around as belonging to their own dead." Under the thorough discipline of General Hancock, the Second Corps made this march bravely, in the heat of the broiling sun of the hottest month of oui year ; each man with his load of fifty-seven pounds — musket, ammunition, knapsack, shelter-tent an^ blanket — and each anxious to keep up with his regi WINTIELD SCOTT HAIS'COCK. 129 ment lest he should lose the fight. And, such was the respect for the rights of civilians and of property, inspired in these raen by their gallant commander, that not an act of wantonness was committed on that weary advance. There is not an inhabitant on all that line of march, who can tell of a single act of vandalism by any of the men, such as we are wont to hear of other xrmies. In the rich and cultivated country through which they passed, life and property w^ere respected as much as though it were in the halcyon days of peace. Old and young came to the roadside to see the army pass, and knew they were safe from insult or molesta- tion. The fields of ripening grain waved untrampled when the corps had gone by, the men even going out of their way to avoid the gardens lest they should step upon the flowers. In this way Hancock brought up the rear of the Army of the Potomac, as it moved from the Kappa- hannock toward the then uncelebrated field of Gettys- bui'g. 130 LITE AND PUBLIC SEliVlCES OF CHAPTEK IX. Gettysburg. — The First Day. — Meade arrives at Taneytown, — The Advauce Guard strikes the Euemy. — ''For God's Sake send up Hancock." — Meade puts Hancock in command at the Front. — He arrives at the Critical Moment and Saves the Army. — He Selects the Battle-ground aud Disposes the Troops. — Meade Concentratea his Army for the Fight of the Second Day. Hais^cock was now marching, all unconscious of the fact, toward the field on which he, by the exercise of his soldierly qualities and skill, was to turn the fortunes of the great battle of the Rebellion in favor of the Union arms. For, with no derogation of the merits of the other brave men and skilful commanders who fous^ht through those terrible three days at Gettysburg, it is only just to Hancock to let the record show the fact that it was his magnetic presence which rallied the beaten and flying commands of Howard and Sickles, his skill which so disposed those forces as to hold the position against the Confederate army, and his clear foresight and quick decision, which marked out the battle-ground on which Meade's victory was to be won. The battle of Gettys])urg was not definitely foreseen or pre-arranged on either side. Lee was striking for Harrisburg ; Meade was hastening to intercept him, and had planned to give him battle on Pipe Creek. As Lee writes in his ofiicial report of the Gettysburg cam- paign ; "Preparations were now made to advance upon WINrriELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 131 Harrisburg ; but on the night of the 28th of June, information was received from a scout that the Federal army, having crossed the Potomac, was advancing northward, and that the head of the column had reached South Mountain. As our communications with the Potomac were thus menaced, it was resolved to prevent his further progress in that direction by concentrating our army on the east side of the mountains." While Lee was making this movement, the left wing of Meade's army, under General Reynolds, which was thrown forward in advance to serve as a mask while position was taken on Pipe Creek, came in contact with the van of the rebel General Hill's command on the morning of July 1, just outside the town of Gettys- burg. This accident determined the battle-field, and the result of the contest of that first day was to determine which side should have the choice in the disposition of troops, and consequently the advantage in the great struo:£cle between the o^rand armies. It was Hancock who was chosen to decide this in favor of the Union. Meade's headquarters, with the main body of his troops, was at Taney town, fourteen miles from Gettys- burg. There the rear guard, Hancock's corps, arrived, and was massed on the morning of July 1, 1863. The great battle had already begun at Gettysburg, and while Meade was consulting with Hancock, and explaining to him his plans for the expected battle, the force of the Confederate army was concentrating upon the devoted corps in advance. The gallant Reynolds had already 132 LIFE AND rUBLIC SERVICES OF fallen, and Buford, after making a wonderful resistance with his small force of cavalry against enormous hordes of infantry, had hastily scratched a despatch to Meade in the note-book of his signal officer : " For God's sake send up Hancock. Everything is going at odds, and we need a controlling spirit." Hancock was the " controlling spirit " and wise adviser to whom all turned when in danger. Meade at once sent him with orders to assume command of all the troops at Gettysburg, and to report upon its advantages as a field of battle. In his testimony before the com- mittee on the conduct of the war. General Meade says : — " About one or two o'clock in the day (July 1) I received information that the advance of my army, under Major-Gen- eral Reynolds of the First Corps, on their reaching Gettys- burg, had encountered the enemy in force, and that the First and Eleventh CorjDs were at that time engaged in a contest with such portions of the enemy as were there. " The moment I received this information, I directed Major- General Hancock, who was with me at the time, to proceed without delay to the scene of the contest, and make an exam- ination of the ground in the neighborhood of Gettysbmg, and to report to me the facilities and advantages or disad- vantages of that ground for receiving battle. I furthermore instructed him that in case, upon his arrival at Gett3'sburg, ho should find the position unsuitable, and the advantages on the side of the eneni}', he should examine the ground criti- cally as he went out there, and report to me the nearest posi- tion in the immediate neighborhood of Gettysburg, where a concentration of the army would be more advantageous than at Gettysburg." WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 133 Hardly had the news of the unexpected engagement reached General Meade's headquarters, when another cloud of dust was seen approaching on the road from Gettysburg. Out of it galloped another stall' officer, bringing the sad story of the death of Reynolds and carrying the urgent appeal from Buford to send on Hancock. General Meade says : -— " At one o'clock I received the sad intelligence of the fall of General Reynolds, and the actual engagement of my troops at Gettysburg. Previous to receiving this intelligence I had had a long consultation with General Hancock, and explained to him fully my views as to my determination to fight in front, if practicable ; if not, then to the rear or to the right or left, as circumstances might require. Anxious to have some one at the front who could carry out my views, I directed General Hancock to proceed to Gettysburg and take command of the troops there, and particularly to advise me of the condition of affairs there, and the practicability of fighting a battle there." It is a curious coincidence that, almost one hundred years before this eventful day, the grandfather of Gen- eral Hancock, an officer in Washington's army, was detailed to command the escort which left this same little village of Taney town, in charge of a company of prisoners taken from Burgoyne, to take them to Valley Forge. As there has been some controversy as to the fixct of who was in command at Gettysburg, and who saved the army — and thereby doubtless saved the country — by rallying the demoralized and flying columns and securmg the position for the battle of the following 134 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF day, the order of General Meade, under which Han- cock assumed command, is here given : — Headquarters Army of Potomac, > July 1, 18G3 — 1.10 p. M. ) Commanding Officer, Second Corps : The Major-General commanding has just been informed that General Reynolds has been killed or badly wounded. He directs you to tm^n over the command of 3'our corps to General Gibbon ; that 3'ou proceed to the front, and, by virtue of this order, in case of the tnith of General Rey- nolds's death, you assume command of the corps there assembled ; viz., the Eleventh, First, and Third at Emmetts- burg. If 3'ou think the ground and position there a better one to fight a battle under existing circumstances, 3'ou will so advise the General, and he will order all troops up. You know the General's views, and General Warren, who is fully aware of them, has gone out to see General Re^molds. Very respectfully. Your obedient servant, D. BUTTERFIELD, Major- General and Chief of Staff. To understand the importance of the trust thus placed in Hancock's hands, it must be understood that General Meade had already chosen a place for the expected battle, and that he left it absolutely to Han- cock's judgment whether his plans should be entirely changed. Also, General Meade, at this supreme moment, did not hesitate to place Hancock in com- mand over Howard, his senior. It was no time for etiquette. The fate of the army was at stake, and Hancock was everyw^here recognized as the one who WINPIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 135 could save it. On the point of superseding his two seniors, Howard and Sickles, General Hancock says : "I did not feel much embarrassment about it, because I was an older soldier than either of them. But I knew, legally, it was not proper, and if they chose to resist it, it might be a troublesome matter to me for the time being." The moment General Hancock received the above order, he turned over the command of his corps to General Gibbon and started with his staff for the bat- tle-field. As General Hancock proceeded to the front he rode part of the way in an ambulance, so that he might examine the maps of the country, his aid, Maj. W. G. Mitchell, galloping ahead to announce his coming to Howard, whom he found on Cemetery Hill, and to whom he told his errand, giving him to understand that General Hancock was coming up to take com- mand. At half-past three o'clock General Hancock rode up to General Howard, informed him that he had come to take command and asked him if he wished to see his written orders. Howard answered : " No ! no ! Han- cock, go ahead ! " At this moment our defeat seemed to be complete. Our troops were flowing through the streets of the town in great disorder, closely pursued by the Con- federates, the retreat fast becoming a rout, and in a very few minutes the enemy would be in possession of Cemetery Hill, the key to the position ; and the battle of Gettysburg would have gone into history as a rebel 136 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP victory. But what a change came over the scene in the next half-hour. The presence of Hancock, like that of Sheridan, was magnetic. Schwerin and Saxe were said to be worth each a reinforcement of ten thousand men to an army ; and the Duke of Wellington said the arrival of Napoleon on a battle-field was a better reinforcement to the French army than the accession of forty thousand fresh troops. What, then, shall we say of the value of General Hancock's arrival at the critical moment on the battle-field of Gettysburg, a battle that by common consent is now admitted to have decided the fate of the Union and fixed the final result of the war? Order came out of chaos. The flying troops halted and again faced the enemy. The battalions of Howard's corps, that were retreating down the Baltimore pike, were called back and with a cheer went into position on the crest of Cemetery Hill, where the division of Steinwehr had already been stationed. Wads worths division and a battery were sent to hold Gulp's Hill, and Geary, with the White Star division, went on the double-quick to occupy the high ground toward Bound Top. Confidence was restored, the enemy checked and, being deceived by these dispositions, ceased their attack. Hancock had saved the day. Swinton, describing the advent of Hancock and the turn of the tide of battle under the influence of his presence, says: — "At the time the confused throng was pouring through Gettysburg, General Hancock ar- rived on the o^round. In such an cmero^cncv it is the personal qualities of the commander alone that tell. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 137 If, happily, there is in him that mysterious but potent magnetism that calms, subdues, and inspires, there re- sults one of those sudden moral transformations that are among the marvels of the phenomena of battle. This quality Hancock possesses in a high degree, and his ap- pearance soon restored order out of seemingly hopeless confusion — a confusion which Howard, an efficient officer but of a rather negative nature, had not been able to quell. Nor, fortunately, could there be any question as to the right position to be taken up, for nature had already traced it out in a bold relief of rock. On the ridge of Gettysburg — the ridge Rey- nolds had mentally marked as he impetuously hurried forward to buffet the advancing enemy, and which, by the rich sacrifice of his life, he purchased for the pos- session of the army, and for the possession of history forever — Hancock disposed the remnants of the two corps." General Hancock was fully aware that General Meade had determined to fight the battle on the line of Pipe Creek ; but noting the topographical advantages of the ground around Gettysburg, he determined to advise General Meade to fight there. He knew that this line, the crest of Cemetery Eidge, with Gulp's Hill on the right, Eound Top on the left, and Cemetery Hill in the centre, could not be bettered. So, when order had taken the place of confusion and our lines were once more intact, he sent his senior aid, Major Mitchell, back to tell General Meade that he could hold the position un- til nightfall, and that in his judgment Gettysburg was the place to fight the battle. Major IMitchell found 138 LIFE AKD PUBLIC SERVICES OP General Meade in the evening, near Taneyiown, and communicated these views. General Meade listened attentively, and on these representations he fortunately concluded to abandon his idea of fis^htino: on the line of Pipe Creek, and deliver the battle at Gettysburg ; and turning to Gen. Seth Williams, his Adjutant- General, he said: "Order up all the troops; we will fight there." The Second Corps promptly followed General Han- cock, and required no urging to keep the men up. The regiments moved forward solidly and rapidly, and not a straggler was to be seen ; but as they hurried along a halt was ordered, the ranks opened, and an ambulance passed containing the body of the heroic Gen. John F. Reynolds. Then the corps pushed on to within a few miles of the battle-ground, where it camped that night and arrived on the field early the next morning. So it was that, on the first of the three memorable days of Gettysburg, Hancock was the means of chang- ing defeat and disaster into success ; and so it was that he designated the field on which the greatest and most momentous battle of the Union was to be fought. WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 139 CHAPTER X. Gettysburg. — The Second Day. — Hancock ia command at the Left Centre. — Sickles's Corps cut up. — Hancock to the Rescue. — The Absolution of the Irish Brigade. — Fight for the Ridge in front of the Wheat-field. — Hancock protects the Situation. — He holds the Line between Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top. After posting the troops, General Hancock turned over the command to General Slocum, his ranking offi- cer, who arrived in the evening. The morning of July 2d and the second day of the battle dawned clear and bright, and found Hancock posting the Second Corps on Cemetery Ridge. As yet no one in that corps, with the exception of the General and his staff, had heard a shot fired. As the troops approached Gettysburg the day before, the sounds of the fiofht, owinof to the direction of the wind or the formation of the country, were wholly inaudible. Those who came upon the field after nightfall had no idea of the whereabouts of the enemy ; but as the day- light increased and objects became visible, their lines were seen nearly a mile distant on Seminary Kidge, and away to the left rose Little Round Top, and still farther on Round Top. On that morning the entire Union army, except the corps of Sedgwick, had reached Gettysburg, and the whole Southern force, except Pickett's division and Longstreet's corps, had come up. The line of battle 140 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF formed by the army was in the shape of a Limerick fish-hook ; the head being Little Round Top, the point at Spangler's Spring, and the centre of the curve where the Second Corps lay, and where now repose the country's dead. This position of the Second Corps was the key to the whole line ; for, once broken, both wings of the army would be separated, if not de- stroyed. General Longstreet says, in his version of the battle of Gettysburg, that " the enemy did not see the value of Cemetery Ridge until the arrival of Hancock." The command of General Hancock on this day was the left centre, his Second Corps being posted in the rear as reserves. The battle did not really open until afternoon ; and when it opened, Hancock, who had devoted careful attention to the disposition of his troops, seemed to be everyivhere with them in the actual contest. About 4 o'clock, there was that sharp and persistent fighting on the left, into which Sickles's corps marched so bravely and in which it suffered so terribly. Han- cock was called on for aid, and he at once sent out one of his divisions, — General Caldwell's. The Irish brigade. Col. Patrick Kelly, which had been commanded formerly by Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, and whose green flag had been unfurled in every battle in which the Army of the Potomac had been engaged, from the first Bull Run to Appomattox, formed a part of this division. As the large majority of its members were Catholics, the chaplain of the brigade. Rev. William Corly, proposed to give a general absolution to all the men before going into WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 141 the fight. While this is customary in the armies of Catholic countries of Europe, it was perhaps the first time it was ever witnessed on this continent ; unless, indeed, the grim old warrior. Ponce de Leon, as he tramped through the everglades of Florida in search of the Fountain of Youth, or De Soto on his march to the Mississippi, indulged in this act of devo- tion. Father Corly stood upon a large rock in front of the brigade. Addressing the men, he explained what he was about to do, saying that each one could receive the benefit of the absolution by making a sincere act of contrition, and firmly resolving to embrace the first opportunity of confessing his sins ; urging them to do their duty well, and reminding them of the high and sacred nature of their trust as soldiers, and the noble object for which they fought ; ending by saying that the Catholic Church refuses Christian burial to the soldier who turns his back upon the foe or deserts his flag. The brig^ade was standins^ at " Order arms." As he closed his address every man fell on his knees with head bowed down. Then stretching his right hand toward the brigade, Father Corly pronounced the words of the absolution: — ^"^ Dominus noster Jesus Chrislus vos absolvat, et ego, auctoritate ipsius, vos ahsolvo ah omni vinculo excommunicationis et interdicti in quantum possum et vos indigetis, deinde ego ahsolvo vos a peccatis vestris in nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen." General MulhoUand, speaking of this occurrence, 142 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF says: — "The scene was more than impress! v^e ; it was awe-inspiring. Near by stood Hancock, surrounded by a brillant throng of officers who had gathered to witness this very unusual occurrence ; and while there was profound silence in the ranks of the Second Corps, yet over to the left, out by the peach orchard and Little Eound Top, where Weed and Vincent and Haslett were dying, the roar of the battle rose and swelled and re-echoed through the woods, making music more sub- lime than ever sounded through cathedral aisle. The act seemed to be in harmony with all the surround- ings. I do not think there was a man in the brigade who did not offer up a heartfelt prayer. For some it was their last ; they knelt there in their grave-clothes — in less than half an hour many of them were numbered with the dead of July 2. Who can doubt that their prayers were good? What was wanting in the elo- quence of the priest to move them to repentance was supplied in the incidents of the fight. That heart would be incorrigible, indeed, that the scream of a Whitworth bolt, added to Father Corly's touching appeal, would not move to contrition." The contest at this point was for the ridge in front of the wheat-field, a location known to ever}^ one of the many thousands in that fight as one of the bloodiest of the second day's contest. As Caldwell's division, in response to Hancock's orders, advanced to the relief of Sickles, approaching the crest of the rugged hill, from behind the huge bowlders that were ever3rvvhere scat- tered around, the men of Longstreet's corps rose up and poured into the Union ranks a most destructive WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 143 fire. The lines were not more than thirty feet apart "when the firing opened. Our men promptly returned the fire, and for ten or fifteen minutes the work of death went on. There was no cheering, no time lost in unnecessary movements. Every man there, both Union and rebel, was a veteran, and knew just what was wanted. They stood there face to face, loading and firing, and so close that every shot told. In a short time the bri;2:ades of Cross and Zook beiran forcing the enemy back, and after firing about ten minutes Colonel Kelly gave the order to charge. The men, rushing forward with a cheer, were among the Johnnies in a few moments. Here took place a rather extraordinary scene. In an instant our men and their opponents were mingled together. In charging they had literally run right in among them. Firing instantly ceased, and they found there were as many of the enemy as there were of themselves. Officers and men looked for a time utterly bewildered ; all the fighting had stopped, yet the Gray- backs still retained their arms, and showed no disposi- tion to surrender. At this moment a Union oflicer called out in a loud voice : " The Confederate troops will lay down their arms and go to the rear I " This ended a scene that was becomino^ embarrassinsr. The Confederates promptly obeyed, and a large number of Kershaw's brigade became our prisoners. Of this division, the brigades of Kelly and Zook were most unfortunate. By ill-fortune they found themselves surrounded, with one rebel line of battle in front and another behind, and the only way out of the 144 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF trap was to pass down between the two rebel lines. So the two brigades started on a double-quick, firing as they ran, toward the Little Eound Top, the only opening through which they could escape. Passing through this alley of death, where the bul- lets came thick as hail, they got away with a large part of the division ; but the loss was terrible. In the half- hour that they were under fire, fourteen hundred men were lost. Of the four brigade commanders, Cross fell almost at the first fire and Zook a few minutes afterward. On the morning of that day General Han- cock said to Colonel Cross : " This is the last time you will fight as a Colonel ; to-day will make you a Briga- dier-General." Cross answered, firmly and sadly, as thouijh he felt sure of what he said : " No ; it is too late. General ; I will never wear the star. To-day I shall be killed." The combat at this point, during the evening of July 2, was of a most sanguinary character, each side fight- ino^ with a dreadful earnestness. Four or five of our best divisions had charged over the same spot, and were met every time by the choice troops of the enemy — both determined to hold the ridae in front of the wheat- field. Until toward dark the fight had certainly gone against us, and the battle had extended along the line, to the right, almost half-way to the cemetery. The evening and our prospects grew dark together. The Third Corps had been driven back, broken and shat- tered, its commander wounded and carried from the field. The troops that had gone to its support fared no better, and every man felt that the situation was grave. WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 145 However, all was not yet lost. Meade had again thought of Hancock, and as the day before he sent him to stop the rout of the First and Eleventh Corps, so again he ordered him to assume command on the left. Once more he was in the fight. A half-hour of daylight yet remained, but it was long enough to enable him to rally some of our scattered troops, face them once more to the front, gather reinforcements, drive back the enemy, and restore our broken lines. Few of our troops slept during this night. The Second Corps went back and was put in position on Cemetery Ridge by General Hancock, who all the night long labored to strengthen this line. The men gathered rocks and fence-rails, and used them to erect a light breastwork. This closed the second day of the great battle ; and Hancock, who had saved the army by his presence on the 1st of July, had saved the critical position on the 2d. On the fall of Sickles, he had assumed command of the Third Corps as well as the Second, placing the latter under the immediate orders of General Gib- bon, and established his headquarters well up to the front, midway between Cemetery Eidge and Little Eound Top. 146 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER XI. Gettysburg.— The Third Day.— The Storm of Fire.— Hancock's Wonderful Deed of Valor. — His Ride from Left to Right of the Lino aud back again. — The Final Desperate Assault of the Confederates. — Hancock Beats Them Back. — Struck Down in the Moment of Victory. — But He Saved the Day. — Thanks of Congress. At the first gray dawn of the morning of July 3, the fight was resumed on Gulp's Hill, where the Confeder- ates had efiected a lods^ment the niirht before ; and as the day advanced, the artillery joined in, and the battle at that point became earnest. It was not until nine o'clock that the cessation of the firinsf and the cheers of General Geary's men gave notice all down the line that the enemy had been driven out, and that we were again in possession of that point. Then came a perfect calm. All along Hancock's line, from Cemetery Hill to Ivound Top, not a shot had been fired that morninor. The fate of battle had reserved Hancock to bear the terrible brunt of the final desperate assault on which was to depend the result of the battle, and to gloriously repulse it. But the quiet was soon to be broken. About noon there could be seen from Hancock's line considerable activity among the Confederates along Seminary Ridge. Battery after battery appeared along the edge of the woods. Guns were unlimbered, phiced in position and the horses taken to the rear. On our side oificers sat WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 147 around in groups, and, through field-glasses, anxiously watched these movements in their front, and wondered what it all meant. Shortly after one o'clock, however, they knew all about it. The headquarters wagons had just come up, and General Gibbon had invited Han- cock and staff to partake of some lunch. The bread that was handed around — if it ever was eaten — was consumed without butter ; for as the orderly was passing the latter article to the gentlemen, a shell from Semi- nary Ridge cut him in two. Instantly the air was filled with bursting shells ; the batteries that had been for the last two hours getting into position did not open singly or spasmodically. The whole hundred and twenty guns, which now began to play upon our lines, seemed to be discharged simul- taneously, as though by electricity. And then for nearly two hours the storm of death went on. One who was present under this fire fhus describes it : "No tongue or pen can find language strong enough to convey any idea of its awfiilness. The air was full of missiles ; streams of shot and shell screamed and hissed everywhere ; it seemed as though nothing could live under that terrible fire. Men and horses were torn limb from limb ; caissons exploded one after another in rapid succession, blowing the gunners to pieces. The infantry hugged the ground closely, and sought every slight shelter that the light earthworks afibrded. It was literally a storm of shot and shell, like the fall of raindrops or the beat of hailstones. Those whu had taken part in every battle of the war never had seen an}i;hing like that cannonade, and the oldest soldiers 148 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF began to be uneasy about the result. Hundreds and thousands were stricken down ; the shri oks of animals and screams of wounded men were appalling ; still the awful rushing sound of flying missiles went on, and apparently never would cease." It was then, when the firmest hearts had begun to quail, the army witnessed one of the grandest sights ever beheld by any army on earth, — a deed of heroism such as we are apt to attribute only to the knights of the olden time. Suddenly the band began to play "The Star-Spangled Banner," and Hancock, mounted, and accompanied by his stafi*, Maj. W. G. Mitchell, Capt. Harry Bingham, Capt. Isaac Parker, and Capt. E. P. Bronson, with the corps flag flying in the hands of a brave Irishman, Private James Wells, of the Sixth New York Cavalry, started at the right of his line, where it joins the Taneytown road, and slowly rode along the terrible crest in front of the line, to the extreme left of his position, while shot and shell roared and crashed around him, and every moment tore great gaps in the ranks at his side. The soldiers held their breath, expecting every moment to see him fall from his horse pierced by a dozen bullets. It was a gallant deed, and, withal, not a reckless exposure of life ; for the presence and calm demeanor of the commander, as he passed through the lines of his men, set them an example which an hour later bore good fruit, and nerved their stout hearts to win the greatest and most decisive battle ever fought on this continent. Every soldier felt his heart thrill as he witnessed the magn icent courage of his General, WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 149 and he resolved to do something that day which would equal it in daring. There could be no fitter subject for the heroic ballad than this incident, which has thus been told : — "A hundred guns — yes, fifty more — Rained down their shot and shell As if, from out its yawning door, Drove the red blast of heU. The hiss ! the crash ! the shriek ! the groan ! The ceaseless iron hail ! All this for half the day. I own It made the stoutest quail " But sudden, far to left, we heard The band strike up : and lo ! Full in our front — no breath was stirred — Came Hancock, riding slow. As slow as if on dress-parade. All down the line to right And back again. By my good blade, Was ever such a v^ight ? " We lay at length. No ranks could stand Against that tempest wild ; Yet on he rode, with hat in hand. And looked, and bowed, and smiled. Whatever fears we had belbre Were gone That sight, you know, Just made us fifty thousand more, All hot to lace the foe. ** You've heard the rest How on they came ; Earth shaking at their tread ; A cheer ; our ranks burst into flame ; Steel crossed ; the foe had fled. Yet still that dauntless form I see, Slow riding down the line. Was ever deed of chivalry So grand, oh, comraae mine?'* 150 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP Just as Hancock reached the left of his line, the rebel batteries ceased to play, and their infantry, eighteen thousand strong, were seen emerging from the woods and advancing up the hill. Hancock knew the artillery fire had been intended to demoralize his men, and cover the advance of their infantry, which was to make the real attack. Turning his horse, he rode slowly up his line from left to right, holding his hat in his hand, bowing and smiling to the troops as they lay flat on the ground. Hardly had he reached the right of the line when the men, who, inspired by the courage of their General, could now hardly restrain themselves, received orders to attack the advancing rebels. Eighty of his guns then opened their brazen mouths ; solid shot and shell were sent on their errand of de- struction in quick succession. They could be seen to fall in countless numbers among the advancing troops. The accuracy of the fire could not be excelled ; the missiles struck rio:ht in the ranks, tearino^ and rendinor them in every direction. The ground over which they had passed was strewn with dead and wounded. But, on they came, with bayonets flashing, and standards gayly flapping in the wind, marching steadily across the interval. The distance was nearly a mile, too great to double-quick, and those lines of gray moved on in common time, but with a steadiness and precision seldom equalled. The gaps in their ranks were closed as soon as made. General Mulholland, in describing this charge, pays this merited compliment to the bravery of the Southern troops : " Our gunners now load with canister, and the WESTFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 151 effect is appalling; but still they march on. Their gallantry is past all praise ; it is sublime. Now they are within a hundred yards. Our infantry rise up and pour round after round into these heroic troops. At Waterloo the Old Guard recoiled before a less severe fii*e. But there was no recoil in these men of the South ; they marched right on as though they courted death." At the objective point of the Confederate attack was but a single line of men, two ranks, with no reserves in sight ; and as the men stood there in one feeble but undaunted line, each man felt that he must die in his tracks if necessary, as a break in the line would cause a defeat of the army. As the enemy came nearer, they grew more excited ; and inspired by their officers and the hopes of an easy victory, they started on the run, filling the air with their peculiar yells. But when they reached a point where musket-firing became effective, the veterans of the Peninsula, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancel- lorsville poured in upon them such a volley as to stag- ger them and throw them into confusion. This was followed by a rapid fire that caused them to fall back. Pettigrew followed Pickett, and when his division came in range he received like treatment ; but the enemy were so persistent that they actually obtained a foothold upon the Union line, and in some places hand-to-hand fights took place. General Hancock was everywhere, exposed to dan- ger and cheering the men by his presence. He detected the exposed position of the left flank of Petti- 152 LIFE AKD PUBLIC SEKVICES OF grew's division, and caused a flank movement that re- sulted in the capture of many prisoners and several stand of colors. The terrible assault was beaten back, and the battle was won. A few of the Confederates here and there ran away and tried to regain their lines 5 but many laid down their arms and came in as prison- ers. Of that attacldng force, five thousand men sur- rendered to Hancock's troops, and thirty stand of colors were gathered up in front of the Second Corps. It was then, in the supreme moment of triumphant battle, that Hancock fell, among his men, at the front, on the line of Stannard's Vermont brigade. He was seen to reel in his saddle, and was helped to the ground — but not to the rear. " Shall we not carry you to the rear. General ? " in- quired Colonel Vesey, who was near him. "No, I thank you, Colonel," said Hancock, waving his hand, even in pain, with the grace for which he was noted. "Attend to your commands, gentlemen; I will take care of myself." So he remained and continued to direct the fight until victory was secured. Then he sent Major Mitchell to General Meade, with the following mes- sage : — " The troops under my command have repulsed the enemy's assault, and we have gained a great vic- tory. The enemy is now flying in all directions in my front." The aid, in delivering this message, added the information, of which General Meade was then i^^no- rant, that General Hancock was desperately wounded. General Meade sent back the following reply : " Say to General Hancock that I am sorry he is wounded, and WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 153 that I thank him, for the country and for myself, for the service he has rendered to-day." For such services no thanks and no reward coukl be adequate. Congress, by joint resolution, three years later, thanked General Hancock for his "gallant, meritorious, and conspicuous share in that great and decisive victory;" but the country will never forget how much it owed the salvation of the Union to his services on that field. 154: LIPE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP CHAPTER Xn. After Gettysburg. — General Meade's Report. — Hancock's Fight " Terminated the Battle." — His Opinion of the Battle and its Results. — Hancock's Wound. — The Surgeon's Story. — His Jour- ney Home. — Invalid Soldiers carry him on their Shoulders to hia Father's Plouse. — At ''Longwood" with his Family. — He Re- turns to Duty. — Recruiting the Second Corps. — Honors to Han- cock in Northern Cities. The battle of Gettysburg decided the war for the Union ; Hancock decided the battle of Gettysburg. General Meade, in his official report of this battle, says of the part taken by Hancock on this last decisive day :— *' An assault was made with great firmness, directed prin- cipall}^ against the point occupied by the Second Corps, and was repelled with equal firmness by the troops of that corps, supported by Doubleda3''s division and Stannard's brigade of the First Corps. During this assault, both INIajor-General Hancock, commanding the left centre, and Brigadier-General Gibson, commanding the Second Corps, were severely wounded. "This terminated the battle, the enemy retiring to his Hues, leaving the field strewn with his dead and wounded, and numerous prisoners in our hands." History has given General Hancock his due as the ** directing mind" which, on the first day of the battle evolved order out of confusion among the broken and WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 155 flying troops of Meade's advance and placed the army in the position where it could fight and win the great battle of the war ; as the prompt and sagacious com- mander who on the second day saved the key of the battle-field to the Union army ; and as the valiant fighter who, by his personal bravery, inspired his troops to repel the culminating assault on the third and last day, and win the battle for the Kepublic. General Meade appreciatively said : " No commanding general ever had better lieutenant than Hancock. He was always faithful and reliable." Twelve years later. General Hancock wrote thus generously of his comrades in the battle of Gettys- burg : — "As the terrible contest at Gettj^sburg contributed in its results probably more than any other battle of the war to the maintenance of the Union in its integrity, so, far above pri- vate interests or individual reputations, rises the great renown won on that field by the grand old Army of the Potomac. "Cemetery Hill has since become consecrated ground. The place where General Howard was superseded in com- mand on the first day of the fight is now covered with the graves of thousands of gallant soldiers whose bones lie buried at tlie base of the beautiful monumental column which commemorates their fame. Two of the marble statues orna- menting the pedestal personify War and History. War, symbolized by a soldier resting from the conflict, narrates to History' the story of the struggle, and the deeds of the martyr- heroes who fell in that famous battle. In remembrance of those noble comrades who laid down their Uves for the gen- eral weal, it were simply sacrilege for any survivor to pour into the ears of History an incorrect account of the contest ; 156 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP still more to assume to himself honors belonging perhaps less to the living than to the dead. '• " The historian of the future who essays to tell the tale of Gettysburg undertakes an onerous task, a high responsibility, a sacred trust. Above all things, justice and truth should dwell in his mind and heart. Then, dipping his pen as it were in the crimson tide, the sunshine of heaven lighting his page, giving 'honor to whom honor is due,' doing even justice to the splendid valor alike of friend and foe, he may tell the world how rain descended in streams of fire, and the floods came in billows of rebellion, and the winds blew in blasts of fraternal execration, and beat upon the fabric of the Federal Union, and that it fell not ; for, resting upon the rights and liberties of the people, it was founded upon a rock." The scene of the repulse of Longstreet's grand charge by Hancock was indescribable. In front of the line of the Second Corps the dead lay in great heaps. Dismounted guns, ruins of exploded caissons, dead and mutilated men and horses were piled up together in every direction. The colonel of one of Pickett's regi- ments lay dead, his arms clasping the body of his brother, who was major of his regiment. They were singularly handsome men, and greatly resembled each other. Out on the field where Longstreet's corps had passed, thousands of wounded were lying. There was no means of reaching these poor fellows, and many of them lay there between the lines until the morning of the 5th. Many noble officers and men were lost on both sides, and in the camp hospital they died by hundreds during the afternoon and nis^ht. The rebel General Armistead died in this way. As he was being carried to the rear WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 157 he was met by Capt. Harry Bingham, of Hancock's staff, who, gettmg off his horse, asked Iiim if he could do anything for him. Armistead requested him to take his watch and spurs to General Hancock, that they misrht be sent to his relatives. His wishes were com- plied with, General Hancock sending them to his friends the first opportunity. Armistead was a brave soldier, with a most chivalric presence, and came for- ward in front of his brigade, waving his sword. He was shot through the body and fell inside of our lines. All the next day, July 4, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the army lay quiet, awaitino: events. On the mornins: of the 5th the enemy had disappeared. Meantime Hancock had been taken to the hospital and his wound treated as well as possible. It was a terrible stroke. Dr. Alexander N. Dougherty was Medical Director of the Second Corps at that time, and he tells the story in this way : — "When General Hancock succeeded General Conch as commander of the old Second Corps, I became his Medical Director. At the battle of Gettysburg he commanded the First, Second, and Third Corps, one-half of the army. In the third day's fight at Gettysburg he was wounded, and I was sent for. I found him lying on the hill-slope, under a tree, and facing the enemy. There was a deep, wide gash in his leg, near the groin. In the wound were wood splinters and a tenpenny nail. General Hancock was anxious to know what the rebels were using in their shells. He thought he had been wounded by splinters from one of the cnem3''s shells. We put him into an ambulance, and I lay down be- side him. Then we drove thi'ough a hot fire to mj- hospital. 158 LITE AKD PUBLIC SERVICES OF Afterward I discovered that a bullet had penetrated his sad- dle, and then lodged in his thigh, carrying with it the wood splinters and the tenpenny nail. As he lay in the hospital in great pain, I, at his dictation, wrote his first despatch to General Meade announcing the victor}^ won at Gettysburg, adding to the despatch that the defeat would be turned into a rout. He was calm, patient, and heroic. He is equally entitled with Meade to the honor of the Adctorj^ at Gettys- burg, and Meade would say so if he were alive. On the night of the second day's battle a council of war was held. It was proposed to fall back and establish the line of battle at Pipe Creek, but Hancock opposed it. He argued that the arm}^ should stay where it was, and he said that the Army of the Potomac had made its last retreat, and should fight or die on the line where the battle was begun. General Meade finall}^ coincided with Hancock, and the result was that that great victory crippled the rebels so that they never recovered from it." General Hancock went home on sick leave, wounded nio^h unto death. The ball which tore throuG^h his sad- die and made that cruel wound in liis thic:h could not be found by the surgeons, and it was still in his body when he went back to Norristown. He travelled as easily as possible, although every movement was torture to his shattered limb. A stretcher was laid over the backs of the seats of the railway car, and thus he rode into his native town. Arrived at the station in Norristown, he w^as met by a detachment of the Invalid Guards, who tenderly placed him on their shoulders, lying on the stretcher, and car- ried him through the streets to his father's house, his boyhood's home. WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 159 It was a deeply moving sight. The bright and fun- loving boy of seemingly a few years ago was brought home a wounded hero, borne on the shoulders of the men whom he had led in battle for their country. The doorways and windows were crowded as the little cor- tege passed, and people did not cheer, but spoke with voices hushed in sympathy. General Hancock looked like a dying man when he was brought home to Norristown, and his parents and his old friends were oppressed with the gloomiest fore- bodings of the future. As has been said, the ball was still in his body. The surgeons at the army hospital had probed for it while the General lay in a recumbent posture ; but one day the family physician who attended him in Norristown had a bright idea and asked the General to place him- self as nearly as he could in the position which he occupied on his horse wdien he was hit. The General straddled a chair and did so, and the doctor pushed the probe in easily and found the ball. It was lodged close upon the bone, which was more or less splintered. The work of extracting the ball was then easy ; and when this was done General Hancock's recovery, though slow, was steady. Indeed, early in September, hardly more than two months after he received the wound on the bloody field of Gettysburg, General Hancock was able to leave Norristown and travel toward his Vv^estern home, where he had left his wdfe and children. He travelled by easy stages, for his wound was troublesome j but always his chief thought Tvas how 160 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF he mi2:ht return to the field and enoraire as^ain in the work that still needed the hands of patriots. At New York we find him writing home for certain military documents to be forwarded to him. At West Point he stopped for consultation. It was a tedious and painful journey, but it was lightened by the enthusiastic receptions which awaited the wounded hero at every tarrying place. Every one joined to do him honor ; public attention welcomed him on every side. As soon as possible he reached his family at his home near St. Louis, which he had named "Lonijwood." He tells in a letter home how his recovery progressed ; — LoNGwooD, Mo., Oct. 12, 1863. My Dear Father : — I threw aside my crutches a few days after in}^ arrival, and now walk with a cane. I am improving, but do not j^et walk without a little " roll." My wound is still unhealed, though the doctors say it is closing rapidly. I find some uneasiness in sitting long in a chair, and cannot j'et ride. The bone appears to be injui-ed and may give me trouble for a long time. I hope, however, I may be well enough in two weeks to join m}^ corps. I am busy in trimming up the forest trees in the lawn of *' Longwood," which covers nearly eleven acres. I know it is not the best time, but still it will do. Alice and the children send their best love to you and mother. Please give my best love to mother, and I remain, as ever, Yom* affectionate son, AViNFiELi) S. Hancock. But General Hancock was compelled to hold liis eager WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 161 soul in the leash of patience some time longer. His commission as Major in the regular army came Nov. 3, 1863, but still he was too feeble to return to duty. His spirit chafed under this restraint, and although the Army of the Potomac, with his own gallant Second Corps, was engaged during the ; ummer and fall in what was termed a campaign of manoeuvres, with no dis- tinocuishinof battles, he lonsfed to be with them. It was not until December, 1863, that he was able to enter active service again. He was then ordered to Washington ; and although his Gettysburg wound was not healed, he obeyed with alacrity, reporting to the War Department, Dec. 27. The army then being in winter quarters. General Hancock was sent on recruiting duty. Although the Confederacy was on its last legs, it still had vitality, and its leaders were persistent in their struggle for Southern independence. So Hancock was given author- ity to increase his corps to fifty thousand efiective men, and was sent north to stir up the patriotism of the people and induce enlistments. His headquarters were established at Harrisburg, and he immediately set to work in his native State, issuing the following address under date of Jan. 15, 1864 : — To THE People of Pennsylvania : I have come among yoa as a Pennsylvanian, for the pur- pose of endeavoring to aid 3'ou in stimulating enlistments. This is a matter of interest to all the citizens of the State. I earnestly call upon you all to assist, by the exertion of all the influence in jour power, in this important matter. To adequately reinforce our armies in the field is to insure 162 LITE AISD PUBLIC SERVICES OP that the war will not reach youi' homes. It will be the means of bringing it to a speedy and happy conclusion. It will save the lives of many of our brave soldiers which would be other- wise lost by the prolongation of the war, and in indecisive battles. It is only necessary to destroy' the rebel armies now in the field, to insure a speedy and permanent peace. Let us all act with that fact in view. Let it not be said that Penns3^1vania, which has already given so many of her sons to this righteous cause, shall now, at the eleventh hour, be behind her sister States in furnishing her quota of the men deemed necessary to end this rebellion. Let it not be that those Penns3'lvania regiments, now so de- pleted, that have won for themselves so much honor in the field, shall pass out of existence for want of patriotism in the people. WiNFiELD S. Hancock, Major-General U. S. Volunteers, Hancock was pre-eminently the man for the work to which he was set. Bravest among the brave, loyal to the core, wearing already the wreath of victor won in the hardest battle, a stanch Democrat, a soldier who carried a yet unhealed wound on his person, and, beyond all, possessed of that magnetic power which leads men captive, he had a success which few others could have achieved in recruitino^ the waninsf streno^th of the Union Army. Philadelphia tendered him a public reception, placing the historic Independence Hall at his service in a special vote of thanks and welcome by the Select and Common Councils of the city government. The city of New York placed the governors room, in the City Hall, at , WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 163 his disposal for the same purpose, and received him with great distinction. At Albany, the Legislature paid him an official tribute of respect for his distin- guished services to the country. In Boston, the Legis- lature, which was then in session, invited him upon the floor of the House, and a public reception was given him by the merchants and citizens at the Merchants' Exchange. The people then, as now, looked up to him as one of their heroes. 164 LIFE Aia> PUBLIC SERVICES or CHAPTER Xin. The "Wilderness. — Grant takes Command of all the Armies. — The Army of the Potomac crosses the Rapilaa. — Hancock Leads the Advance. — The Two Days' Fight in the Wilderness. — The Story of One of the gallant Second Corps. — Hancock leads the Charge against Longstreet's Men over the Breastworks. It was March of the year 18G4 when Hancock was again called to take command of the corps which ho had so valiantly and effectively led, and which he had so efficiently recruited. On the 2d of that month, Grant had been confirmed in the grade of Lieutenant- General, and on the 10th he had been assigned, by a special order of President Lincoln, to the command of "all the armies of the United States." The Army of the Potomac had been recruited up to a high standard, largely through the efibrts of General Hancock, and the Union and Confederate forces lay facing each other along the Papidan. On the 18th of March General Hancock, still actively engaged in recruiting his corps at Harrisburg, Penn., wrote to his father : " I have just received an order from the Secretary of War to report without delay to him for instructions prior to rejoining my command in the field. I have but time to notif}^ you of the fact." With this modest announcement Hancock set out on the campaign that was to end the war of Rebellion. The Second Corps, Hancock's old command, was still WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 1G5 further augmented by the addition of the gallant Third Corps, making in all upwards of fifty thousand men, beside which the General had under his command part of the Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Corps, — an army of veterans, tried by fire. Grant had in the Army of the Potomac, as reorganized, a movable column of about one hundred and forty thousand men ; while against him was Lee, holding Richmond, with an army whose rolls at this time showed only fifty-two thousand six hundred and twenty-six men of all arms. The horn- had come in which the Eebellion could be crushed. On the od of May the order went forth that the Army of the Potomac should launch forth on its great ad- venture. Lee's army occupied the blufis that skirt the south bank of the Rapidan for many miles. It was a position impregnable to direct assault, and Grant's plan was to cross the river by the lower fords and turn the right of the Confederate army. Hancock's corps left Culpepper Court-House on the night of the 3d of May, leading the advance in the post of honor w^hich was eminently his due. They crossed Ely's Ford on the morning of the 4th, advancing to Chancellors ville, and bivouacking that night on the old battle-ground, where, one year before, they had fought a losing fight, though a brave one, under Hooker. On the following day. May 5, the long fight began, which has gone into history with the name of the Battle of the AYilderness. Hancock who took the advance of the left column, pushed on far ahead, and was able to secure and hold a strategic point on the Orange plank road, which the Confederate General Hill endeavored 166 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP to capture. About four o'clock in the afternoon, the attack was made in the midst of the dense growth which gave that country its name of the " Wilderness." The fight at once grew very fierce, the opposing forces beins^ very close together, and the musketry continuous and deadly along the whole line. In his report of this battle, Lee makes mention of " Hancock's repeated and desperate assaults." In his own report, Hancock speaks of the close and deadly character of the combat, and has a special word to say of the Irish brigade, under Colonels Smythe and Brooks, which "attacked the enemy vigorously on his right, and drove his line some distance." " The Irish brigade," says Hancock, further, "was heavily engaged, and although four-fifths of its numbers were recruits, it behaved with great steadiness and gallantry, losing largely in killed and wounded." Hancock continued his efforts to drive Hill until eight o'clock, when night shut down on the darkening woods and ended the struggle. The combatants lay on their arms, exhausted after the fierce struggle, and many corpses in the tangled brakes and bushes told of the bloody work done that day. Thus was the battle of the AVilderness opened. It was fought in a country whose natural features were peculiarly disadvantageous for the movements of an army. The whole face of the country was thickly wooded, with only an occasional opening, and inter- sected by a few narrow wood-roads. But the woods of the Wilderness did not have the ordinary features of a forest. The rescion is one of mineral rocks, and for more than a hundred years extensive iron mining had WIKFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 167 been carried on there. To feed the mines, the timber of the country for many miles around had been cut down, and in its place there had arisen a dense under- growth of low-limbed and scraggy pines, stiff and bristling chincapins, scrub-oaks and hazel. Swinton, in describing the theatre of what he justly calls this singular and terrible combat, says, : " It is a region of gloom and the shadow of death. Manoeuvring here was necessarily out of the question, and only Indian tactics told. The troops could only receive direction by a point of the compass ; for not only were the lines of battle entirely hidden from the sight of the commander, but no officer could see ten files on each side of him. Artillery was wholly ruled out of use ; the massive concentration of three hundred guns stood silent, and only an occasional piece or section could be brought into play in the roadsides. Cavalry was still more useless. But in that horrid thicket there lurked two hundred thousand men, and through it lurid fires played ; and, though no array of battle could be seen, there came out of its depths the crackle and roll of musketry, like the noisy boiling of some hell-cauldron that told the dread story of death." Hancock was also to bear the brunt of the battle on the following day. Both armies were awake early to assume the ofiensive. And when, at five o'clock, Han- cock opened the attack on the enemy in his front, he overpowered the Confederates, and, after an hour's severe contest, the whole hostile front was carried, and the enemy driven a mile and a half through the woods, under heavy loss, back on the Confederates' headquar- 1G8 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF ters. Longstreet's arrivjil alone saved Lee's army from litter and complete defeat at that time. Indeed, the tables were nearly turned ; for a fire in the woods, creeping up towards the breastwork of logs, behind which one of Hancock's division w^as placed, set the works ablaze, and drove the smoke and flame back upon the men with such fury, that they were unable to fn^c over the parapet, and the enemy, pressing forward, planted their standard on the breastworks. Then it was that Hancock in person led the assault of his gallant corps and drove out the invaders w^th a rush. One of those who fought under Hancock m the Wil- derness, describes this battle : — " The fighting of the battle of the Wilderness commenced, as YOU remember, on May »5, 1864. Om- combined troops, known as the Second Corps, were given a central position, with a plank road to protect. The Fifth Corps was on om* right, and the Sixth on the left. For three days, until the 8th, our positions remained unchanged. On that day there was little fighting in front of us, and there was no evidence that we would be disturbed. But General Hancock's fore- sight on this occasion, as on many others, did not assert itself in vain. All day long, under his orders, we were bus}' in intrenching ourselves. During the day General Sedgwick, of the Fifth Corps, came riding along with his staff and saw us at work. " ' What in the hell are you doing there?' he said, in his brusque way. " ' I am expecting an assault,' replied Hancock. " ' But there will be none,' Sedgwick answered ; ' the fight- ing will be over there on the right.' '' ' That may be,' replied Hancock, quietly, ' but I'm going to be ready/ WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 1G9 *' ' What cau 3'ou do with a single corps?' persisted Sedg- wick ; ' if the rebels come here they will bring their whole arm3\' " ' Well,' said General Hancock, ' let them come. 1 am going to hold this road.' '' It seemed to me that the whole rebel arm}^ did come. About four o'clock that ver}^ day, Hill's and Longstreet's corps were massed against us and fought for three hours. We were almost driven out of our position. Many of our troops had already turned to run, and defeat seemed imminent. But we finally rallied, and stopped the advancing enem}'. A few moments more and tlie gray coats were in turn retreating. " Over our works went Hancock, leading the pursuit, and we following him closel3\ We drove them about a mile and a half back, into the very centre of their position. That was the close of the battle of the Wilderness. That nisht the Confederate army retreated to Spottsylvania. "Hancock on that day was here, there, and everywhere, directing our movements. I don't know how he ever came to expect that attack ; but he was ready. I suppose it was his wonderful foresight. Ail da}^ long he hurried us, and was continuall}^ warning us that the earthworks would not be completed in time to protect us." This practically ended the battle of the Wilderness. Hancock, as usual, had occupied the post of danger and of honor ; he had driven the enemy before him, bad suffered severely, and had wrested success out of the jaAvs of defeat by one of those superb exhibitions of personal valor which add such brilliancy to his grand military genius. When the third day, May 7, dawned, neither army cared to take the initiative, and a cavalry combat at 170 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF Todd's Farm was the only incident. Tens of thousands of dead and wounded, in bhie and in gray, lay in the thick woods. The Union loss exceeded fifteen thou- sand ; the Confederates lost about eight thousand. Such was the cruel ending of this strange and horrible battle, which no man could see, whose progress could be fol- lowed only by the ear as the sharp and crackling vol- leys of musketry, and the alternate Union cheer and Confederate yell, told how the fight surged and swelled. But Hancock still held his advanced position. Lee had lost Longstreet, dangerously wounded by the fire of his own men, and Grant determined to go on toward Richmond. Hancock pushed forward his advance on Sunday, May 8, and the entire line followed. WINTIELD SCOTT HAJ^COCK. 171 CHAPTER XIY. Spottsylvania. — Hancock fights the Battle of the Po. — General Sedgwick's Death. — The Bloodiest Battle of the War. — Hancock Takes and Holds the Famous '* Salient Angle." — "A Morning Call " on General Johnson. — Hancock's Ketort. — Accounts of the Spott- sylvania Fight by Eye-witnesses. Grant's purpose was to move southward from the Wilderness and plant himself between Lee's army and Richmond by a movement upon Spottsylvania Court- House, fifteen miles distant. But Lee was too quick for him, and on Monday, May 9, the Confederates had taken possession of Spottsylvania Court-House, planted their army across Grant's line of march, and drawn up on Spottsylvania Ridge a bulwark of defence where, for twelve days, they were able to hold in check the Army of the Potomac. This army was all brought into position on the 9th, and although no engagement occurred, the enemy's sharp-shooters brought down an illustrious victim in the person of General Sedgwick, commanding the Sixth Corps, who was shot while standing on the breastworks along his line, and almost instantly expired. These sharpshooters were perched in the forest- trees above the heads and out of sisrht of the Union skirmishers, and played havoc along our line. One who stood by General Sedgwick when he fell, describes the scene : — 172 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF * ' A little hum of leaden bees about the advanced liue of breastworks caused the soldiers to dodge and duck their heads. The General smiled at them good-naturedly ; he had a winning smile. Finally one bee hummed so near a poor Irishman's auricle that he dropped down upon his face. Gen- eral Sedgwick touched him with his foot in humorous dis- dain : ' Pooh, pooh, man ! Who ever heard of a soldier dodging a bullet ! Why, they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance ! ' There was a laugh at this, even though the straggling bees yet hummed unpleasantly around. The Gen- eral was still smiling over the banter, when Colonel McMahon heard the buzz of a bullet culminate in what seemed an explosion close beside him. ' That must have been an ex- plosive bullet. General.' No answer. But as the face of General Sedgwick slightly turned toward the beloved officer at his side, a curious, sad, not despairing, but almost con- tented smile was upon it. Another moment, and the form of the General fell helplessly backward. It was caught by Colonel McMahon as it fell. A ball had entered the face just below the left eye, pierced the brain, and passed out at the back of the head. He never spoke afterward, though he breathed softly for awhile." Durinof the afternoon Hancock was directed to make a movement across the Eiver Po for the purpose of capturing a Confederate wagon-train ; where, on the following day, having been recalled to assist in an attack on another position, Hancock repulsed a despe- rate assault of the enemy. During the beat of the contest, the woods in the rear of the troops, between them and the river, took fire ; and in the midst of these appalling perils, with a fierce foe in front and a blazing forest behind, Hancock not only repelled the enemy, WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 173 but conducted his command across the river. Here he lost the first gun that the Second Corps had ever abandoned on the field. It was left behind in con- sequence of being sunk in a marsh. Hot work awaited Hancock on his return. The hill which he was to assault, in conjunction with Warren's corps, was, as he states in his report, the most formid- able point along the enemy's whole front. Its densely wooded crest was crowned with earthworks, while the approach, which was swept by artillery and musketry fire, was rendered more difficult and hazardous by a heavy growth of cedars, — mostly dead, — the long, bayonet-like branches of which, interlaced and pointing in all directions, presented an almost impassable barrier to the advance of a line of battle. Hancock led the assault at five o'clock in the afternoon ; and althousfh he returned again and again to the attack, and the men even entered the enemy's breastworks at one or two points, the task was an impossible one. Finding that he could not succeed against Lee's left, Grant resolved to make a sudden sally against his right centre, and Hancock's corps was again chosen to lead the way, the rest of the army in support. On the night of May 11, Hancock moved his men into position ; and at half-past four o'clock the next morning, as soon as the faint dawn permitted the direc- tion of advance to be seen through thick fog which prevailed, he moved forward. He advanced by the compass, no landmarks being visible in the fog and the thicket, and without firing a shot captured the Con- federate pickets. Then, taking the double-quick, the 174 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF troops, with a ringing cheer, rolled like a resistless wave into the enemy's works, tearing away with their hands what abatis there was in front of the intrench- ments, and carried the line at all points. Inside the intrenchments there ensued a savage hand-to-hand combat with the bayonet and clubbed muskets. The fight was of short duration, resulting in the capture of General Johnson and nearly the whole of his division, four thousand men, twenty pieces of artil- lery, and thirty colors. The rest of the force fled to the rear in great confusion. The point where Hancock struck the enemy's lino of works was where it formed what is called a salient ; and, having burst open this angle, Hancock had driven a wedge between the right and centre of the enemy, and was in a position to rive asunder the Confederate army. Lee made no less than five desperate assaults to regain this position ; but Hancock was ably sup- ported, and the enemy was successfully repulsed. Speaking of this affair, Swinton says that " of all the struggles of the war, this was perhaps the fiercest and most deadly. Frequently throughout the conflict, so close was the contest that the rival standards were planted on opposite sides of the breastworks. The enemy's most savage sallies were directed to retake the famous salient which was now become an angle of death, and presented a spectacle ghastly and terrible. On the Confederate side of the works lay many corpses of those who had been bayoneted by Hancock's men when they first leaped the intrenchments. To these were constantly added the bravest of those who, in the WIKFIELD SCOTT HAIfCOCK. 175 assaults to recapture the position, fell at the margin of the works, till the ground was literally covered with piles of dead, and the woods in front of the salient were one hideous Golgotha." It is further stated that the musketry fire was so terrible as to kill the whole forest within its range, trees even eighteen inches in diameter being cut clean in two by the bullets. At midnight, after twenty hours of combat, Lee with- drew his bleeding lines. And, although the loss on the Union side was terrible, Hancock's victory had a moral effect upon the army which was worth all it cost. The story of his light, as told by one of the officers serving under Hancock, gives some entertaining inci- dents as observed by an actor in and an eye-witness of the battle : — • " We were on the extreme right on the Po River. We fought there on the 10th and 11th without changing our posi- tions. The Confederates were intrenched on some of the hills that ran around in the form of a crescent. We were on the outside of this crescent, and they on the inside. We got rather the worst of it during the two daj^s' fighting. "On the evening of the 11th, about six o'clock, Hancock sent word to each of his division commanders, that he had orders to go to the extreme left. I was informed at the time, and on good authority, that Hancock went directly to Grant, and received permission to make the move. That was the understanding then and afterwards, anyway, in our corps. We did not know how this manoeuvre would result, but we were willing to trust any stratagem of our commander. So all night long we marched quietly around the entire army. Oui' line then extended about eight miles. ' ' We reached the extreme point on the left, indicated by 176 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF Hancock, about four a. m., on the 12th. It was just in the gray of the morning. We were then entirely cut off from the balance of our army, and were on the right of the enemy. General Hancock massed his corps into three lines, and started the charge at a quarter past four. "Up the side of the hill we went, hurriedly and quietly. About half a mile from the intrenched lines of the enem}'' we encountered their pickets. Every man was captured without firing a gun. Advancing, we took their first line without a sound. The second line made some resistance ; but we cap- tured them with but little difficult3^ and charged theii' third and last line with equal success. It was a complete surprise to the enemy. We were only thirty minutes from the time we started, until we reached the ver}^ heart of the enemy's camp. It was one of the most brilliant and successful moves of the war. "I was the witness of a little incident on that occasion, which might be interesting. When we had captured the third line. General Hancock, who, as usual, was leading us, rode up to the headquarters of General Johnson, who was com- manding the division of the enemy we had assaulted. I for- get his first name, but I remember that he and Hancock were classmates at AVest Point. An orderly stood outside the tent. I was standing near by at the time and saw Hancock when he rode up. " ' Is General Johnson in ? ' he asked of the orderly, who replied in the affirmative. "'Ask him to step out,' said Hancock; and presently Johnson appeared, buttoning up his clothes, for he was not 3'et dressed. " 'I have come to make you a morning call,' remarked our general, pleasantU', at the same time extending his hand. But Johnson was furious. " ' I cannot take your hand on such an occasion as this,* he exclaimed, angrQy. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 177 *''0h, well,' answered General Hancock, 'j^ou can do just as you please ; only I thought I would like to make just as pleasant a job of this as possible. Under other circum- stances I would not have offered you m}'' hand.' ' ' In this retort the character of the man revealed itself in strong colors. He respected misfortune in any man, but could not be friendl}^ to a rebel in arms. " Then the defeated general was tm'ned over to some staff officer and carried to the rear. " Having gained this position, we had to keep it. Fearing an attack, we immediatel}' commenced to intrench ourselves. About two hours afterwards, the enemy's troops came upon us in a solid mass, under cover of their artillery. Hancock was going ever3^where, talking to our troops. " •• Boys,' said he, 'we have captured this position and we must hold it. If we let them have this place they will serve us worse than we did them. It will be death for every man of you.' "We staj^ed there. All day long they kept firing upon us, but by nine o'clock that night the guns died down. Next morning the Confederates had departed and were on their way to Cold Harbor. This occasion was known as Han- cock's great charge at Spottsylvania." A war correspondent describes the terrible conflict over the salient angle in the enemy's works which Hancock had taken and was holding : — "A battle raged over those intrenchments, the intense fury and heroism and horror of which it is simply impossible to describe at all. Five distinct, savage, tremendous charges were made by the enemy to retake that position. The lines of both armies met in a continual death-grapple in and to the right of the angle of death taken in the morning. To have 178 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP looked down on that battle from a height would have been like gazing into the smoke and din of an earthquake. Col- umn after column of the enemy penetrated to the very face of the breastwork, to be hewn down and sent back like a broken wave. Column after column still came on, dealius: death and meeting it, and making way for other columns, and others still ; and all the day long, against this rush of a foe that seemed disdainful of life, the angle was held by our troops, lighting, falling, but un3delding, to the close. "When the night came, the angle of those works, where the battle had been the hottest, and from which the enem^' had been finally driven, had a spectacle, for whoever cared to look, that would never have enticed his gaze again. Men in hundreds, killed and wounded together, were piled in hid- eous heaps, some bodies that had lain for hours under the con- centric fire of the battle being perforated with wounds. The writhing of wounded beneath the dead moved these masses at times ; at times a lifted arm or a quivering limb told of an agony not 3^et quenched by the Lethe of death around." The cruel sharpness of war had never a more vivid illustration than in these battles of the Wilderness ; nor was the patriotic heroism of commanders and of men ever more grandly shown than in these contests where none of the pomp of battle accompanied the stiniggle, but only its horrors were to be found. WINFIEU) SCOTT HANCOCK. 179 CHAPTER XV. fSld Harbor. — The Marcli from Spottsylvania toward Richmond. — A Race between Two Armies. — Hancock finds Lee before him at the North Anna. — He Carries the Bridge. — Hancock at Cold Har- bor. — He Carries the Enemy's Lines. — A Fight at Close Quarters. — Amenities of the Combat. The advance from Spottsylvania was not made until the 20th of May, and in the meantime Hancock was engaged in the desperate but not altogether successful attempts of Grant to force his way straight across the Confederate fortifications from the position he had cap- tured on the 12th. In the meantime, Sheridan, in whose command the dashing Custer was a subordinate, was making his won- derfully brilliant cavalry movements in the Shenandoah Valley and onward towards Richmond. This episode forms one of the most spirited chapters in the history of our war ; and the meeting of the two great cavalry leaders in the Shenandoah Valley, Sheridan with the Union troopers and Stuart with the Confederate riders, makes one of its most romantic pages. When at length Hancock was ordered forward, on the 20th of May, the movement was in fact a race between the two opposing armies for a new vantage- ground on the road to Richmond. This ground was on the North Anna River. The country through which Hancock led his corps on 180 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF this hasty march was a wonderful and striking con- trast to that whose horrors they left behind them. It was fair and fertile, beautifully undulating, w^ith many large and fine plantations in the river-bottoms. The blight of war had not yet touched it ; but here were fields with sprouting wheat and growing corn and luxuriant clover, homesteads with great ancestral elms and bountiful farms. But when, on the 23d, Hancock came in sight of the North Anna, he saw on the opposite bank " the enemy in large force marching in column, evidently en route from Spottsylvania." Hancock had to force a passage of the river, and that, too, over a tele du pont which the Confederates had constructed and manned at the Ches- terfield Bridge. Hancock made the assault, with Pierce and Egan's brigades, about an hour before sundown, under a heavy fire, the troops sweeping across the open plain at double-quick, making a foothold in the parapet with their bayonets, clambering over it, driving out the enemy, and capturing the bridge. On the further advance, Hancock led another brilliant skirmish at the Tolopotomy ; and when Grant deter- mined to force the passage of the Chickahominy at Cold Harbor, Hancock was given the place on the left of the line as the order of battle was formed. The assault upon the enemy's works was ordered to be by a general advance all along the line at half-past four in the morning of June 3. It was short, sharp, and bloody work. Before five o'clock the battle was decided. It was impossible to dislodge the enemy. Hancock's corps advanced for half a mile through woods WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 181 and over open intervals, under a severe fire, straight up to the enemy's works, and repeated the brilliant exploit of the " salient angle" at Spottsylvania. They climbed over the enemy's parapet, captured his guns, and carried off five or six hundred prisoners, with their colors. But it was useless. The works could not be carried as a whole, although Hancock's men fortified themselves in an advanced position. One of the most remarkable incidents of the war oc- curred here. It was the retention of a position, all day, within fifteen yards of the enemy's works. The heroic band which performed this exploit was the brigade of Colonel McKean, in Hancock's corps, numbering about eight hundred men. Through tlie livelong day those men held their line within fifteen yards of the enemy, and all his force could not dislodge them. The way it happened was that, through a fault of engineering, the rebel intrenchments were drawn on the rearward slope of the crest in front of Hancock, and thus thrown so far back that his men, when repulsed, were partially under cover as soon as they had passed the ridge, and their sharpshooters were able to keep the enemy's heads down long enough to allow hastily improvised parapets to be thrown up. Kepeatedly during the day the enemy formed double columns of attack, to come over the works and assail them ; and the officers could be heard encouraging their troops by telling them "there are only four or five hundred of them — come on ! " But the moment the rebels showed themselves above the parapet, a line of fire flashed out from behind the earthen mound where 182 LrF3 AND PUBLIC SERYICES OF eight hundred heroes stood in a new Thermopylae, and many a Confederate threw up his arms and fell prone under their swift aveno^ins^ bullets. The sequel is as curious as the deed itself; for while the enemy dared not venture out to assail McKean's men, neither could he get back from his perilous posi- tion. In this dilemma, the insrenious device was hit upon of running a zigzag trench up from the Union lines to his. In this manner a working party was able to dig its way up to where they lay, begrimed with powder and worn out with fatigue, and at last they were brought safely away — all that were left of them. The gallant McKean was shot down while standing up to receive a rebel assault. So close were the lines of the contending armies after this battle, that often not more than fifty yards separated them. A man would call out from behind the Union breastworks the signal of attack — " Forward ! Guide centre!" — and the Confederates, hearing all that was said, would start up behind their parapet, while our men, just peering above their pits, would " draw a bead " on their tricked opponents and bring many a one down with a bloody gift. Or, on the other side, one would call a parley and cry out : "Yanks, ain't it about your time to cook coffee?" "Yes," the Yanks would reply. " Then," the response would come from the other side, " if you won't shoot while I make my johnny- cake, I won't shoot while you make your coifee." "WIKFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 183 This culinary truce was always observed with the strictest fidelity. General Hancock, in his report of this battle, uses the significant language : " The troops advanced as far as the example of their oflicers could carry them." The position could not be carried, and officers and men realized it. An attempt was made to reduce the works by siege ; but this was given up in a few days, and Grant determined to transfer his army to the south of the James River. 184 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER XYI. Peterslmrg. — Hancock Celebrates Bunker-hill Day. — He Leads Suc- cessful Movemeuts about Petersburg. — His Old Wound Reopens. — On Sick Leave Again but Quickly Returns.— The Explosion of the Petersburg Mine and its Disastrous Results. On the 15tli of May, as Hancock was marching under orders to " take up a position where the City Point Eailroad crosses Hamson's Creek," — a position which did not exist, except upon an incorrect and worthless map from which the orders were drawn, — he received a despatch from General Grant directing him to use all haste in going to the assistance of General Smith, who had attacked Petersburg. This was the first intimation that Hancock had received that Petersburg was to be attacked that day, or that General Smith was operating against the place. Pie hastened forward, but was unable to join Smith until after the attack had been made. General Hancock writes in his report : " The messaeres from Lieutenant-General Grant and from General Smith, which I received between five and six p. M. , on the 15th, were the first and only intimation I had that Petersburg was to be attacked that day. Up to that hour I had not been notified from any source that I was expected to assist General Smith in assaulting that city." General Meade endorsed, in a repoi*t now on file in the Ai'my Depai-tmcnt : " Had General Hancock or myself WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 185 known that Petersburg was to be attacked, Petersburg w^ould have fallen." But Grant was compelled to sit down before that city in formal siege for nearly a year before it yielded. General Hancock, to whom, in the absence of Grant and Meade, the command of the field fell, was re- strained from attacking, by orders from Meade, until the remaining corps of the Army of the Potomac should arrive ; and this happening on the 16th, he made the assault that day, driving the enemy some dis- tance along the whole line. The attack was renewed by Hancock and Burnside on the 17th, the former succeeding in taking some important ground. The movement of Hancock was designed to carry the four lines of works of the enemy outside the city, drive the Confederates into Petersburg, and, if possible, capture the town. On this, " Bunker-hill Day," writes one of the old Sixth Corps, which was then part of Hancock's command, " General Hancock formed his troops, in a piece of wood, between tw^o forts, in such a way, and at such a point, that the enemy had no idea of what he was doing. Just as night was falling he led us out on the charore. Instead of charo-inof either of the two forts, he led us on a dead run right between them. When on the other side he deployed his troops, and effected the capture of both. The enemy was so sur- prised that we met with little resistance. Then we made a gallant charge on the second line, and after a sharp fight secured it. Then the third line w^as stormed, and though the battle was now severe, we were successful. At the fourth line, however, we were 186 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP repulsed. Then the point was to maintain the position we had gained. It was now late at night, and the hostilities closed. The next morning, however, they opened upon us from all directions. As at Spottsyl- vania, Hancock told us that our position must be held or it was certain death for all of us. We did hold it ; but it was hard work." But this arduous labor for his country was performed at great cost. It will be remembered that Hancock was yet a wounded man, and under the surgeon's care when he took the field with Grant in the new Army of the Potomac. The hardships of the campaign had the effect of reopening the wound received at Gettysburg, and, on the evening of the 17th of June, his iron con- stitution broke down and he was compelled, with the greatest reluctance, to turn over the command of his corps, though he did not leave the field. During the greater part of the campaign, indeed, he had suffered the most intense pain, being compelled to occupy an ambulance during the march, and only mounting his horse when his troops came in contact with the enemy, and his personal presence was needed to direct and inspire them. The wound was in the upper part of the thigh. It had fractured and splintered the upper part of the femur, and at one time it was thought that his life could not be saved. A splendid constitution, however, and the best surgical skill, had brouc^ht him throuofh the worst, and his entire recovery would have followed had not his impatience to be with his command in the field prevailed over his judgment. The penalty for this he WINFIELD SCOTT HAIS^COCK. 187 now had to pay by a brief retirement from the com- mand of his corps. On the 27th of June, however, he again took com- mand, and participated in the operations before Peters- burg until July 26, when he crossed to the north side of the James Kiver, with his corps and a division of cavalry, and assaulted the enemy's lines at Deep Bot- tom, capturing the outer works, two hundred prison- ers, several stands of colors, and four pieces of artillery. It was while Hancock was engaged in these opera- tions that General Burnside conceived and put in execu- tion the idea of capturing the defences of Petersburg by assault after the demoralization consequent upon the explosion of a mine, through the breach formed by which an assaulting column could push forward and sweep the enemy right and left. The hour for the explosion was fixed at half-past four on the morning of July 30 ; and, as if to give chances to fate, Burnside decided the choice of the assaulting division by casting lots, or, as Grant expressed it, by "pulling straws or tossing coppers." Hancock had just returned from his fortunate expe- dition to Deep Bottom, and was not concerned in the affair in any way. The match was applied to the mine at the hour appointed ; but, owing to a defect in the fuse, the mine failed to explode. A second attempt succeeded, at about fifteen minutes before five o'clock in the morning. The effect produced is described as showing a solid mass of earth, through which the exploding powder blazed like lightning playing in a 188 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF bank of clouds, slowly rising some two hundred feet in the air, and hanging visibly a few seconds. Then it subsided, and a heavy cloud of black smoke floated oft*. The explosion of the mine was the signal for a simul- taneous outburst of artillery from the various batteries, au'l Leslie's division of Burnside's corps advanced to the charc^e. On reaching the site of the fort, it was found to have been converted by the explosion into a huge crater one hundred and fifty feet long, sixty feet wide, and from twenty-five to thirty feet deep. Here the assaulting column sousfht shelter, thou2:h there was nothins: to prevent its rushing forward and occupying the crest beyond, for the enemy was paralyzed by the explosion and remained inactive for some time. But the troops iuiddled together in tlie crater ; and, as Meade said in his report, a scene of disorder and confusion com- menced which continued to the end. The enemy rallied, brought their guns to bear, and poured shells and bombs into the hollow of the exploded earthworks where the Union troops were clustered. The crater became a slaughter-pen. Burnside sent out the colored division, and the brave black fellows pushed far ahead and captured prisoners and a stand of colors, but were beaten back into the fatal crater. Disaster followed. General Hancock was a member of the military court of inquiry instituted soon after this failure, and the court found its causes to be : first, the injudicious form- ation of the troops in going forward; second, the halting of the troops in the crater, instead of going WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 189 forward to the crest, when there was no fire of any con- sequence from the enemy ; thh'd, no proper employ- ment of engineer officers and working parties, and of materials and tools for their use, in the Ninth Corps ; fourth, that some parts of the assaulting columns were not properly led ; fifth, the want of a competent com- mon head at the scene of the assault, to direct afiairs as occurrences should demand. But, while the causes of the mine fiasco before Peters- burg may be diflferently judged by experts, the ordinary non-professional mind will always incline to the belief that it failed because a soldier of Hancock's masfnetic presence, quick perception, and instant action was not the director and the leader of the assault. 190 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER XVII. About Petersburg. — Hancock Commands at Deep Bottom. — Pro- motion to be Brigadier-General in the Regular Army. — His Horse sliot under him at Reams' Station. — Battle of the Boydton Plank Road. — Recruiting a Veteran Corjis. — Brevet Majur-Goneral for Gallantry at Spottsylvania. — In Command of the Middle Military Division when Lee Surrenders and the Confederacy collapses. On the 12th of August, 18G4, Hancock was promoted another long step in the regular army, his commission as Briofadier-General beino^ issued to him on that date. The same day he was ordered to take command of the first of the several expeditions which Grant made against the enemy from his position before Petersburg. On this expedition General Hancock's force consisted of his own Second Corps, the Tenth Corps, and Gen- eral Gregg's division of Cavalry. The movement was made against the enemy at Deep Bottom, where the Confederates were met in largely superior force, ^ and General Hancock returned with several hundred pris- oners and several stands of colors. Hancock returned to his camp before Petersburg on the 21st, after a very fatiguing march, and was immediately ordered to un- dertake the work of tearing up the railroad track to Reams' Station. This occupied the time until the 25th, when the enemy approached in strong force to prevent further destruction of the line. Hancock met the assault with firmness and with per- WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 191 sistent bravery, although against tremendous odds. In spite of the fact that the support for which he tele- graphed did not reach him, he held the ground valiantly through the day, being, as usual, on horseback among his troops, cheering and inspiring them, and again nar- rowly escaped death, having his horse shot under him. Both armies had enough of it during the day, and simultaneously withdrew after dark. After the loss of the Weldon Railroad Lee's depend- ence Avas largely upon the Boydton plank road, from which Hancock was instructed to drive the Confeder- ates. The expedition was only partially successful, the support not being what it should have been ; but the brilliancy of Hancock's repulse of the great assault of the enemy, and the skill with which he handled the force under his command, elicited expressions of admi- ration even from Grant himself. The battle of Boydton plank road was the last that General Hancock fought with his gallant Second Corps. He had been a sick man during all this campaign. When not on active fighting duty, he was in the hands of the surgeons ; and even when on the march and in the battle, his wound had to be dressed daily, and almost as frequently pieces of the splintered bone were removed by the surgeons. It was his indomitable spirit that kept him up. But, great as was the value of his services in the field, his country had yet greater need of him in another department of patriotic duty. There were then many veteran soldiers in the country, whose terms of service had expired, and the govern- 192 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF ment considered the best means of callinor into the field this desirable element. Veteran soldiers, havins^ been once honorably discharged, hesitated to re-enter the service in regiments recruited since their own enlist- ments ; so it was thought advisable to raise a corps which should consist of veterans alone. The man to whom the President first looked was, in regard both to the length and severity of his service, the chief of all the veteran general officers of the army ; and that man was General Hancock. So Hancock was ordered, on the 26th of November, 1864, to report at Washington and undertake the organization of this veteran corps. It was determined to make this corps fifty thousand strong ; and it was very justly believed that, with Hancock at the head of this organization, the old soldiers would at once flock to the standard, and the force be recruited in the short- est possible time. This idea proved a correct one. But this corps of veterans was destined never to be called into action. Events were marching fast, and Hancock's sword could not be spared from the field in the last terrible strus^He for the extinction of the Con- federate army. So he was again ordered to the front, in command of the Middle Military Division, Feb. 27, 1865, and made his headquarters at Winchester, the division embracing the departments of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, and the force under his command including the Army of the Shenandoah, amountino; to nearlv one hundred thousand men of all arms. With this force it was expected a decisive blow, WTNFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 193 in one direction or the other, would be struck, and General Hancock was under orders to be ready to move at a few hours' notice, either on Lynchburg, to co-operate with the Army of the Potomac, or to take transports for the southern coast to co-operate with General Sherman, as the exigencies of the campaign should demand. But the end came sooner than was anticipated. Lee's defence of Petersburg collapsed, and the surrender of his decimated, ragged, and hungry, but bravely persistent troops, was made at Appomattox Court-House, April 9, 1865. About a month before this, on the 13th of March, Gen- eral Hancock had received further official recoo:nition of his services in the form of a brevet to Major-General- ship in the regular army, given " for gallant and meri- torious services at the battle of Spottsylvania." The sketch of General Hancock's military services during the active period of the Rebellion cannot be bet- ter closed than with the following picture of him, as a man and as a commander, by one who knew and served under him : — ** General Hancock appears the Very beau ideal of the sol- dier. His figure is tall and finely shaped. His eye is clear, blue, inquiring, benignant in repose, but inspiring in danger and in earnestness. In manners, no man ever surpassed him. He is the embodiment of knightly courtesy, yet his dignity is of the simple republican type that reminds one of the ideal Cincinnatus. No 3'oung officer, with apprehensions, for the fii'st time, ever reported to him and went awaj'^ with any other feeling than that Hancock was the man he wanted to sevve under for life. 194 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF *' To his subordinates he was alwaj's kindUness itself. He put one at his ease at once ; gave confidence ; made a man think better of himself ; made him think he amounted to a good deal more than he ever before suspected. This was one of the great secrets of Hancock's success on the field. The men and officers all felt that the}^ had come in personal con- tact with their commander ; that they had made him think they were brave, good, reliable men ; and when the crisis came, they would rather die than destro}^ that opinion. Hancock's reproof, on the other hand, was not a thing to be wished for twice. He was severe in his requirements, and sometimes made his colonels and generals wish that they were anywhere but under the plain severity of his talk. Yet after the lesson was taught, the wound was at once healed by some attention, so kindly and so gracious, that the object of it felt at last that he had really gained by the transaction. " Thus he was to his subordinates. What he was to his superiors is a matter of history. No more loyal executor of orders ever bestrode a horse. There are brilliant reputations whose dead and living owners owe them to that loyal per- formance of duty. He went forward cheerfully, without murmuring or questioning, in the accomplishment of what was assigned to him, from first to last, willing to do anything and be anj^thiug in the service of his country. Hancock's first Division Commander, that splendid veteran and stub- born fighter, who was himself generally in hot water with his ofllicial superiors, Major-Geueral ' Baldy ' Smith said of Han- cock : ' He was the most lo3'al subordinate I ever knew. He always tried to carry out his orders in their spirit as well as to the letter, and whatever he might think of them, when he received them they became his own and a part and parcel of himself.' ••' Happy for the Republic had it more sons, more soldiers, and more statesmen like this ! " WT^riELD SCOTT HAXCOCK. 195 CHAPTER XVIII. Hancock aa a Commander. — The Love and Admiration of liis Sol- diers for their General. — " A Soldier's Duty is to Obey and Fight." — General Walker describes his Character and Habits. — Custer Sketches him at Williamsburg. — " Gentlemen, Charge with the Bayonet." — The Secret of Hancock's Genius. — The Invincible Second Corps. — An Incident of Gettysburg. General Hancock was a commander who secured not only the confidence, but the love and admiration of his troops. He was of splendid appearance, and of a most magnetic manner. He was, moreover, sym- pathetic as well as strict, kindly as well as stern, and, beyond all, he impressed all who came in contact with him with his thorous^h earnestness. There was not a soldier in his largest command who would not die happy under Hancock's approving eye ; there was not one who failed to feel the electric shock which ran through the whole line when Hancock rode into sight on the field of battle. One of those who served under him says : " He was universally beloved by his soldiers. There was not a man, from a private to the highest oflacer, that did not admire him. He was one of the strictest disciplinarians in the army. One instance I remember. In the fall of 1864, during the campaign of Lincoln and McClel- lan, the officers and soldiers indulged in pretty free dis- cussions of the conduct of the war on the part of the administration. Hancock issued a general order, which 196 LIFE AND rUBLIC SERVICES OF was read to every regiment, commanding that all this should cease. ' Our first duty,' he said, in substance, *is to stop the Eebellion, not to talk. When the war is over you can criticise as much as you like. Until then, a soldier's duty is to obey and fight.' " It was this strict conscientiousness, this unswervinsf purpose to compel respect for what is right, which gave the foundation to the noble character of General Hancock. He was, first of all, true to himself, in the highest sense of that phrase. He could conceive of no deviation in the slightest degree from the straight path of honor for himself, and he could not tolerate it in others. He personified moral force as clearly and vividly as he did ph3^sical courage. Gen. Francis A. Walker, who has had charofe of the taking of the United States census of 1870 and 1880, was on General Hancock's stafi* at one time during the war, and, like every one else who came to know him, was filled with admiration of the soldier and respect for the man. General W^alker says of him : " General Hancock was an ideal commander. His presence in the camp or along the line was like an impulse which every soldier felt. It seemed to travel through the army like a great wave. It is needless to say that he was everywhere beloved and admired. It was impos- sible for it to be otherwise when one saw the force of his character and his enthusiasm and energy. As a military genius he was a tactician of great skill and adroitness, as \vell as an executor of energy and power. It is seldom that you find these qualities in one man, for it is generally considered as incompatible that a WIKFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 197 sagacity which was almost cunning should be combined with dash and industry. General Hancock possessed both to a high degree." At the breaking out of the war, that wild, dashing, and wonderfully versatile young cavalry leader, Gen, George A. Custer, was a cadet at West Point. He was a fiery young fellow, full of animal spirits, and at once applied to be sent to the field ; this application, moreover, serving to relieve him from the unpleasant duty of appearing to answer before the stern profes- sors at the military academy for a madcap escapado in which he had then recently indulged. So he was sent down to General Smith's headquarters in the Army of the Potomac, to make himself useful and wait for a more definite assignment. There he fell in with General Hancock, and the two seemed to ap- preciate each other. Hancock was Custer's senior by twenty years at West Point ; but they had one element of character in common which certainly attracted the younger man to the veteran. This was an utter ab- sence of self-consciousness in time of danorer. In Custer's case, this approached recklessness ; in Han- cock, it was so combined with more substantial traits as to become simply one of the illustrations of his sublime strength of character. It is interesting to read some of Custer's sketches of his experiences with Hancock, they are at once so free and so fresh. One of these, left among his posthumous papers when he met his cruel fate on the llosebud, describes Hancock on the day when he had turned the fiank of the Confederates at AV^illiamsburg and awaited 198 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF events with the whole rebel army in front of him and a small brigade of sixteen hundred of his own men by his side. Custer wrote : — " Hancock's orders prevented him from advancing beyond the position he then held. The strength of his forces, how- ever, would not have justified him in proceeding against Fort Magruder unless closely supported by at least twice his own numbers. His position was such, however, that with a reasonable force at his command, Fort Magruder, and conse- quently the enemy's entire line, was untenable the moment he chose to advance. Fully impressed with the importance of the point he held, Hancock, as early as eleven o'clock, sent a staflF officer back to represent the situation of affairs and to request reinforcements. The request was delivered to Gen- eral Smith, the division commander, who, heartily approving of Hancock's views, urged General Sumner, then senior offi- cer on the field, to grant the request. General Sumner, anxious regarding Hooker's position on the left, declined, and instead directed Hancock to hold his ground, but not to advance. "Again Hancock sent a staflT officer, urging in stronger terms the importance of promptly reinforcing him in order that he might at once decide the battle by driving the enemy from their works. From his position to Sumner's headquar- ters, by the circuitous route necessar}^ to be taken, was several miles. Hancock awaited the reply to his second appeal with unfeigned anxiety. It came, and instead of acceding to his request, it directed him to relinquish the vantage-ground already gained, and which furnished the key to the enemy's position, and to retire to the redoubt covering the crossing over the dam. It was two o'clock when the last messenger arrived. " Those who have seen Hancock when afl^aii's with which WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 199 he was connected were not conducted in conformit}^ with h.is views, can imagine the manner in which he received the order to retire. Never at a loss for expletives, and with feelings wrought up by the attendant circumstances, Hancock was not at all loath to express his condemnation of the polic}', which, from bis standpoint, was not onl}' plainly unnecessary, but, in the end, must prove disastrous. His was a difficult position to occupy, so far as he personally was concerned. After receiving the order to withdraw, rendered more impera- tive from the fact of its being a reply to his request for authority" and troops to enable him to advance, his first duty as a soldier was to obc}''. His judgment rebelled against such a course, and urged liim to remain and make one more effort to secure the adoption of his views. The responsibilitj^ was great ; but he assumed it, trusting to events to justify his course. Another staff officer was sent back, bearing a most urgent appeal from Hancock for assistance, and more fully explaining the importance of his position. Taking out his watch, Hancock, in conversation with the wi'iter, remarked, *Ifc is now two o'clock. I shall wait till four; if no reply reaches me from headquarters, 1 will then withdraw.' ' ' The moments flew by till an hour had elapsed since the departure of the last messenger, and still no reply from head- quarters. Hancock's impatience, of which he has ever seemed to have an inexhaustible supply, increased with each passing moment. But little was going on in his front save the usual fiharpshooting between skirmisliers at long range ; yet each discharge of a musket seemed to add to the anxiety of him wl.iose impcrtarbabiiit}' has never rendered him remarkable. ' ^ A fourth staff officer was despatched at a gallop to hasten, if possible, the expected and long-hoped-for message from ' Old Bull,' a3 General Sumner was familiarly termed by the entire army. Messenger after messenger was ordered upon this errand, imtil the hour-hand marked the hour of 200 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF four, and still no orders came. It was hard for the 3'oung brigade commander to relinquish the victoiy which he justly believed was within his gi'asp. He had said he would with- draw at four o'clock, but when the horn- arrived it found him still anxious and eager to carry out his first plan of battle, and, with a faltering hope, he said, ' I will wait a half hour longer ; if no orders reach me during that time, I must retire.' "He was then without a staff officer, — aids, adjutant- general, and all having been hurried back for orders and reinforcements." There is a pecular charm in getting such a glimpse of the "superb Hancock " as this sketch afibrds, drawn by a young trooper who regarded less the dignity than the fun of every situation, and who pictures Hancock not as a demi-god, but as very much a man. We all know what was the outcome of Hancock's anxious waiting behind the Confederate works at Wil- liamsburiT. Reinforcements did not come, and he had to meet alone the charge of Longstreet's and Early's troops. But Custer describes it in such an entertaining way, throwing such strong side-lights on Hancock's feelings and actions at this time, that we reproduce his story : — *'The enemy were advancing rapidly and confidently. Hancock, deprived of the assistance of every member of his own staff, none having returned from the division commander, busied himself by riding along the line encouraging his men and urgiug them to do their duty in the fast approaching struggle. ' Aim low, men — aim low,' was his oft-repeated WmriELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 201 injunction ; and, ' Do not be in a hurry to lire until they come nearer.' " Although the enemy had advanced nearly a thousand yards across an open and nearly level plain, within easy range of the guns of Hancock's men, the latter permitted them to approach undisturbed. '^ Hancock, realizing to the fullest extent his precarious situation, strove in every possible manner to inspire his troops with confidence. To him the coming contest was destined to become more than an ordinary victory or defeat : if the former, all would be well, and no unhappy criticisms would follow him ; if defeat—and defeat under the circumstances im- plied the loss or capture of most if not all of his command — then death upon the battle-field was far preferable, to the sensi- tive and high-minded soldier, to the treatment which would be meted out to him who, in violation of positive orders had repeatedly declined to withdraw his command, but had re- mained until obedience was no longer practicable, and Iiis command was threatened with annihilation. It was prob- ably with thoughts of defeat, and its personal consequences of a court-martial for disobedience of orders, that at the moment when the fighting on both sides became terribly in earnest, and the firing loudest, Hancock, galloping along his lines, hat in hand, the perfect model of a field-marshal that he has since proven himself to be, in tones which even the din of battle could not drown, appealed to his troops, saj^iug, ' Men, 3'ou must hold this ground, or I am ruined.' It was but the utterance of the thought that was passing through his mind at that moment, and it neither checked nor added to the ardor with which Hancock deports himself in battle. His brilliant, dashing courage, displayed upon scores of bat- tle-fields since the one here referred to, has shown that he requires no personal motive to inspire him to deeds of heroism. The Confederates, with a com'age which has never been sur- 202 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF passed by the troops upon either side, boldly advanced, de- livering their lire as rapidly as possible, and never ceasing to utter their inspiring battle-cry. " About forty yards in front of Hancock's line, and parallel to it, was an ordinary rail fence. The advanced line of the Confederates reached this fence ; and had they been less brave, or had they been the veterans of either armj'', who four' years later had been thoroughly schooled into the idea that breastworks and courage were almost inseparable ad- juncts in the art of war, it is probable that their advance would never have crossed the fence, but, protected b}' the questionable cover of the rails, would have made a stand, and from there returned the terribly destructive fire their enemies were pouring into their ranks. The fence seemed to offer no obstacle, however, to the assaulting column, which still advanced, as it had started, in four heavy lines. " But thirty paces now separated the contending forces, and neither exhibited si«rus of waverinor. The Confederates were losing ten to one of the Federals ; the latter, unlike the former, deUvering their tire from a halt, and with deliberate aim. " When within twenty paces of the Federal troops, the fire of whose guns remained unabated, the Confederates, whose ranks had been terribly thinned, and who, from their long and rapid march across a heav}^ and yielding soil, added to their constant 3'eliing since the opening of the attack, were much exhausted, now exhibited signs of faltering. The Federals, who but a moment before regarded victor}' as most doiibtfal, observed this hesitation, and gave forth cheers of exultation. Hancock, who had been constantly seen where the danger was most imminent, and who, with one exception, was the only mounted officer along the Federal line, saw that victory was within his grasp, and determined to resume the offensive. With that excessive p<»liteness of manner which WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 203 characterizes him when everything is being conducted accord- ing to his liking, Hancock, as if conducting guests to a ban- quet rather than fellow-beings to a life-and-death struggle, cried out in tones well-befitting a Stentor : — ' Gentlemen^ charge with the bayonet.' ' ' The order was responded to with a hearty cheer from the entire line, and immediatel}" the men — no, the gentlemen — brought their bayonets down to the position of the charge, and moved forward to the encounter. The Confederates, already wavering, required but this last effort upon the part of their opponents to relinquish the contest. Not waiting to receive the charge, they began their retreat, which soon ter- minated in a rout. The Federals, less exhausted than their late assailants, were able to overtake and capture large num- bers of the Confederates. They also captured one battle-flag, being, it is believed, the first battle-flag captured from the enemy by the Army of the Potomac. One of the French princes ser\'ing on General McClellan's staff", the Due d'Orleans, arriving on the battle-field at this moment, was made the bearer of the captured colors to army headquar- ters." General AValker is altont, the wisest patriotism, and the most prac- tical experience of men and of affairs was needed. He proved equal to the task of carrying the burden of responsibility laid upon him. General Hancock was summoned to Washington by order of the President assigning him to the command of the Fifth Military District, Aug. 28, 18G7. The removal of Sheridan was strongly opposed by General Grant, who at that time had been brought into antago- nism with the policy of President Johnson, and who was already looked upon as the probable candidate for the Presidency by the Republican party in 1868. But the high-handed proceediiigs of the military commander in the Fifth District, absolutely overriding and crushing out all civil authority, had created alarm among think- ing people who believed that the war had been fought to save the Union and not to set up a military despot- WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 241 ism; and they hastened to do honor to Hancock, in whose stanch principles and strict integrity they had the same confidence they had in his valor. They complimented him with a serenade on the 24th of September, prior to his departure for the South, at which he made one of those clear, straightforward, and manly speeches for which he is noted. Among other things he said : — ••' I thank you for this testimony of your appreciation of my past services, and confidence in my abiUty to perform my dut}^ in a new and difierent sphere. Educated as a soldier in the military school of our country, and on the fields of the Mexican war and American rebellion, I need not assure you that my course as a District Commander will be characterized by the same strict soldierly obedience to the law there taught me as a soldier. I know no other guide or higher duty. Mis- representation and misconstruction arising from the passions of the hour, and spread by those who do not know that devo- tion to duty has governed my actions in every trying hour, may meet me. But I fear them not. I ask then, citizens, that I may not be judged in advance, and that time may be permitted to develop my actions. As a soldier I am to ad- minister the laws rather than discuss them. If I can admin- ister them in spirit with due charity to the governed and to the satisfaction of my country, I shall indeed be happy in the consciousness of a duty performed." On the same occasion, Hon. Eobert J. Walker ad- dressed the assemblaore, referrinof in his remarks to the known character of General Hancock and what mijrht be expected of him. He said : — *' And now, fellow-citizens, General Hancock is entering upon a new career ; and although his new trust is mihtary. 242 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF still in point of name it has its civil duties, and imposes a task of the utmost difficulty in its proper fulfilment. He has truly said his duty is to carry out the laws of his country, and he has said wisely ; because a soldier of the Republic most truly defends a country when he defends the laws of that country ; and, fellow-citizens, he will not be a judge as to whether the law is wise and expedient, or as to whether it be otherwise. His duty is purely a ministerial duty — te^ carry out the laws as they are written. "The judicial power, according to the Constitution, h vested exclusively in the courts of the country. They alont can pass final adjudication upon the law and say whether it is constitutional or not ; but when a law is passed according to the forms prescribed in the Constitution, unless it be arrested by the decision of the judicial authorities, the execu- tive officer must and is sworn to execute it as one of the laws of the country. But, fellow-citizens, while I. am sure that General Hancock will execute the laws in a true spirit, and according to the meaning that must be placed upon them, I am also sure that he will do it in a spirit of charity and kindness." With such pledges of devotion to the Constitution and the laws — welcome words in the ears of a public which had become too freely accustomed to have both derided as impotent in the presence of the military arm — General Hancock set out to assume command on the 29th of November. In the Fifth Military Department there had been some few disturbances, caused by the natural opposi- tion to the violent military rule of General Sheridun ; and these, highly exaggerated in the reports of the partisan press, which was even then under a sort of WINTIELD SCOTT HAXCOCK. 243 surveillance, had greatly excited the Northern people. General Hancock's predecessor had not hesitated to make the military arm felt superior to the civil law, and to construe the power given him by the Act of Keconstruction as absolute and irresponsible. It is safe to say that almost any civil governor, not to say military man, finding himself clothed with such authority and backed up with ample forces, would have treated the unreconstructed and unrepentant rebels with the rigor which was expected of him by the party majority in Congress. That such was not the course of General Hancock is the crowninof credit of his life. It is no secret that he did not relish, much less covet, this command. His reputation as a soldier and a patriot was unsurpassed. He had the gratitude of all classes of Union men for his great services in the field, and it was believed that the Southern people would respect and obey his orders as they would those given by few others of the men who had subdued them. At the same time it was expected that so stern and unyielding a disciplinarian as Hancock, who always saw his orders carried out at the greatest personal exposure of himself, would brook no disorder, but would rule Louisiana and Texas with 'JL stern and steady hand. General Hancock obeyed his orders, and assumed command of the Fifth Military District. His first official act was to inform the people of Louisiana and Texas that he had come to be their Governor under the Eeconstruction Act, and to let them know how he pro- posed to rule over them. He issued his celebrated 244 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF "General Orders No. 40," dated the 29th day of November, 1867. Probably no more astonished and delighted people could be found than the people of Louisiana and Texas when the purport of that order came to be understood. They expected to have, what they had had before, a military dictator. They expected to be governed by "orders" instead of laws, and to live under a military despotism, instead of governing themselves by their own civil resrulations. General Hancock informed them that he took com- mand in accordance with the orders he had received from the Headquarters of the Army, but that he did not propose to rule them by military orders at all. Pie congratulated the people of the South-West that peace and quiet reigned among them. To best preserve that state of things he proposed to let the civil authorities execute the civil laws. War he regarded as only nec- essary to destroy opposition to lawful authority ; but when peace was established and when the civil authori- ties were ready and willing to perform their duties, the military power should cease to lead and the civil ad- mhiistration should resume its natural and rightful con- ditions. He declared himself solemnly impressed with the belief that the great principles of American liberty were the lawful inheritance of the whole people, and should forever continue to be. He declared that the right of trial by jury, habeas corpus, liberty of the press, freedom of speech, the natural rights of person and of property, should be preserved. He believed <^bat free institutions, being essential to the prosperity WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 245 and happiness of the people, were themselves the strongest inducements to peace and order. He de- clared that the civil authorities and tribunals should have the consideration of and jurisdiction over crimes and ofi'ences, and should be supported in the exercise of that jurisdiction. But while thus recoofnizinof the " CO rights of the people, he announced, with soldier-like directness and brevity, that he should suppress armed insurrection and forcible resistance to law by force of arms at once. The Order No. 40, issued at such a time and under such circumstances, is so admirably illustrative of Gen- eral Hancock's turn of mind, so sincere, and withal so judicious, that we present it here in full : — Gbneual Orders No. 40. ileadqra.rters fiftii military district, \ New Orleans, La., Nov. 29, 1867. \ 1. In accordance with General Orders No. 81, Headquar- ters of the Army, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, D. C, Aug. 27, 1867, Major-General W. S. Hancock hereby assumes command of the Fifth Military District and of the Department composed of the States of Louisiana and Texas. 2. The General Commanding is gratified to learn that peace and quiet reign in this department. It wiU be his pur- pose to preserve this condition of things. As a means to this great end he regards the maintenance of the civil author- ities in the faithful execution of the laws as the most efficient under existing circumstances. In war it is indispensable to repel force by force, and over- throw and destro}^ opposition to lawful authority. But when insurrectionary tbrce has been overthrown and peace estab- lished, and the civil authorities are ready and wiUing to per- 246 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF form their duties, the militarj^ power should cease to lead, and the civil administration resume its natural and rightful dominion. Solemnly impressed with these views, the Gen- eral announces that 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 are essential to the prosperity and happiness of the people, always furnish the strongest inducements to peace and order. Crimes and offences com- mitted in this district must be referred to the consideration and judgment of the regular civil tribunals, and those tri- bunals will be supported in their lawful jurisdiction. Should there be violations of existing laws which are not inquired into by the civil magistrates, or should failures in the administration of justice by the courts be complained of, the cases will be reported to these headquarters, when such orders will be made as may be deemed necessary. While the General thus indicates his purpose to respect the liberties of the people, he wishes all to understand that armed insurrection, or forcible resistance to law, will be instantly suppressed by arms. By command of Maj.-Gen. "W. S. Hancock. [Official.] This order, so novel in the history of the series of military experiments known as reconstruction, was flashed all over the land that night, and every news- paper printed it the next morning. It was received with delight by all who truly believed in the supremacy of the ideas on which our Republic is founded. It was hailed as the presage of a return from the anarchy of WINFIELD SCOTT HAl^COCK. 247 war to the safe rule of peaceful law. The policy of conciliation and restoration, which the lamented Presi- dent Lincoln inaugurated, had received a serious check when he fell by the hand of the assassin. Andrew Johnson had honestly attempted to carry out the ben- eficent scheme which his predecessor originated, but had failed through lack of those qualities of intellect and of heart which enabled Lincoln to restrain party antago- nism within limits, and to carry his point, and still retain the support of Congress and the confidence of the people. It was a dark day for constitutional gov- ernment ; and when, from among the military com- manders who had been endowed with arbitrary power, there appeared one who refused to exercise this power otherwise than in the support of and subordinate to civil law, the announcement came as a beam of sunlight throui^h the dark clouds that overhuno: the land. Judge Black, one of the ablest constitutional lawyers our country has produced, sat down and wrote as follows to General Hancock, when he read that now famous "Order No. 40 " in the morning papers : — Washington, Nov. 30, 1867. My Dear General : — This moment I read your admirable order. I am much engaged, but I cannot resist the tempta- tion to steal time enough from my clients to tell you how gi-atefui 3'ou have made me b3^ your patriotic and noble be- havior. Yours is the first, most distinct, and most emphatic recog- nition which the principles of American liberty have received at the hands of any high officer in a Southern command. It has the very ring of the Revolutionary metal. Washington 248 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF never said a thing in better taste or better time. It will prove to all men that ' ' Peace has her victories not less renowned than those of war." I congratulate you, — not because it will make you the most popular man in America, for I dare say you care nothing about that, — ^but because it will give you, through all time, the solid reputation of a true patriot and a sincere lover of your country, its law and its government. This, added to youi brilliant achievements as a soldier, will leave you without a rival in the affections of all whose good-will is worth having, and gives you a place in history which your children will be proud of. This acknowledgment from me does not amount to much ; but I am expressing only the feelings of millions, and expressing them feebly at that. With profound respect. Yours, etc., J. S. Black. Major-General Hancock. It was under such auspices that General Hancock began his administration in Louisiana and Texas. His first word was to proclaim the rule of law. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 249 CHAPTER V. Reception of "General Order No. 40." — Civil Government Resumes it8 Sway. — Hancock's Orders Develop the Capacity of the People for Local Self-Government. — The Laws to bo Sustained by the Military Arm. — The Qualifications of Jurors. — Disposition of Property by the Courts. — Sale of a School Section. — Registration of Voters. — Effect of General Hancock's Orders. It was on the basis of the principles enunciated in his " General Order No. 40," that General Hancock besran and continued his administration in the Fifth Military District. These principles are immortal ; they lie at the very foundation of our system of free gov- ernment ; and it was with delighted wonder, that the people of Louisiana and Texas heard from the lips of one in whom they had expected to find a military satrap, these patriotic and statesmanlike sentiments : "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 should be preserved." They looked for a Caesar, and they found in his stead the expounder and defender of the Constitutional laws of the fathers, and the exponent of the rights of the free men who speak the English tongue. The effect on men so recently disbanded from armed rebellion, and now morose, soured, disappointed, and disposed to place obstacles in the way of any resump- tion of the old Federal relations, was electric. Lcmisi- 250 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP ana and Texas, for the time-being, moved forward on the road to reconstruction with brisk eagerness, out- stripping their sisters ; and had General Hancock remained in command, the disorders which followed, the misrule and contention, culminating in actual anarchy, and rendering Louisiana at last a fit instru- ment for the perpetration of a great crime, would not have taken place. With admirable tact, and a keen sense of justice to the laws of the country, as well as to the people of Louisiana and Texas, he reconciled the differences that had previously prevailed, and which had had their origin in the abominable carpet-bag governments that, since the close of the war, had blighted those States. Instead of an oppressor, the Louisianians and Texans found in him a governor inspired by motives of the purest patriotism and of the highest justice. The general order with which he opened his admin- istration was a revelation to an oppressed, robbed, and humiliated people. There was everything in this order to produce a profound sense of gratitude in the hearts of those to whom it was addressed. Following it, came for awhile the blessings of peace and prosperity, and but for the fact that the administration at Wash- ington removed General Hancock from his sphere of justice and beneficent government, the period of mis- rule in Louisiana and Texas would have come to an end at that time. General Hancock maintained the purity and inde- pendence of the elections, refused to organize military commissions to take the place of judicial trials, and WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 251 would permit no military interference with civil admin- istration. The mayor of New Orleans formally requested his interference by military order in certain proceedings against the corporation. General Han- cock declined, on the ground that his interference would be unconstitutional, and could only be exercised in an emergency which did not, in his opinion, then exist. He was requested by the general commanding the District of Texas, to order a military commission for the trial of a certain offender. He declined, statins' as his reasons, that, while the act passed by Congress "for the more efficient government of the rebel States" made it the duty of commanders of military districts to punish disturbers of the public peace and criminals, that power, from the nature of things, should only be exercised when the local civil tribunals were unable or unwilling to enforce the laws, a supposition which did not exist, a State government in subordination to the United States beins: then in the full exercise of its powers in Texas. General Hancock's predecessor had summarily, by military order, removed the clerk of a court, and had appointed another in his place. General Hancock revoked this order, on the ground that if there were any charges against the clerk so removed, the courts were competent to take action in the premises. His predecessor had rendered the administration of justice inefficient, by instituting certain qualihcations for persons to be eligible to do jury duty, such qualifi- cation being made by military order. General Hancock revoked the order, announcing that he would not per- 252 LLFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF mit the civil authoritiea to be embarrassed by military interference. In December he issued an order prohibiting military interference with the elections, miless when necessary to keep the peace at the polls, as being contrary to law ; and he ordered that no soldiers be allowed to appear at any polling place, unless as citizens of the State, regis- tered voters, and for the purpose of voting ; but he ordered, further, that the commanders of posts act promptly in preserving the peace in case the civil authorities failed to do so. Men, interested in civil controversies, in great num- bers applied at the General's headquarters for interfer- ence, assuming on his part both the arbitrary powei to interfere and the willingness to do so. General Hancock, by general order, again announced that the administration of civil justice pertained only to the regular courts, and that the rights of the litigants did not depend on his views as to the merits of their cases. Having been appealed to by ihe Governor of the State to remove from office the pres'dent and members of the police jury of the parish of Orleans, they being charged with appropriating public funds to their own use, General Hancock reiterated the principle that these were matters pertaining to the civil administra- tion, and should be solely dealt with by the courts. The acts of General Hancock's administration were simply the development of this fundamental idea of popular government : That the people must govern themselves through the laws made by their chosen representatives, and that the sole duty of the military WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 253 arm was to prevent interference with the operation of these laws. This was, indeed, a great change from the policy which had prevailed ; but it was a wise chano-e. In- stead of accustoming the people to the sight of an authority superior to law, and thus breeding a contempt for law and for all forms of civil government. General Hancock taught them that the law was supreme ; that it was competent to protect them ; and that it would be maintained in its supremacy by the full force of the United States army, if needed. Under the vicious system that had prevailed up to the time of his assumption of command in the Fifth District, the civil authority had been either utterly ignored or made a servile attendant on the military power. Hancock changed all this. He put away the power which was oiaered him, and proclaimed himself subject where he was commissioned to be autocrat. There has never been known a nobler sacrifice of ambi- tion to patriotism than that which General Hancock showed when he stripped himself of all the extraordi- nary powers conferred upon him, and elevated civil government to its proper place of supremacy, pledging himself to maintain its authority with his life, if necessary. Grand as were his sacrifices in the cause of the Union when assailed by arms, his record as the civil administrator at a time when free, popular government seemed about to pass away from the land, is brio-hter yet. The law under which he was acting as commander of the Fifth Military District allowed him, at his discre- 25i LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF tion, to assume all the authority of civil administration. He could make and unmake judges and courts ; could himself adjudicate cases of every description ; could be, in his own person, the absolute autocrat of the two States under his rule ; or he could sustain the civil authority, and permit a free, popular government to be maintained, in which the rights of all would be acknowledged. He preferred to relinquish power for himself, and to place it where it belonged. The orders by which he carried out this beneficent change show so strongly the clear judgment, the fine perception, and the absolutely unwavering conscien- tiousness of the General, that we append a few for the purpose of illustration. The people of Louisiana and Texas had been so long accustomed to look to the w^him of the military com- mander for the settlement of all questions of law arising in the intercourse of man with man, and even in those larger matters in which municipal corporations were concerned, that they at once and continually besieged General Hancock with applications to settle this, that, and the other controversy, which belonged, not to the military, but to the civil branch of the government. Hancock invariably turned them over to the courts, with the infoiTnation that w^hatever the law decided would be carried out, backed by all the force at his disposal. Upon his arrival at New Orleans, General Hancock found that distrust of the courts, and contempt for the civil administration of justice, was largely caused by the unwise and arbitrary regulations, established by his WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 255 predecessor, concerning the qualifications of jurors for service in the several courts. He therefore at once revoked the regulations, in the order from which we make the following extract, showing that, from the first, he comprehended the situation, and knew that relief was to be obtained only by establishing civil authority on a basis that would command respect : — Headquaeters Fifth Military District, JNew Orleans, La,, Dec. 5, 1867. Special Orders No. 203. 2. The true and proper use of military power, besides defending the national honor against foreign nations, is to uphold the laws and civQ government, and to secure to ever}'' person residing among us, the enjoyment of life, libert}", and propert3\ It is accordingly made, by act of Congress, the duty of the commander of this district to protect all persons in those rights, to suppress disorder and violence, and to punish, or cause to be punished, all disturbers of the public peace and criminals. The Commanding General has been officially informed that the administration of justice, and especially of criminal jus- tice, in the courts, is clogged, if not entirely frustrated, by the enforcement of paragraph No. 2, of the military order numbered special orders 125, current series, from these headquarters, issued on the 24th of August, A. D. 1867, relative to the qualifications of persons to be placed on the jury lists of the State of Louisiana. To determine who shall and who shall not be jurors, appertains to the legislative power ; and until the laws in existence regulating this subject shall be amended or changed by that department of the civil government, which the con- stitutions of all the States under our republican system vest 256 LIFE AIS^D PUBLIC SERVICES OF with that power, it is deemed best to carry out the will of the people as expressed in the last legislative act upon this subject. The qualification of a juror, under the law, is a proper subject for the decision of the courts. The Commanding General, in the discharge of the trust reposed in him, will maintain the just power of the judiciary, and is unwilling to permit the civil authorities and laws to be embarrassed by lailitary interference ; and as it is an established fact that the administration of justice in the ordinary tribunals is greatly embarrassed b}'' the operations of paragraph No. 2, special orders No. 125, current series, from these head- quarters, it is ordered that said paragraph, which relates to the qualifications of persons to be placed on the jurj'- lists of the State of Louisiana, be, and the same is hereb}' revoked, and that the trial by jury be, henceforth, regulated and con- trolled b}' the Constitution and civil laws, without regard to any militar}' orders heretofore issued from these head- quarters. • • • • •••«•« By command of Major-General Hancock. [Official.] Neither would he, as so many of the military com- manders did, permit property and valuables to bo placed in his hands, or in those of his subordinates, under circumstances where ordinarily the courts would assume control. His hands were always clean, and he would tolerate no suspicion of dishonesty, and give no opportunity for it among those about him. So, on the 16th of December, 18G7, we find him issuing an order revoking one that his predecessor had made, and re- storing the estate of a citizen of New Orleans to the WIXriELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 257 control of the local tribunals, and ordering that the property be turned over "to the possession of the party entitled to the same by the order of court." As a further illustration of the matters which mili- tary governors had been accustomed to decide accord- ing to their humor at the moment, thus breeding in the people a distrust of popular government and a demoralizinof habit of reliance on the will of one man in power, there was the case of the sale of a school section in Avoyelles Parish, on which the people had voted, but which was sent to General Hancock for ap- proval or revocation. He replied, placing the whole matter in the hands of the citizens of that parish, just where the authority of right belonged. This is his decision on the question : — Headquarters Fieth Military District, Ofeice of Secretary for Civil Affairs, New Orleaj^s, La., Dec. 28, 1867. Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Wood, Commanding District of Louisiana, New Orleans, La. : Colonel, — I am directed bj^ the Major-General Command- ing to acknowledge receipt of a letter from Nelson Durand (forwarded b}' 3^ou) , stating that the treasurer of Avoyelles Parish, La., caused an election to be held to ascertain if the citizens of the township were in favor of selling a school section belonging to the parish, and requesting an opinion as to the legahty of said election. In reply to said letter, I am directed by him to state that if the provision of the law were complied with in regard to advertisements, the manner of taking the sense of the inhab- itants, and legal voters only were admitted to take part, there seems to be no reason why the action should be considered a nullity. It was not, properly speaking, an election, but a 258 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF way prescribed by law of arriving at the will of the com- munity as regards the disposition to be made of certain school lands belonging to the parish. The previous authorization of the Major-General Com- manding is not considered necessary. But if the sense of the people was not dul}' regarded (on the previous occasion) , as to the foregoing requirements, the matter should be again referred to them for a free and legal expression of their opinion. I am, Colonel, very respectfully. Your obedient sei-vant, W. G. Mitchell, Bot. Lieut.'CoL, U. S. A., Sed'yfor Civil Affairs. In the same way, when the Governor of Louisiana asked General Hancock to turn out of ofSce the mem- bers of a police board, whom he accused of malfeasance in office, without any judicial investigation of the matter, General Hancock read him a courteous but emphatic lesson on the proper course for justice to take under a government of law, sending him the following communication : — HnADQUAIlTERS FiFTH MILITARY DISTRICT,^ Office of Secrktauy for Civil Affairs, > New Orleans, La., Dec. 30, 1867. ) His Excellency B. F Flanders, Governor of Louisiana : Governor, — I am directed bj^ the Major-General Com- manding to acknowledge the receipt of j'our communication of the 11th inst., with papers and documents accompanying the same, charging the Police Jury, Parish of Orleans, right bank, with appropriating to their own use and benefit the public funds of said parish, and with being personall}' intcr- *>sted in contracts let by them, and recommending the removal WINFIELD SCOTT HAJS^COCK. 259 from office of the president and members of said Police Jurj^ ; and, in repl}'', to state tliat these charges present a proper case for judicial investigation and determination ; and as it ia evident to him that the courts of justice can afford adequate relief for the wrongs complained of, if proved to exist, the Major-General Commanding has concluded that it is not ad- visable to resort to the measures suggested in your excellency's communication . I am, Governor, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, W. G. Mitchell, Bvt. IJeut.'Col., U. S. -4., Sec'y for Civil Affairs, Then there was the business of registration of voters, with which General Hancock's predecessor had inter- fered in an arbitrary manner, interpreting the laws after a fashion which gave opportunity for fraud and for oppression that had been turned eagerly to partisan advantage. He promptly revoked the orders, abdi- cated the autocratic throne assumed by his predeces- sor, and informed the Board of Registrars that, as they were given full powers in the matter by act of Congress, he should hold them responsible for the proper and exact performance of their duties. In this way he removed another obstacle to local self-govern- ment. Following is the order : — Headquarters FirTH Military District, ) Mew Orleans, La., Jan. 11, 1868. ) General Orders No. 3. Printed '' Memoranda of disqualifications for the guidance of the Board of Registrars, under the Military Bill passed March 2, 1867, and the BiU supplementary thereto," and ' ' Questions to be answered by persons proposing to regis- 260 LIFE AKD PUBLIC SERVICES OP ter," were distributed from these headquarters in the month of May, 1867, to the members of the Boards of Registration, then in existence in the States of Louisiana and Texas, for the registration of " the male citizens of the United vStates" who are quaUfied to vote for delegates under the acts entitled " An act to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States." These ' ' Memoranda " and ' ' Questions " are as follows : — [The Memoranda, being length}^, are omitted.] Grave differences of opinion exist among the best informed and most conscientious citizens of the United States, and the highest functionaries of the National Government, as to the proper construction to be given to the acts of Congress pre- scribing the qualifications entitling persons to be registered as voters, and to exercise the right of suffrage at the elec- tions to be holden under the act entitled ' ' An act to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States " and the acts supplementary thereto. Such differences of opinion are necessary incidents to the imperfection of human language when employed in the work of legislation. Upon examining those acts, the Commanding General finds himself constrained to dissent from the construction given to them in the "Memoranda" referred to. This construction would of com'se necessarily exclude all officers holding offices created under special acts of the State Legislatures, includ- ing all officers of municipal corporations, and of institutions organized for the dispensation of charity, under the authority of such special laws. Such a construction, in the opinion of the Major-General Commanding, has no support in the lan- gaage of the acts of Congress passed on the 2d and the 23d of March, 1867, which were the only acts in existence when these "Memoranda" were distributed. Since that time, however, what was before, in the opinion of the Command- ing General, only an error of construction, would now be a WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 261 contravention of the law, as amended and defined in the act of July 19, 1867. The Major-General Commanding also dissents from various other points in the construction given to the disqualif\ing clauses of the acts in question, as shown by the "Memo- randa " referred to ; but he will add nothing further to what he has already said on the subject, because his individual opinions cannot rightfully have, and ought not to have, any influence upon the Boards of Registration in the discharge of the duties expressly imposed upon and intrusted to them by these acts of Congress as they now stand. The Boards of Registration are bodies created by law with certain lim- ited but well-defined judicial powers. It is made their especial dut}^ "to ascertain, upon such facts as they can obtain, whether anj^ person applying is entitled to be regis- tered" under the acts. Their decisions upon the cases of individual applicants are final as to the right, unless appeals are taken, in the proper form, and carried before competent superior authority for revision ; and, like the members of ordinary courts engaged in the exercise of judicial func- tions, it is the bounden duty of the members of the Boards of Registration to decide uj^on the questions as to the right of any applicant, on the facts before them, and in obedience to the provisions of the law. Since the passage of the act of July 19, 1867, it is net only tlie right, but the solemn duty of the members of these Boards, each for himself, and under the sanction of his oath of office, to interpret the provisions of the acts from which the authority of the Boards was derived, and to decide upon each case according to the best of his own judgment. The distribution of the above ' ' Memoranda ** was well calculated to produce the impression in the minds of the members of Boards of Registration, that they constituted rules prescribed to them for their government in the dis- 2G2 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF charge of their official duties which they were required to obe}^ ; and it seems certain from various communications of facts in relation to the mode of carr}dng out the registration, that the}^ were so regarded by the members of the Boards, and that they not onlj' influenced, but in point of fact, con- ti'olled the proceedings of the different Boards. In consequence of this, and as the time for the revision of the registration in the State of Texas is now at hand, and the duty of making the revision will, it is probable, in a great degree be performed by persons who are members of the Boards of Registration, to which the " Memoranda" in ques- tion were distributed for their guidance, the Major-General Commanding deems it of importance that the members of the Boards of Registration, and the people at large, should be informed that the "Memoranda" before referred to, dis- tributed from the headquarters of this Militar}^ District, are null and of no effect, and are not now to be regarded by the Boards of Registration in making their decisions ; and that the members of the Boards are to look to the laws, and to the laws alone, for the rules which are to govern them in the discharge of the delicate and important duties imposed upon them. For this purpose, they will be furnished with copies of the acts of Congress relating to this subject, and of the amend- ment (known as Ai'ticle XIV^) to the Constitution of the United States. In case of questions arising as to the right of an}^ indi- vidual to be registered, the person deeming himself aggrieved is entitled to his appeal from the decision of the Board, and the Boards are directed to make a full statement of the facts in such cases, and to forward the same to these headquarters without unnecessar}" delay. ^y command of Major-General Hancock. [Official.] WINFIELD SCOTT HAXCOCK. 263 The beneficial effect of these orders was seen at once in the increased respect paid the courts, in the greater steadiness of society and of business, and in the growth of a manly self-reliance among citizens. 264 LUE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER VI. General Hancock and the Carpet-Ba£;gers. — Governor Pease and Constitutional Government. — Hancock refuses to Supplant the Courts by Military Commissions. — He will not Interfere with Civil Suits in the Courts. — Riparian Rights not to be Adjuli- cated upon by Courts-Martial. — "Arbitrary Power has no Exist- ence here." The governors of the Southern States, at this time, were of the sort known as carpet-baggers. They were, of course, intense partisans, and often men of little or no honest principle. The plunder and ruin of so many Southern States attests the shameful work of these men, who were appointed to place and power for which they were notoriously unfit, as a reward for political service, and who at once proceeded to make the most of their opportunity' for enriching themselves. They relied upon the support of the Federal troops in maintaininor their control and in shieldins: them from the consequences of their misconduct. They had no idea of constitutional government, or, if they had, they deliberately and persistently acted in denial of such knowledge. Instead of leading the States which they governed in the path of reconstruction toward a sound popular government, they used every endeavor to per- petuate military rule and to crush the authority of law under the might of arms. To a statesman like Hancock, such a monstrous WINFIELD SCOTT HAJS^COCK. 265 wrong was unendurable. Although not a politician, he knew more of the constitutional history of our coun- try than all of these creatures of party. His studies at West Point had grounded him in the fundamental prin- ciples of our system, and as a man he had added to this knowledge the teaching of a wide experience of and acquaintance with the methods of popular government. He knew that in our Eepublic the people ruled them- selves, and he had fought and shed his blood to secure for them the right of self-government. Now he was brought into contact with men in office who demanded that the people should not govern themselves, but should be ruled by officials whom they did not choose, under military coercion ; and that this state of things should continue indefinitely. This perversion of power was most abhorrent to Han- cock, who was striving to reinstate the rule of law and to educate a community, demoralized by war, up to the point of local self-government again. Very naturally, his ideas soon clashed with those of the carpet-bag governors. They looked to him for arbitrary military interference over the head of the law and the courts ; he demanded that the law, and not his individual will, should be the ruling power, and insisted that the law should be obeyed. He very soon came into conflict with Governor Pease of Texas, as we have already stated, on the subject of the appointment of military commissions ; and the let- ter in which he declares his position on this matter is so clear and comprehensive, that we give it here- with : — 266 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF Headquahters Fifth Military District, Office of Secretauy for Civil Affairs, New Orleans. La., Dec. 28, 1867. His Excellency E. M. Pease, Governor of Texas : Sir, — Brevet Maj.-Gen. J. J. Reynolds, commanding Dis- trict of Texas, in a communication dated Austin, Tex., Nov. 19, 18G9, requests that a military commission ma}^ be ordered '' for the trial of one G. W. Wall and such other prisoners as may be brought before it," and forwards in sup- port of the request, the following papers : 1st. A printed account taken from a newspaper dated Uvalde, Oct. — , 1867 (contained in a letter of James H, Taylor, and in another from Dr. Ansell, U. S. Sm-geon at Fort Inge) , of the mm'der of R. W. Black, on the day of October, ISO 7. In this account it is stated Mr. Black was shot through the heart by G. W. Wall " while lying on the counter at Mr. Thomas's store." 2d. A letter of Judge G. H. Noonan to Governor Pease, dated Nov. 10, 1807, informing him that ''Wall, Thacker, and Pullian are in confinement in Uvalde County for murder." In this letter it is asked, ' ' Would it not be best to try them by military commission ? " 3d. A letter from Governor Pease, dated "Executive of Texas, Austin, Nov. 11, 1867," in which the Governor states that he received a telegram from Judge G. H. Noonan, an extract from which I transmit herewith. In the letter of the Governor the further statement is made that "Uvalde Count}', where the prisoners are confined, is on the extreme western frontier of the State, and has only about one hundred voters in a territory of about nine hundred square miles," and he then adds, " It is not probable that they (meaning the prison- ers) can he kept in confinement long enough ever to be tried by the civil courts of that count}'' ;" and expresses the opinion that they never ' ' can be brought to trial unless it is done WINFIELD SCOTT HAJS'COCK. 267 before a military commission." And he therefore asks that a military commission be ordered for their trial. From an examination of the papers submitted to the Com- mander of the Fifth Military District, it does not appear that there is any indisposition or unwillingness on the part of the local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of, and to try the prisoners in question ; and a suggestion made by the Gov- ernor that it is not probable the prisoners can be kept in confinement long enough to be tried by the civil courts (and which is apparentl}^ based on the fact that Uvalde County is a frontier count}', and does not contain more than a hun- dred voters) , seems to be the only foundation on which the request for the creation of a military commission is based. This, in the opinion of the Commanding General, is not suffi- cient to justify him in the exercise of the extraordinary power vested in him by law ' ' to organize militar}^ commis- sions or tribunals" for the trial of persons charged with offences against the laws of a State. It is true that the third section of ' 'An act to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States," makes it the duty of the commanders of militarj" districts " to punish, or cause to be punished, all disturbers of the public peace and criminals ; " but the same section also declares that ' ' to that end he ma}^ allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of, and to tr}' offenders." The further power given to him in the same section, "when in his judgment it may be neces- sar}' for the trial of offenders," to organize military commis- sions for that purpose, is an extraordinary power, and from its very nature should be exercised for the trial of offenders against the laws of a State only in the extraordinary event that the local civil tribunals are unwilling or unable to enforce the laws against crime. At this time the country is in a state of profound peace. The State Government of Texas, organized in subordination 268 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF to the authority of the Government of the United States, is in the full exercise of all its proper powers. The courts, duly empowered to administer the laws, and to punish all offenders against those laws, are in existence. No unwillingness on the part of these courts is suggested to inquire into the offences with which the prisoners in question are charged, nor are any obstructions whatever in the way of enforcing the laws against them said to exist. Under such circumstances there is no good ground for the exercise of the extraordinary power vested in the commander to organize a military commission for the trial of the persons named. It must be a matter of profound regret to all who value constitutional government, that there should be occasions in times of civil coimnotion, when the public good imperatively requires the intervention of the military power for the repres- sion of disorders in the bod}' politic, and for the punishment of offences against the existing laws of a country framed for the preservation of social order ; but that the intervention of this power should be called for, or even suggested, by civil magistrates, when the laws are no longer silent and civil magistrates are possessed, in their respective spheres, of all the powers necessary to give effect to the laws, excites the surprise of the commander of the Fifth Military District. In his view it is of evil example, and full of danger to the cause of freedom and good government, that the exercise of the militar}' power, through military tribunals created for the trial of offences against the civil law, should ever be permitted, when the ordinary powers of the existing State Governments are ample for the punishment of offenders, if those charged with the administration of the laws are faithful in the dis- charge of their duties. If the means at the disposal of the State authorities are insufficient to secure the confinement of the persons named in the communication of the Governor of the State of Texas to WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 269 the General Commanding there, until the}^ can be legally tried, on the fact being made known to him, the Commander of the district will supply the means to retain them in confinement, and the commanding officer of the troops in Texas is so authorized to act. If there are reasons in existence which justify an apprehension that the prisoners cannot be fairly tried in that coant}^ let the proper civil officers have the *' venue" changed for the trial, as provided for by the laws of Texas. In the opinion of the Commander of the Fifth Military Dis- trict, the existing government of the State of Texas possesses all the powers necessarj^ for the proper and prompt trial of the prisoners in question in due course of law. If these powers are not exercised for that purpose, the fail- ure to exercise them can be attributed onl}'^ to the indolence or culpable inefficiency of the officers now charged with the execution and enforcement of the laws under the authority of the State Government ; and if there is such a failure, in the instance mentioned, on the part of those officers, to execute the laws, it will then become the dut}^ of the commander to remove the officers who fail to discharge the duties imposed on them, and to replace them with others who will discharge them. Should these means fail, and it be found, on further expe- rience, that there are not a sufficient number of persons among the people now exercising political power in Texas, to supply the public with officers who will enforce the laws of the State, it will then become necessary for the commander of the Fifth Military District to exercise the powers vested in him by the acts of Congress under which he is appointed, for the purpose of vindicating the majesty of the law. But until such necessit}^ is shown to exist, it is not the intention of the Commanding General to have recourse to those powers ; and he deems the present a fitting occasion to make this 270 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF known to the Governor of Texas, and through him to the people of the State at large. I am, su", very respectfully. Your obedient serv^ant, W. G. Mitchell, Bvt. Lieut-Col., U. S. A., Sec'yfor Civil Affairs, So pressing were the requests that he should inter- terfere with his military authority in matters which belonged strictly to the courts, and in which individual judgment had no place, that General Hancock was compelled, early in his administration, to issue a gen- eral order explaining why such interference would not be permitted. The following order was promulgated : — Headquarters Fifth Military District, ) Mew Orleans, La., Jan. 1, 1868. \ General Orders No. L Applications have been made at these headquarters imply- ing the existence of an arbitrar}^ authorit}' in the Commanding General touching purel}' civil controversies. One petitioner solicits this action, another that, and each refers to some special consideration of gi'ace or favor which he supposes to exist, and which should influence this De- partment. The number of such applications and the waste of time they involve, make it necessary to declare that the administration of civil justice appertains to the regular courts. The rights of litigants do not depend on the views of the general — they are to be adjudged and settled according to the laws. Ai*bi- trary power, such as he has been urged to assume, has no ex- istence here. It is not found in the laws of Louisiana or of Texas — it cannot be derived from any act or acts of Con- gress — it is restrained by a constitution and prohibited from action in many particulars. WLN FIELD SCOTT HAJJ^COCK, 271 The Major-General Commanding takes occasion to repeat that, while disclaiming judicial functions in ci\il cases, he can suffer no forcible resistance to the execution of process of the courts. By command of Major-General Hancock. [Official.] To understand what sort of applications compelled the issuance of the above order, it is only necessary to mention that the mayor of New Orleans actually asked the Commanding General to exercise his military author- ity to stop suits against the city of New Orleans on its coiporate notes ! The following is General Hancock's reply :— Headquartebs Fifth Military District^ Office of Secretary for Civil Affairs, C New Orleans, La., Dec. 20, 1867. 3 The Hon. E. Heath, Mayor of New Orleans : Sir, — In answer to your communication of the 30th ult., requesting his intervention in staying proceedings in suits against the city on its notes, the Major-General Commanding du'ects me to respectfully submit his views to you on that subject as follows ; — Such a proceeding on his part would, in fact, be a stay-law in favor of the city of New Orleans, which, under the Con- stitution, could not be enacted by the Legislature of the State ; and, in his judgment, such a power ought to be exer- cised by him, if at all, only in a case of the most urgent necessity. That the notes referred to were issued originally in viola- tion of the charter of the city, cannot be denied ; but the illegal act has since been ratified by the Legislature. The Corporation is therefore bound to pay them ; and, even if a defence could be made on technical grounds, it would be dis- 272 LIFE AKD PUBLIC SERVICES OF gi'aceful for the citj to avail itself of it. Wliy, then, should the creditors of the city be prevented from resorting to the means given them to enforce the obligation? In support of 3*our application, you state that the city is unable to pay its debts. This is, unfortanatety, the case with most debtors ; and on that ground nearly all other debtors would be equally entitled to the same relief. The Supreme Court of this State has decided that taxes due a municipal corporation cannot be seized, under execu- tion, by a creditor of the corporation, nor is any other property used for municipal purposes liable to seizure. If, therefore, a constable levies an execution on such property, he is a trespasser ; and the city has its remedy against him in the proper tribunal. It does not, therefore, seem to the Major-General Com- manding that there is an urgent necessity which would justify his interference in the manner required. Besides, the expe- diency of such a measure is more than questionable ; for, instead of reinstating the confidence of the public in city notes, it would probably destroy it altogether. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. G. Mitchell, Bvt. Lieut.-Col.^ U. S. A.^ Sec*y for Civil Affairs, And if further illustration is necessary to show to what extent this demoralizing policy of military inter- ference had been carried, and how necessary it was to stop it before all respect for the law was destroyed, we present the following letter of General Hancock, which explains in itself the request, and gives the answer : — HEADatTARTERS FiFTH MILITARY DISTRICT,^ Office of Secretary for Civil Affairs, > New Orleans, La., Jan. 2, 18G8. ) Henry Van Vleet, Esq., Chief Engineer: Sir, — In reply to yoxxr communication, requesting the Major-General Commanding to issue a certain order relative WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 273 to the New Orleans, Mobile and Chattanooga Railroad Corn- pan}^, I am directed by him to state : — That the order asked for embraces questions of the most important and delicate nature, such as the exercise of the right of eminent domain, obstruction of navigable rivers or outlets, etc., and it appears to him very questionable whether he ought to deal with questions of that kind ; nor is it clear thai, any benefit could result to the company from such an order. So far as the State of Louisiana is concerned, there can be no difficulty in obtaining a decree of appropriation of the land which may be required for the enterprise, according to the existing laws, as the company has been regularly incorporated under the general corporation act. Be this, however, as it may, the question of power ^ which the company desires solved by the proposed order, belongs properly to the judiciary, and therefore the Major-General Commanding declines to take action in the matter. If you desire, the papers in this case, together with a copy of this letter, will be forwarded to the Secretary of War. I am, sir, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, W. G. Mitchell, Bvt. Lieut. 'Col. ^ U. S. A., Sec* y for Civil Affairs, In all the vastly perplexing duties of his civil admin- istration, General Hancock pursued the same calm, unwavering purpose ; on whatever side he was assailed with demands for the elevation of the military over the civil power, he consistently and convincingly showed that the civil authority must rule, and the military only support the laws and suppress violent opposition to them. 274 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERTICES OF CHAPTER Vn. Troops at tlie Polls. — Hancock's Famous Order. — Soldiers to Visit the Polls only to Vote. — Hancock Declines to use his Troops for the Collection of Taxes. — He Instructs Governor Pease in the Art of Law and of Civil Government. — The Usurpations of the Freed- men's Bureau. — Hancock's Letter to General Howard on the Sub- ject. One of the most humiliating acts of the carpet-bag rulers of the Southern States was the policing of the polls with Federal bayonets at the time of election. It was done under the plea that violence and intimidation were feared. The natural effect, of course, was to inflame the passions of the people and induce violence where none was ever contemplated before. But the most emphatic proof of the insincerity of this plea is found in the fact that the entire civil government, in every department, was in the hands of the men who pretended to fear violence at the polls, and that in all places there was an army of occupation, ready to answer, at a moment's call, the demand for troops to support the police in case of trouble. It is unnecessary to recite the instances of gross fraud and perversion of the will of the people which occurred under this system. It was impossible that men of the character of those who then held the gov- ernment should conduct themselves honestly when they held not only the entire civil machinery of elections in their hands, but also controlled an armed force with WTNTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 275 wliicli to exclude any or all citizens from the polls at their will. It is easily understood how, with these resources, they permitted none to vote except those who would vote as they wished. Every occurrence of this sort, of course, increased the bad feeling among the people, and naturally led to violence. It was the direct way in which to breed and foster hatred of the government whose representative was a bayonet, and at the same time to accustom the people to the sight of the degradation of the civil power below that of the military. One of General Hancock's early acts was to remove this unrepublican idea. He took the constitutional ground that the civil officers of the peace must alone have charge of the duty of preserving order at elections, unless, in the opinion of the civil authorities, violence prevailed to such an extent that it could not be quelled without the aid of the military. As in all his orders, he held that the military arm should be used only to sustain the civil authority, not to supersede it. Gen- eral Hancock's order on this subject is as follows : — Headquarters Fifth Military District, ) New Orleans, La., Dec. 18, 1867. J Spkcial Orders No. 213. EXTRACT. I. In compliance with the supplementary act of Congress of March 23, 18G7, notice is hereby given that an election will be held in the State of Texas on the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth days of February, 18G8, to determine whether a convention shall be held, and for delegates thereto, "to form a constitution" for the State under said act. 276 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF IX. Militar}^ interference with elections, *' unless it shall be necessary to keep the peace at the polls," is prohibited by law ; and no soldiers will be allowed to appear at any polling place, unless, as citizens of the State, they are registered as voters, and then only for the purpose of voting ; but the commanders of posts will be prepared to act promptly if the civil authorities fail to preserve the peace. X. The sheriff and other peace oflicers of each county are required to be present during the whole time the polls are kept open, and until the election is completed, and will be made responsible that there shall be no interference with judges of election, or other interruption of good order. As an additional measure to secure the purit}' of the elec- tion, each registrar or clerk is hereby clothed, during the election, with authorit}' to call upon the civil oflicers of the county to make arrests, and, in case of failure of the afore- said civil oflicers, are empowered to perform their duties during the election. They will make full report of such failures on the part of civil officers to the Commanding General, Fifth Military District, through the headquarters, District of Texas, for orders in each case. • ••••• •• • • By command of Majok-General Hancock. [Official.] The idea instilled into the minds of those appointed to civil rule in Louisiana and Texas seemed to be that they were to govern by military force. General Han- cock was constantly in receipt of requests from the carpet-baggers of various degrees of authority, to undertake by military power the work which, under a proper scheme of government, would rest entirely with the civil arm. It was thus in the matter of troops at WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 277 the polls. The Governor wanted the military to take control to the exclusion of the proper civil authorities, because it suited his purpose better. So in the matter of the collection of taxes. Before there had been any attempt to collect the levy, an appeal for force was sent to General Hancock. He replied as follows : HEADQrARTERS FiFTH MILITARY DISTRICT ") Office of Secretary for Civil Affairs, ' (. New Orleans, La., Jan. 15, 1868. ) H. Peralta, Esq., Auditor of Public Accounts, New Orleans, La. : Sir,— I am directed by the Major- General Commanding to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 13th iust., in which yoii state that the '-taxes imposed by the Constitutional Convention cannot be collected through the ordinary process of collecting taxes in this State," and "refer the whole matter to him for his action ; " and, in reply, to state that the tax-collectors of the parishes of Orleans and Jefferson, in their report to you of the same date, say that "the tax- payers have generally refused to pay the tax." By reference to the ordinance of the convention, you will find "that the Auditor of Public Accoujits of the State shall, as under existing laws in relation to the collection of taxes, superin- tend and control the collection of said tax of one mill per cent. , and shall give immediate notice and instructions to the different sheriffs and tax-collectors." It does not appear, from your statement, that any process for the collection of this tax has issued, or that any othei steps have been taken, except giving notice in the news- papers, and a demand to pay, which has been refused. No resort has been made to those coercive means to enforce the payment of taxes pointed out by the laws of the State ; this it is your duty to direct the tax-collector to do. When thai is done (and forcible resistance should be made) , the Major- 278 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF General Commanding will, upon it being reported to him, take prompt measures to vindicate the supremacy of the law. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. G. Mitchell, Bvt. Lieut.-Col.^ U. S. A., Sec'y for Civil Affairs. Even this did not satisfy them, and a subsequent inquiry was made of General Hancock as to what he would do in case the civil courts interfered with the tax-collectors in the discharge of their duties. General Hancock made this reply : — Headquarters Fifth Military District,^ Office of Secretary for Civil Affairs, > New Orleans, La , Jan. 21, 1878. ) Hon. Wm. p. McMillan and Hon. M Vidal, Special Committee: Gentlemen, — The Major-General Commanding directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th inst., and to state in reply that the second ordinance of the Con- stitutional Convention, adopted on the 4th of Januar}^, 1868, provides a new mode for the collection of the tax, and imposes penalties on defaulting tax-payers. You request the Commandmg General to state what his action would be, should the civil courts of Louisiana interfere with the collectors in the discharge of their duties. In this connection, the Commanding General deems it unnecessary to repeat what he has already stated in reply to a previous letter concerning his authority on this subject. It would be highly improper for him to anti'^ipate any illegal interference of the courts in the matter. Whenever a case arises for the interposition of the powers vested in the Commanding General by the acts of Congress, he will promptly exercise them for the maintenance of law and order. I am, sir, verj' respectfull}', 3'our obedient servant, W. G. Mitchell, Bvt. Lieut.'CoL, U. S. A., Sec'y for Civil Affairs. WIXFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 279 General Hancock, although not bred to the law or to politics, was doing a most excellent work in teaching these lawyers and politicians the rudiments as well as the details of civil administration. It can truthfully be said that few governors of States have ever had so many perplexing questions of law and of jurisdiction placed before them for decision as General Hancock was assailed with when he was given absolute power, for good or for evil, in the carpet-bag-ridden States of Louisiana and Texas. And in deciding these cases he showed a clearness of mind and a genius for adminis- tration which entitle him to a high place among execu- tive officers. If he was not born a statesman, he certainly developed into one. The contrast between Hancock and the general whom he was sent to supersede on the critical first day of the Gettysburg fight is clearly shown by the incidents which occurred about this time. General Howard was at the head of the Freedmen's Bureau ; and, as this Bureau was run almost exclusively as a party machine, there was inevitable conflict between its operations and the purposes of a commander who was acting for his country and not for party. Some friction having occurred in General Hancock's department, he addressed a letter to General Howard on the subject, which is given here for the reason that in it Hancock again states certain vital principles which it would have been well to inculcate in the minds of all district commanders at that time. 280 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP HEADQrARTERS FiFTH MILITARY DISTRICT, New Orleans, La., Feb. 24,1868. Major-General O. 0. Howard , Commissioner of Bureau Refugees, Freed- men, and Abandoned Lands, Washington D. C : General, — Keferring to the report of Captain E. Collins, Seventeenth Infantry, sub-assistant commissioner of the Bu- reau refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands, at Brenham, Tex., dated Dec. 31, 1867, and transmitted b}" you for my information, I have the honor to state that I do not under- stand how any orders of mine can be interpreted as interfer- ing with the proper execution of the law creating the Bureau. It is certainly not my intention that they should so interfere. Anything complained of in that letter, which could have law- fully been remedied by the exercise of military authorit}', should have received the action of General Reynolds, who, being military commander, and also Assistant Commissioner for Texas, was the proper authority to apply the remedy, and to that end was vested with the necessary power. A copy of the report of Captain Collins had already been forwarded to me by General Rej'nolds before the receipt of your communication, and returned to him Januar}' 16th, with the following indorsement: " RespGctfully returned Brevet Maj.-Gen. J. J. Reynolds, commanding District of Texas. This paper seems to contain only vague and indefinite complaints, without specific action as to an}^ particular cases. If Captain Collins has any special cases of the nature referred to in his communication, which require action at these headquarters, he can transmit them, and they will receive attention." No reply has been received to this ; a proof either of the non-existence of such special cases, or of neglect of duty on the part of Captain Collins in not reporting them. It is, and will be my pleasure as well as duty, to aid 3'ou and the offi- cers and agents under youi' direction, in the proper execution WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 281 of the law. I have just returned from a trip to Texas. Whilst there I passed through Brenham twice, and saw Captain Collins ; but neither from him nor from General Rey- nolds, did I hear anything in regard to this subject, so far as I recollect. There are numerous abuses of authority on the part (^f certain agents of the Bureau in Texas, and General Reynolds is already investigating some of them. My intention is to confine the agents of the Bureau within their legitimate authority, so far as my power as district com- mander extends ; further than that, it is not my intention or desire to interfere with the Freedmen's Bureau. I can say, however, that had the district commander a superior control over the freedmen's affairs in the district, the Bureau would be as useful, and would work more harmoniousl}", and be more in favor with the people. At present there is a clash- ing of authority. I simply mention the facts without desir- ing an}' such control. The Reconstruction Acts charge district commanders with the dut}'- of protecting all persons in their rights of person and property' ; and to this end authorize them to allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of, and try offenders ; or if in their opinion necessary, to organize a military commission or tribunals for that purpose. They are thus given control over all criminal proceedings for violation of the statute laws of tlie States, and for such other offences as are not b}' law made triable by the United States courts. The Reconstruction Acts exempt no class of persons from theu* operation, and the duty of protecting all persons in their rights of person and property, of necessity invests district commanders with control over the agents of the Bureau, to the extent of at least enabling them to restrain these agents from any interference with, or disregai'd of their prerogatives as district commanders. 282 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF The district commanders are made responsible for the pres- ervation of peace and the enforcement of the local laws within their districts ; and they are the ones required to desiGfnate the tribunals before which those who break the peace and ^'iolate these laws shall be tried. Such being the fact, many of the agents of the Bureau seem not to be aware of it. In Texas, some are j'et holding courts, trying cases, imposing fines, taking fees for serAdces, and arresting citizens for offences over which the Bureau is not intended by law to have jurisdiction. General Reynolds is aware of some of these cases, and is, as I have already mentioned, giving his attention to them. In Louisiana, this state of aflfairs exists to a less extent, if at all. I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. S. Hancock, 3fajor- General U. S. Army Commanding. Howard, it will be observed, had been eager in usurping authority which did not belong to his agents ; Hancock had, from the first, refused to assume the authority vested in him at his discretion, whenever the civil government could perform the duty. The differ- ence is that between a government by the people, under laws of their own enactment, and a government of cen- tralized force, acting through agents irresponsible to the people. WINFIELD SCOTT HAXCOCK. 283 CHAPTER ym. The Carpet-Baggors protest against Civil Govermnent.— Governor Pease's Open Letter.— General Hancock's Reply.— The Soldier de- fends the Constitution and the Rights of the People against the Law- yer. — Congress attempts to get rid of Hancock.— A Bill which They dared not pass.— Grant made the Instrument of the Radicals. — He supersedes the President and revokes Hancock's Orders.— Hancock's Resignation. It was quite natural that the carpet-bag governors of Louisiana and Texas should dislike General Hancock's system. It deprived them of the arbitrary power which they had been accustomed to wield, and gave the people a chance to govern themselves in a quiet and decent way under the law. They saw their consequence and their opportunities for profit falling away from them, and they realized that, with returning prosperity, peace, and contentment, their occupation as governors would be gone. Hence they rebelled against Hancock's dechiration that " 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 should be preserved." Governor Pease of Texas was especially worried about the reign of law which General Hancock had intro- duced. This Pease had been appointed to his place under mihtary rule, and he had himself ruled with recklessness and cruelty. Shortly after he came into office, all of the judges of the Supreme Court of Texas, 284 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF five in number, and twelve out of seventeen of the district judges, were arbitrarily removed from office ; and others, whom this functionary desired, were appointed in their places. In addition to this, the county officers in seventy-five out of the one hundred and twenty-eight counties were removed, and others appointed in their places. By arbitrary order, none but persons capable of taking the test oath, and regis- tered as such, were allowed to serve as jurors. No people but one defeated and exhausted by a long and bloody war, would have endured such outrages. Such arbitrary acts, of themselves, would have been sufficient, under ordinary circumstances, to have de- luged any State in blood. But the oppressed ex-rebels proudly endured the wrong in silence. This wrong, General Hancock, as soon as he took command, aimed to repair; and his first step in this direction was the promulgation of the famous " General Order No. 40." To this order Governor Pease took exception, and sent to the press an open letter addressed to General Hancock, in which he criticised with great severity the action of the latter in issuing the order. He cited the act of Congress providing "for the more efficient government of the Southern States," which made the government of Texas provisional, and, as a part of the Fifth Military District, subject to mili- tary law. He affirmed that the President had put Hancock in command of a military force to protect the rights of property and person, suppress insurrection and violence, and to punish oflenders either by military commissions or by the local civil tribunals, as his judg- WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 285 ment mi2:ht seem best. He declared further that there were practically no local civil tribunals ; that it was not true, as was alleged in " Order No. 40," that there was no longer any organized resistance to the authority of the United States, but that, on the contrary, a large majority of the white population who participated in the late rebellion were embittered against the govern- ment, yielding only an unwilling obedience, having no affection, and but little respect, for the government. He declared that the people of Texas regarded the reconstruction leo:islation of Con«:ress as unconstitu- tional, the provisional governfnent a usurpation, and the emancipation of their slaves and their own disfran- chisement as insult and oppression. For this and simi- lar reasons. Governor Pease demanded that General Hancock set aside the local tribunals, and enforce penalties by military commissions. Here the spectacle was presented to the world of a civil executive demanding that military rule shall be established above the law of the Jand, and arguing the case aofainst an old soldier who had staked even his military position on the issue that the law of the land shall prevail over the power which he himself wielded. But the soldier lost no time in repulsing this civilian assault upon his works. Governor Pease had given his letter to the press, for political effect at the North, long before he sent it to General Hancock ; but the latter replied at once on receipt of the missive, and with vigor. He pointed out the option given him by the Kecon- struction Act, to govern by the local civil tribunals, if 286 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF in his judgment he thought best. The act, therefore, recoi^nized those local civil tribunals as le^^al authori- ties for the purpose specified. He showed that such matters as the affection or respect or hatred of the people, so long as not devel- oped into violation of law, were matters beyond the power of human tribunals, and that freedom of thought and speech, though acrimonious, was consistent with human welfare. What the people of Texas thought of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of acts of Congress, had nothing to do with the manner in w^hich they should be ruled. He declared that, at the expiration of two years after the close of the war, it w^as time to remember that it was proposed that the American people should be free- men and that it was time to tolerate free popular dis- cussion, and to extend forbearance and consideration to opposing views. He showed that to deny a profound state of peace in Texas necessitated a like denial in regard to any State in the Union where differences of opinion exist between majorities and minorities, and that, if difficulties in enforcinir criminal laws in Texas authorized the scttino^ aside of the local tribunals and the setting up of arbi- trary military commissions, they would warrant them in every State of the Union, where it is true that sher- iffs fail often to arrest, where grand jurors will not always indict, where petit juries have acquitted per- sons who were guilt}^, and where prisoners charged wdth offences have broken jail and escaped. Such reasons for establishing military commissions would WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 287 wipe civil government and law and liberty from the face of the earth. He showed with clearness that if he set aside the laws enacted for the people of the States lately in rebellion, which laws were not in conflict with the Constitution and acts of Congress, there would no longer exist any rights of person and property ; and be demonstrated the absurdity of a military commis- sion to establish wills, deeds, successions, or to settle any of the thousand questions which arise between men, for the solution of which laws and courts ^^ere established, and for dealing with which military com- missions were utterly incapable. He finally showed from the statistics that neither crime nor disloyal offences were on the increase under the operation of "Order No. 40," but that the contrary was expressly true. But no synopsis can do justice to this letter, which is not only admirable as an exposition of the constitu- tional rights of citizens, but is a model of elegant and forcible composition. The mental strength of the writer is shown in every line. Following is the letter in full: — Headqttarters Fifth Military Distbict, ) New Orleans, La., March 9, 1868. ^ To His Excellency E. M. Pease, Governor of Texas : Sm, — Your communication of the 17th January last, was received in due course of mail (the 27th January), but not until it had been widely chculated by the newspaper press. To such a letter — written and pubhshed for manifest pur- poses — it has been my intention to reply as soon as leisure from more important business would permit. 288 LITE AND PUBLIC SEKTICES OF Your statement that the act of Congress ' ' to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States " declares that whatever government existed in Texas was provisional ; that peace and order should be enforced ; that Texas should be part of the Fifth Military District, and subject to mili- tary power ; that the President should appoint an officer to command in said district, and detail a force to protect the rights of person and property, suppress insurrection and violence, and punish offenders, either by militar}^ commission or through the action of local civil tribunals, as in his judg- ment might seem best, will not be disputed. One need only read the act to perceive it contain such provisions. But how all this is supposed to have made it my duty to order the military commission requested, you have entirely failed to show. The power to do a thing, if shown, and the propriety of doing it, are often very different matters. You observe you are at a loss to understand how a government, without representation in Congress or a militia force, and subject to military power, can be said to be in the full exercise of all its proper powers. You do not reflect that this government, created or permitted by Congress has all the powers which the act intends, and may fully exercise them accordingly. If you think it ought to have more powers, should be allowed to send members to Congress, wield a militia force, and possess 3'et other powers, your complaint is not to be preferred against me, but against Congress, who made it what it is. As respects the issue between us, any question as to what Congress ought to have done has no pertinence. You admit the act of Congress authorizes me to try an offender by mili- tary commission, or allow the local civil tribunals to try, as I shall deem best ; and you cannot deny the act expressly recognizes such local civil tribunals as legal authorities for the purpose specified. When you contend there are no legal local tribunals for an}' purpose in Texas, you must either WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 289 deny the plain reading of the act of Congress or the power of Congress to pass the act. You next remark that you dissent from my declaration, *' that the country (Texas) is in a state of profound peace,'* and proceed to state the grounds of your dissent. Thcsy appear to me not a little extraortlinary. I quote your words : " It is true there no longer exists here (Texas) anj' organ- ized resistance to the authorit}^ of the United States." "But a large majorit}^ of the white population who participated in the late rebellion are embittered against the government, and yield to it an unwilling obedience." Nevertheless, you con- cede they do jield it obedience. You proceed : " None of this class have any affection for the government, and very few any respect for it. They regard the legislation of Congress on the subject of reconstruction as unconstitu- tional and hostile to their interests, and consider the govern- ment now existing here under authority of the United States as a usurpation on their rights. They look on the emanci- pation of their late slaves and the disfranchisement of a portion of their own class as an act of insult and oppression." And this is all you have to present for proof that war and not peace prevails in Texas ; and hence it becomes my duty — so 3'ou suppose — to set aside the local civil tribunals, and enforce the penal code against citizens by means of military commissions. My dear sir, I am not a lawyer, nor has it been my busi- ness, as it may have been yours, to study the philosophy of statecraft and politics. But I may lay claim, after an expe- rience of more than half a lifetime, to some poor knowledge of men, and some appreciation of what is necessary to social order and happiness. And for the future of our common country, I could devoutly wish that no great number of our people have yet fallen in with the views you appear to entertain. Woe be to us whenever it shall come to pass that the power 290 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF of the magistrate — ci^dl or militar}^ — is permitted to deal with the mere opinions or feelings of the people. I have been accustomed to believe that sentiments of respect or disrespect, and feelings of affection, love, or hatred, so long as not developed into acts in violation of law, wtre matters wholly bej^ond the punitory power of human tribunals. I will maintain that the entire freedom of thought and speech, however acrimoniously indulged, is consistent with the noblest aspu'ations of man, and the happiest condition of his race. When a boy, I remember to have read a speech of Lord Chatham, delivered in Parliament. It was durmg our Revo- lutionary war, and related to the polic}' of employing sav- ages on the side of Britain. You may be more familiar with the speech than I am. If I am not greatl}' mistaken, his lordship denounced the British Government — his government — in terms of unmeasured bitterness. He characterized its policy as revolting to every sentiment of humanity and religion ; proclaimed it covered with disgrace, and vented his eternal abhorrence of it and its measures. It ma}', I think, be safel}'' asserted that a majority of the British nation con- curred in the views of Lord Chatham. But whoever sup- posed that profound peace was not existing in that kingdom, or that government had any authorit}' to question the absolute right of the opposition to express their objections to the pro- priety of the king's measures in an}' words or to an}' extent they pleased ? It would be difficult to show that the opponents of th(i government in the days of the elder Adams, or Jefferson, or Jackson, exhibited for it either '' affection" or '* respect.'* Your are conversant with the history of our past parties and political struggles touching legislation on alienage, sedition, the embargo, national banks, our wars with England and Mexico, and cannot be ignorant of the fact, that for one WTNTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 291 party to assert that a law or system of legislation is unconsti- tutional, oppressive, and usurpative, is not a new thing in the United States. That the people of Texas consider acts of Congi'css unconstitutional, oppressive, or insulting to them, is of no consequence to the matter in hand. The Prcsicient of the United States has announced his opinion that these acts of Congress are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, as you are aware, not long ago decided unanimouslj' that a certain military commission was unconstitutional. Our peo- ple ever3'where, in every State, without reference to the side they took diuring the Rebellion, differ as to the constitution- ality of these acts of Congress. How the matter really is, neither 3'ou nor I may dogmatically affirm. If you deem them constitutional laws, and beneficial to the countr}', you not only have the right to publish 3'our opinions, but it might be j^our bounden dut}' as a citizen to do so. Not less is it the privilege and duty of any and every citizen, wherever residing, to publish his opinion freely and fearlessly on this and every question which he thinks concerns his interest. This is merely in accordance with the principles of our free government ; and neither you nor I would wish to live under any other. It is time now, at the end of almost two years from the close of the war, we should begin to recol- lect what manner of people we are ; to tolerate again free, popular discussion, and extend some forbearance and con- sideration to opposing views. The maxims that in all intel- lectual contests truth is mighty and must prevail, and that error is harmless when reason is left free to combat it, are not only sound, but salutary. It is a poor compliment to the merits of such a cause, that its advocates would silence oppo- sition by force ; and generally those only who are in the wrong will resort to this ungenerous means. I am confident you will not commit your serious judgment to the proposition that any amount of discussion, or any sort of opinions, how- 292 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF ever unwise in your judgment, or any assertion of feeling, however resentful or bitter, not resulting in a breach of law, can furnish justification for 3'oui' denial that profound peace exists in Texas. You might as well deny that profound peace exists in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, Ohio and Kentucky, where a majority of people differ with a minority on these questions ; or that profound peace exists in the House of Representatives or the Senate at Washington, or in the Supreme Court, where all these questions have been repeatedly discussed, and parties respectfully and patiently heard. You next complain that in parts of the State (Texas) it is difficult to enforce the criminal laws ; that sheriffs fail to arrest ; that grand jurors will not always indict ; that in some cases the military, acting in aid of the civil authorities, have not been able to execute the process of the courts ; that petit jurors have acquitted persons adjudged guilt}* by 3"ou ; and that other persons charged with offences have broke jail and fled from prosecution. I know not how these things are ; but admitting 3*our representations literall}'' true, if for such reasons I should set aside the local civil tribunals and order a military' commission, there is no place in the United States where it might not be done with equal propriet}'. There is not a State in the Union — North or South — where the like facts are not continually happening. Perfection is not to be predicated of man or his works. No one can rcasonabl}* expect certain and absolute justice in human transactions ; and if military power is to be set in motion, on the principles for which 3'ou would seem to contend, I fear that a civil government, regulated by laws, could have no abiding place beneath the circuit of the sun. It is rather more than hinted in 3"our letter, that there is no local State government in Texas, and no local laws out- side of the acts of Congress, which I ought to respect ; and that I should undertake to protect the rights of persons and propert3' ^^^ ''^V ^"''^ ^^i/ ^^^ ^^ ^^ arbitrary manner. If such WINTIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 293 be 3"0iir meaning, I am compelled to differ with 5^ou. After the abolition of slavery (an event which I hope no one now regrets) , the laws of Louisiana and Texas existing prior to the rebellion, and not in conflict with the acts of Congress, com- prised a vast system of jurisprudence, both civil and criminal. It required not volumes only, but libraries to contain them. They laid down principles and precedents for ascertainhig the rights and adjusting the controversies of men in every conceivable case. The}' were the creations of great and good and learned men, who had labored in their day for their kind, and gone down to the grave long before our recent troubles, lea\'ing their works an inestimable legacy to the human race. These laws, as I am informed, connected the civilization of past and present ages, and testified of the jus- tice, wisdom, humanity, and patriotism of more than one nation, through whose records they descended to the present people of these States. I am satisfied, from representations of persons competent to judge, they are as perfect a S3'^stem of laws as may be found elsewhere, and better suited than any other to the condition of this people, for by them they have long been governed. Why should it be supposed that Congress has abolished these laws ? Why should any one wish to abolish them? They have committed no treason, nor are hostile to the United States, nor countenance crime, nor favor injustice. On them, as on a foundation of rock, reposes almost the entire superstructure of social order in these tw^ States. Annul this code of local laws, and there would be no longer any rights, either of person or property, here. Abol- ish the local civil tribunals made to execute them, and 3'on would virtually annul the laws, except in reference to the very few cases cognizable in the Federal courts. Let us for a mo- ment suppose the whole local civil code annulled, and that I am left, as commander of the Fifth Mihtary District, the sole fountain of law and justice. This is the position in which you would place me. 294 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF I am now to protect all rights and redress all wrongs. How is it possible for me to do it? Innumerable questions arise, of which I am not only ignorant, but to the solution of which a military court is entirely unfitted. One would estab- lish a will, another a deed ; or the question is one of succes- sion, or partnership, or descent, or trust ; a suit of ejectment or claim to chattels ; or the application ma}^ relate to robbery, theft, arson, or murder. How am I to take the first step in any such matter? If I turn to the acts of Congress I find nothing on the subject. I dare not open the authors on the local code, for it has ceased to exist. And 3'ou tell me that in this perplexing condition I am to furnish, by dint of my own hast}^ and crude judgment, the legislation demanded b}^ the vast and manifold interests of the people ! I repeat, sir, that 3'^ou, and not Congress, are responsible for the monstrous suggestion that there are no local laws or institutions here to be respected by me, outside the acts of Congress. I say unhesitatingly, if it were pos- sible that Congress should pass an act abolishing the local codes for Louisiana and Texas — which I do not believe — and it should fall to my lot to supply their places with something of my own, I do not see how I could do better than follow the laws in force here prior to the Rebellion, excepting what- ever therein shall relate to slavery. Power may destro}' the fonns, but not the principles of justice ; these will live in spite even of the sword. History tells us that the Roman pandects were lost for a long period among the rubbish that war and revolution had heaped upon them ; bat at length were dug out of the ruins, again to be regarded as a precious treasure. You are pleased to state that "since the publication of (m}') general orders No. 40, there has been a perceptible increase of crime and manifestations of hostile feeling toward the Government and its supporters," and add that it is " an WINFIELD SCOTT nA^'COCK. 295 unpleasant duty to give such a recital of the condition of the country." You wdll permit me to say that I deem it impossible the first of these statements can be true, and that I do very greatlj' doubt the correctness of the second. General orders No. 40 was issued at New Orleans, Nov. 29, 18G7, and your letter was dated Jan. 17, 18G8. Allowing time for order No. 40 to reach Texas and become generally known, some addi- tional time must have elapsed before its effect would be mani- fested, and 3'et a further time must transpire before 3'ou would be able to collect the evidence of what 30U term ' ' the condi- tion of the country ;" and 3^et, after all this, you would have to make the necessary investigations to ascertain if order No. 40, or something else, was the cause. The time, therefore, remaining to enable 3'ou, before the 17th of Januar}", 1868, to reach a satisfactory conclusion on so delicate and nice a question must have been very short. How 3'OU proceeded ; whether 3'OU investigated 3'ourself or through third persons ; and if so, who they were, what their competency and fair- ness ; on what evidence 3'ou rested 3'our conclusion, or whether 3'OU ascertained an3^ facts at all, are points upon which 3'our letter so discreetly omits all mention, that I ma3' well be ex- cused for not rel3'ing implicitl3^ upon it ; nor is m3' difricult3' diminished b3' the fact that in another part of 3'our letter 3'OU state that ever since the close of the war a very large portion of the people have had no affection for the Government, but bitterness of feeling onl3'. Had the dut3' of publishing and circulating through the countr3^ long before it reached me, 3'Our statement that the action of the district commander was increasing crime and hostile feeling against the Government, been less painful to 3'our sensibilities, it might possibl3' have 0( eurred to 3-ou to furnish something on the subject in addi- tion to 3'our bare assertion. But what was order No. 40, and how could it have the 296 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF effect you attribute to it? It sets forth that "the great prin- ciples of American libert}^ are still the inheritance of this people and ever should be ; that the right of trial by jury, the habeas corpus, the liberty of the press, the freedom of speech, and the natural rights of persons and property must be pre- served." Will you question the truth of these declarations? Which one of these great principles of libert}^ are you ready to deny and repudiate ? Whoever does so avows himself the enemy of human liberty and the advocate of despotism. Was there any intimation in general orders No. 40 that any crimes or breaches of law would be countenanced ? You know that there was not. On the conti'ary, jon know per- fectly well that while '' the consideration of crime and offences committed in the Fifth Military District was referred to the judgment of the regular civil tribunals," a pledge was given in order No. 40, which all understood, that tribunals would be supported in their lawful jurisdiction, and that '' forcible resistance to law would be instantly suppressed by arms." You will not affirm that this pledge has ever been forfeited. There has not been a moment since I have been in command of the Fifth Disti'ict, when the whole military force in my hands has not been ready to- support the civil authorities of Texas in the execution of the laws. And I am unwilling to believe they would refuse to call for aid if they needed it. There are some considerations which, it seems to me, Bhould cause you to hesitate before indulging in wholesale censures against the civil authorities of Texas. You are yourself the chief of these authorities ; not elected b}^ the peo- ple, but created by the militar3\ Not long after 3'ou had th .s come into office, all the judges of the Supreme Court of Texas — live in number — were removed from office, and new appointments made ; twelve of the seventeen district judges were removed and others appointed. County officei's, more WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 297 or less, in seventy-five out of one hundred and twenty-eiglit counties, were removed, and others appointed in their places. It is fair to conclude that the executive and judicial civil functionaries in Texas are the persons whom 3'ou desired to fill the offices. It is proper to mention, also, that none but registered citizens, and only those who could take the test oath, have been allowed to serve as jurors during your admin- istration. Now, it is against the local government, created by military power prior to my coming here, and so composed of 3'our personal and political friends, that you have preferred the most grievous complaints. It is of them that 3^ou have asserted they will not do their duty ; they will not maintain justice ; will not arrest offenders ; will not punish crimes ; and that out of one hundred homicides committed in the last twelve months, not over ten arrests have been made ; and by means of such gi'oss disregard of dut}^, 3'ou declare that neither property nor life is safe in Texas. Certainly you could have said nothing more to the discredit of the officials who are now in office. If the facts be as 3^ou allege, a mystery' is presented for which I can imagine no ex planation. Wh}" is it that your political friends, backed up and sustained b}' the whole militar}^ of the United States in this district, should be unwilling to enforce the laws agair^t that part of the population lately in rebellion, and whom you represent as the offenders ? In all the history of these trou- bles, I have never seen or heard before of such a fact. I re- peat, if the fact be so, it is a profound mj^ster}^, utterly sur- passing m}' comprehension. I am constrained to declare that I believe you are in verj^ great error as to facts. On careful examination at the proper source, I find that, at the date of your letter, four cases only of homicides had been reported to these headquarters as having occurred since Nov. 29, 1867, the date of order 40, and these cases were ordered to be tried or investisjated as soon as the reports were received. 298 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF However, the fact of one hundred homicides may still be cor- rect, as stated b}^ you. The Freednien's Bureau in Texas reported one hundred and sixty ; how many of these were by Indians and Mexicans, and how the remainder were classified, is not known, nor is it known whether these data are ac- curate. The report of the commanding officer of the District of Texas shows that since I assumed command no applications have been made to him by you for the arrest of criminals in the State of Texas. To this date eighteen cases of homicides have been reported to me as having occurred since Nov. 29, 18G7, although special instructions had been given to report such cases as they occur. Of these, five were committed Ijy Indians, one by a Mexican, one by an insane man, three by colored men, two of women by their husbands, and of the remainder, some by parties unknown — all of which could be scarcely attribut- able to order No. 40. If the reports received since the issuing of order No. 40 are correct, they exhibit no increase of homicides in m}' time, if 5'ou are correct that one hundred had occurred in the past twelve months. That there has not been a perfect administration of justice in Texas I am not prepared to denj'. That there has been no such wanton disregard of dut}^ on the part of officials as 3'ou allege, I am well satisfied. A very little while ago 3''ou regarded the present officials in Texas the only ones who could be safely trusted with power. Now you pronounce them worthless, and would cast them aside. I have found little else in your letter but indications of temper, lashed into excitement by causes which I deem mostly imaginar}', a great confidence in the accurac}' of 3'our own opinions, and an intolerance of the opinions of others. a desire to punish the thoughts and feelings of those who WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 299 differ from you, and an impatience which magnifies the short- comings of officials who are perhaps as earnest and conscien- tious in the discharge of their duties as yourself, and a m.ost unsound conclusion that while an}' persons are to be found wanting in affection or respect for government, or yielding it obedience from motives which 3^ou do not approve, war, and not peace, is the status, and all such persons are the proper subjects for military penal jurisdiction. If 1 have written an3^tliing to disabuse your mind of so grave an error, I shall be gratified. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. S. Hancock, Major-General Commanding. But all this time General Hancock's action was inter- fering, not only with the Governors of Louisiana and Texas and their satellites, but with purposes of the Republican majority in Congress. A presidential elec- tion was approaching, and it was a party necessity that the vote of the Southern States should be secured for the Republican candidate. To elect a Republican Presi- dent and retain possession of Congress, it was necessary that the South should remain under militar}^ rule, and that the conduct of the elections should be absolutely in the hands of that party. To allow Hancock's plan of constitutional and legal government to be carried out, and the Southern States rehabilitated so far that the ballot should be free, and the votes of their people counted in determining the result, would be fatal to this scheme. Hence it was decreed that Hancock must go. But the President had appointed .him, and the President alone could remove 300 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF him. So it must be accomplished by indirection. The first plan was to pass a bill reducing the number of major-generals in the regular army, which would degrade Hancock, since his commission to that rank was dated 1866. A bill was introduced to this effect; but the prospect of a tremendous popular reaction against its authors terrified them, and it was dropped. A quieter scheme was then concocted. The first step w^as, by act of Congress, to place in the hands of tlie Gen- eral of the army unusual powers, exceeding those of the President, in regard to the administration of the military governments of the South. The next was for the General to use these powers in interference with General Hancock's direction of affairs in his district in such a manner as to cripple his authority and, in fact, place him in a humiliating position. About this time General Hancock w^rote to a friend in Congress : " I hope to be relieved here soon. The President is no longer able to protect me. So that I may expect one humiliation after another until I am forced to resign. I am prepared for any event. Noth- inir can intimidate me from doirn^ what I believe to be honest and risfht." General Hancock applied to be relieved from his command on the 27th of February, 18G8. WnSTFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 301 CHAPTER IX. General Hancock's Patriotism. — He is sought to lead the Democratic Party. — The National Convention of 1868. — Tilden's Nomina- tion in 1876. — Hancock's Letter on the Electoral Contest. — The Cincinnati Convention. — Hancock nominated unanimously. — The Campaign. — Garfield's Election. It is pleasing to note with what consistent patriotism General Hancock performed his duties to his country. With him the Democratic sentiment was not a flicker- ing flame, blown hither and thither with every breath of circumstance or interest. It was a steady light, illu- mining his path at every step, and making it impossible for him to go astray. In every situation we find him the same loyal, deter- mined champion of the rights of a free people under a free government. Thus, when he was captain and quartermaster at Los Angeles, at the outbreak of the war, before the news of actual secession had reached that distant point, he declared himself promptly and unflinchingly on the side of the Union ; and in a speech made on the 4th of July, 1861, he said : — '' Who of us can forget the names of Lexington, of Mon- mouth, of Brandy wine and Yorktown, and who can forget that he is a descendant of those who fought there for the liberties we now enjoy ? And what flag is it that we now look to as the banner that carried us through the great con- test, and was honored by the gallant deeds of its defenders ? 802 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF The star-spangled banner of America, then embracing thirteen pale stars, representing that number of oppressed colonies. Now, thirty-four bright planets, representing that number of great States. To be sure, clouds intervene between us and eleven of that number ; but we will trust that those clouds may soon be dispelled, and that those great stars in the southern constellation may shine forth again with even greater splendor than before. ''Let us believe, at least let us trust, that our brothers there do not wish to separate themselves permanently from the common memories which have so long bound us together, but that when reason returns and resumes her sway they will prefer the brighter page of history which our mutual deeds have inscribed upon the tablets of time, to that of the uncer- tain future of a new confederation, which, alas ! to them may prove illusory and unsatisfactory. " Let tliem return to us. We will welcome them as broth- ers who have been estranged, but have come back. We have an interest in the battle-fields of the Revolution in those States not second to their own. Our forefathers fought there side by side with theirs. Can they, if they would, throw aside their rights to the memories of the great fields on our soil on which their ancestors won renown ? No, they cannot ! God forbid that they should desire it. To those who, regardless of these sacred memories, insist on sundering this union of States, let us who only wish our birthrights pre- served to us, and whose desire it is to be still citizens of this great country that gave us birth, and to live under the flag which has gained for us the glory we boast of, say this day, to those among us who feel aggrieved : Your rights we will respect ; your wrongs we will assist you to redress ; but the government resulting from the union of these States is a priceless heritage that we intend to preserve and defend to the last extremity." WINFIELD SCOTT HAKCOCK. 803 It was Hancock's unswerving loyalty, his brilliant military career, and the remarkable strength of charac- •ter which he showed when in command of the district comprising Louisiana and Texas, that commended him to the national Democratic party as its candidate for President. The ideas of constitutional reconstruction which he proclaimed when in that command were, indeed, the very principles for which that party was contending in Congress and throughout the country, as against the method of reconstruction through military rule and the disfranchisement of the men lately in rebellion, which the party in power was pursuing. He was, in fact, of all the major-generals in the army, the only one who had ventured to oppose the purposes of the Repub- lican majority in Congress, to refuse to exercise the absolute power given him by the reconstruction acts, and to subordinate the military arm to civil authority. He had shown by his acts, as well as by his words, that he fully believed in the reconstruction of the Union by constitutional means rather than by force ; and this was the end for which the Democracy was con- tending. Even before he resigned the command of the Fifth Military District his name had been mentioned as that of a fit candidate for the Presidency; and when the Convention met in New York City, July 4, 1868, he had many enthusiastic supporters in that body. The meeting of the Convention was held in Tammany Hall, ex-Governor Horatio Sej^mour presiding. Two days were occupied in organization; and upon the third day, July 7, the States were first called for the presentation 304 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF of candidates. When Maine was reached, General Samuel J. Anderson presented the name of Hancock in a speech, in which he described him thus : — "A man who, by nature gifted with a broad, comprehen- sive, and discriminating intellect, educated in a school which taught him that the government was instituted to afford to its citizens the great cardinal rights of personal liberty, per- sonal security, and the right to acquire and enjoy property, stood there and interposed between the operations of the military government and the people who had been outraged and oppressed, the law that should accord to them those rights ; a gentleman who, on another field, was one of the brave men in command of troops in the late contest, and united within himself the attributes of lion-hearted courage and great magnanimity ; who fought well for the nation which placed him in command, but held forth the hand of mercy to the enemy when brought beneath his arms ; a man who, ever foremost in the fight, held the plume aloft, which, like the helmet of Navarre, was alwa3'S the oriflamme under which his troops went on either to honorable death or glo- rious victor3\ With these words it would seem almost su- perfluous to give the name ; but I will nominate General AVinfield Scott Hancock." General Hancock's nomination was received with great cheers, and the balloting began. On the first ballot Pendleton led with 105 votes (each delegate casting half a vote), and Hancock stood next on the list with 33^. It was a long and weary balloting, ex- tending into the following day with the relative posi- tion of the leadin"^ candidates but little chano^ed. On the fifteenth ballot, however, the chairman of the Penn- sylvania delegation announced that, having voted up to WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 305 that time for Hon. Asa Packer, the vote of the State would then be thrown for General Hancock. From that point onward General Hancock stood at the head of the poll, on the eighteenth ballot receiving 144^ votes, or nearly a majority. It was at length proved to the satisfaction of all the delegates that the necessary two-thirds vote could not be secured for any candidate then before the Conven- tion, and on the twenty-second ballot ex-Governor Sey- mour was nominated. It is a singular coincidence that both General Sey- mour and General Hancock should live to see a Demo- cratic administration chosen by the people^ and should both die within the same week. General Grant's re-election followed. During this ad- ministration General Hancock passed three years in com- mand of the Department of Dakota, quietly performing the duties of his office, and taking no part in public life. In 1876, when his name was again presented for the consideration of the National Democratic Convention as a candidate for the Presidency, he had been transferred back to the Department of the Atlantic* The Convention met at St. Louis, Jan. 27, 1876, Gen- eral John A. McClernand of Illinois presiding. This time it was his own State of Pennsylvania which pro- posed Hancock. Hon. Heister Clymer presented his name, saying: — ' ' I am charged by the delegation from the State of Penn- sylvania, representing three hundred and twenty-five thou- sand Democrats, to present in their name, and by their authority, as their unanimous choice for the highest elective office on earth, the name of one born on their soil and dear 306 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF to their hearts ; the name of oue whose character is the em- bodiment of all that is chivalrous in manhood and excellent in morals ; the name of one who never drew his sword save in defence of his country' 's honor, or in obedience to her laws ; the name of one who, in the horn' of supreme victory, never forgot a common brotherhood ; the name of one who, although the very exemplar of grim-visaged war, is 3-et the sincerest and lowliest devotee of the Constitution and the law ; the bame of one who, in the plenitude of military pow- er, when dishonored, dismembered, and dismantled States were placed in his absolute sway, declared that the liberty of the press, the habeas corpus, the right of trial by jnr}^, the right of persons and of property, must be maintained ; the name of one whose fame and reputation are true to every American citizen of whatever race or color, party or creed — the name of Winfield Scott Hancock." At the first ballot General Hancock's name stood third on the list, receiving 75 votes ; and on the second ballot ex-Governor Samuel A. Tilden was nominated. The result of the election in the following November, when, by tlie machinations of the party in power at Washington, the votes of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida were falsified and discredited, and the country seemed on the point of again plunging into civil strife, marks a dark page in our history. General Hancock's attitude throughout this troublous season was character- istic. He had firm faith in the people and in the laws; and in a letter to General Sherman, with whom he was in correspondence during all this time of excitement, he gives his views at length. This letter is of such impor- tance that it is presented entire : — WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 807 Carondelet p. O., St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 28, 1876. My dear General : — Your favor on the 4tli iiist. reached me in New York on the 5th. The clay before I left for the West I intended to reply to it, but cares incident to departure interfered. Then again, since my arrival here, I have been so occupied with affairs of a business nature, that I have deferred writing from day to day until this moment, and now I find myself in debt to you another letter in acknowledgment of your favor of the 17th, received a few days since. AVhen I heard the rumor that I was ordered to the Pacific coast, I thought it probably true, considering the past discussion of that subject. The possibilities seemed to me to point that way. Had it been true, I should, of course, have presented no complaint, nor made resistance of any kind. I would have gone quickly, if not prepared to go promptly. I cer- tainly would have been relieved from the responsibilities and anxieties concerning presidential matters, which may fall to those near the throne or in authority, within the next four months, as well as from other incidents or matters which I could not control, and the action concernincr which I mioht not approve. I was not exactly prepared to go to the Pacific, however, and I therefore felt relieved when I received your note informing me there was no truth in the rumors. The whole matter of the presidency seems to me to be sim- ple, and to admit of a peaceful solution. The machinery for such a contingency as threatens to present itself has been all carefully prepared. It only requires lubrication, owing to disuse. The army should have nothing to do with the election or inauguration of presidents. The people elect the president : Congress declares in joint session who he is. We of the army have only to obey his mandates, and are protected in so doing only so far as they may be lawful. Our commissions express that. I like Jefferson's way of inauguration. Ho 308 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF inaugurated himself simply by taking the oath of office. There is no other legal inauguration in our system. The people or politicians may institute parades in honor of the event, and public officials may add to the pageant by assem- bling troops and banners ; but all that only comes properly after the inauguration, not before, and it is not a part of it. Our system does not provide that one president should inaugurate another. There might be danger in that, and it was studiously left out of the charter ; but you are placed in an exceptionally important position in connection with coming events. The capital is in my jurisdiction also ; but I am a subordinate and not on the spot, and if I were so, there also would be my superior in authority, for there is the station of the general-in-chief . On the princi[)le that a regularly elected president's term of office expires with the od of March (of which I have not the slightest doubt) , and which the laws bearing on the subject uniformly recognize, and, in considera- tion of a possibility that the lawfully elected president may not appear until the 5th of March, a great deal of responsi- bility may necessarily fall upon you. You hold over. You will have power and prestige to support you. The secretary of war, too, probably holds over ; but, if no president ap- pears, he may not be able to exercise his functions in the name of a president, for his proper acts are those of a known superior — a lawful president. You act on your own respon- sibility, and by virtue of 3'our commission, only restricted by the law. The secretary of war is the mouthpiece of a presi- dent. You are not. If neither candidate has the constitutional majority of the electoral college, or the Senate and House, on the occasion of the count, do not unite in declaring some person legally elected by the people, there is a lawful machinery already provided to meet that contingency and to decide the question WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 309 peacefully. It has not been recently used, no occasion pre- senting itself ; but our forefathers provided it. It has been exercised and recognized and submitted to as lawful on every hand. That machinery would probably elect Mr. Tilden president, and Mr. Wheeler vice-president. That would be right enough, for the law provides that in a failure to elect duly by the people the House shall immediately choose the president, and the Senate the vice-president. Some tribunal must decide whether the people have duly elected a president. I presume, of course, it is in the joint affirmative action of the Senate and House ; or why are they present to witness the count, if not to see that it is fair and just? If a failure to agree arises between the two bodies, there can be no lawful affirmative decision that the people have elected a president, and the House must then proceed to act. Not the Senate. The Senate elects vice-presidents, not presidents. Doubtless, in case of the failure of the House to elect a president by the 4th of March, the president of the Senate (if there be one) would be the legitimate per- son to exercise presidential authority for the time being, or until the appearance of the lawful president, or for the time laid down in the Constitution. Such a course would be peaceful, and, I have a firm belief, lawful. I have no doubt Governor Ha^^es would make an excellent president. I have met him and know of him. For a brief period he served under my command ; but as the mat- ter stands I cannot see any likelihood of his being duly declared elected by the people, unless the Senate and House come to be in accord as to that fact, and the House would, of course, not otherwise elect him. What the people want is a peaceful determination of this matter, — as fair a determination as possible, and a lawful one ; no other determination could stand the test. The country, if not plunged in revolution, would become poorer 310 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF da}^ by day ; business would languish, and our bonds would come home to find a depreciated market. I was not in favor of military action in South Carolina recently, and if General Ruger had telegraphed home, or asked for advice, I would have advised him not, under any circumstances, to allow himself or his troops to determine who were the lawful members of the State legislature. I could not have given him better advice than to refer him to the special message of the president in the case of Louisiana some time before. But in South Carolina he had the question settled by a decision of the Supreme Court of the State, the highest tribunal which had acted on the question, so that his line of duty seemed even to be clearer than in the action in the Louisiana case. If the federal court had interfered and overruled the decision of the State court, there might have been a doubt, certainly ; but the federal court only inter- fered to complicate, not to decide or overrule. Anyhow, it is no business of the army to enter upon such questions ; and even if it might be so in any event, if the civil authority is as supreme as the Constitution declares it to be, the South Carolina case was one in which the armv had a plain duty. Had General Ruger asked me for advice, and if 1 had given it, I should of course have notified you of my action immediately, so that it could have been promptly overruled, if it should have been deemed advisable by you or other superior authority. General Ruger did not ask for my advice, and I inferred from that, and other facts, that he did not desire it, or that, being in direct communication with m}' military superiors, at the seat of government, who were nearer to him in time and distance than I was, he deemed it unnecessary. As General Ruger had the ultimate responsi- bility of the action, and had really the greater danger to confront in the final action in the matter, I did not venture to embarrass him by suggestions. "WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 311 As I have been writing thus freel}' to you, I may still further unbosom myself by stating that I have not thought it lawful or wise to use federal troops in such matters as have transpired east of the Mississippi within the last few months, save so far as they may be brought into action under the article of the Constitution which contemplates the meeting of armed resistance, or the invasion of a State more powerful than the State authorities can subdue by ordinary process, and then only when requested by the Legislature, or, if it could not be convened in session, by the governor ; and when the president of the United States intervenes in that manner, it is in a state of war, not of peace. The army is laboring under disadvantages, and has been used unlawfully at times, in the judgment of the people (in mine certainly) , and we have lost a great deal of kindlj* feel- ing which the community at large once felt for us. " It is time to stop and unload." Officers in command of troops often find it difficult to act wisely and safeh', when their superiors in authorit}' have different views of the law from theirs, and when legislation has sanctioned action seemingly in conflict with the fundamental law, and they generallj' de- fer to the known judgment of their superiors. Yet the su- perior officers of the army are so regarded in such a great crisis, and are held to such responsibility, especiall}^ those at or near the head of it, that it is necessary on such momen- tous occasions to dare to determine for themselves what is lawful and what is not lawful under our system, if the mili- tary authorities should be invoked, as might possibly be the case in such exceptionable times, when there existed such divergent views as to the correct result. The arm}' will suf- fer from its past actions if it has acted wrongfully. Our regular arm}' has little hold upon the affections of the people of to-day, and its superior officers should certainly, as far as lies in their power, legally, and with righteous intent, aim to 312 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF defend the right, which to us is the law, and the institution whicli they represent. It is a well-meaning institution, and it would be well if it should have an opportunity to be rec- ognized as a bulwark in support of the rights of the people and of the law, I ain, truly yours, WiNFiELD S. Hancock. On the Gtli of January, 1877, when the electoral com- mission was proposedj General Hancoek w^'ote to Gen- eral Sherman, — *' The proposition for the joint committee insures a peace- ful solution of the presidential questions if it becomes a law, and, in my opinion, gives Governor Hayes chances he did not have before. I have considered that Mr. Tilden's chances were impregnable ; not so Mr. Hendricks's. Now, it seems to me that Governor Hayes has something more than an equal chance ; but the definite results cannot be foreshadowed. Fortunately, trouble need not be provided against by the use of the army, should the bill become a law- If the bill passes and General Grant vetoes it, Mr. Tilden's chances will be stronger than before, certainly, if he and his friends sup- ported the measure. Public opinion will strengthen his position. The danger in the compromise question or joint committee plan is, that the defeated candidate might appeal to the supreme court op grounds of illegal (unconstitutional) decisions." In reply, General Sherman wrote, in effect, that he thought the danger was over. He said, — *'The passage of the bill for counting the electoral vote, approved by the President, ends, in my judgment, all possi- ble danger of confusion or disorder in connection with the WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 313 presidential imbrogliQ. I feel certain tliat tlie dual govern- ments in South Carolina and Louisiana will be decided by the same means which determines who is to be the next President of the United States.'* Four years later, at Cincinnati, General Hancock received the Democratic nomination. The Convention met at Cincinnati, June 22, 1880, Hon. John W. Ste- venson of Kentucky presiding. Daniel Doherty, the eloquent Philadelphian, presented his name in a glow- ing speech. He said, ^ *'I present to the thoughtful consideration of the Conven^ tion the name of one who, on the field of battle, was styled *the superb,' yet won still nobler renown as the Military Governor whose first act, in assuming command in Louisiana and Texas, was to salute the Constitution by proclaiming, amid the joyous greetings of an oppressed people, that the military, save in actual war, shall be subservient to the civil power. ''The plighted word of the soldier was proved in the deeds of the statesman. "I name one who, if nominated, will suppress every fac- tion, and be alike acceptable to the North and to the South ; whose nomiqation will thrill the land from end to end, crush the embers of sectional strife, and be hailed as the dawning of the longed-for day of perpetual brotherhood. "With him we can fling away our shields and wage ag- gressive war. With him as our chieftain the bloody banner of the Republicans will fall from their palsied grasp. We can appeal to the supreme tribunal of the American people against the corruptions of the Republican party and its untold violations of constitutional liberty. "Oh! my countrymen, in this supreme moment, the des- 314 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF tinies of the Republic, the imperilled liberties of the people, bang breathless on your deliberations. Pause ! reflect ! beware ! take no misstep. "I nominate him who can carry every Southern State; can carry Pennsylvania, Indiana, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. The soldier-statesman, with a record stain- less as his sword. I nominate Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania. If elected he will take his seat.'* The Convention had but one ballot that day ; and Hancock's name was at tlie head of the list, with 171 votes. Then the Convention adjourned. When it met in the third day's session, Thursday, June 21, Mr. Tilden's name was withdrawn by the New York delegation, and a ballot was at once taken. When the clerk had reached Illinois in the call for States, the tide of ballot- ing was seen to set strongly toward Hancock, and from that moment to the close there were no votes but for the favorite. The nomination was made unanimous amid a scene of enthusiasm such as the oldest veterans of Democratic conventions had never seen. Then came the speeches of ratification and congratulation. The factions of the New York Democracy publicly proclaimed their rec- onciliation, and on all sides there were eager voices indorsing the candidacy of the hero-statesman. Gen- eral Hancock formally accepted the nomination in the following letter, in which, it will be observed, he an- ticipated the declaration, afterwards made famous by President Cleveland, that "pubUc office is a public trust." WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 315 Governor's Island, New York City, July, 29, 1880. Gentlemen : — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of July 13, 1880, apprising me formally of my nomination to the office of President of the United States by the National Democratic Convention, lately assembled in Cincinnati. I accept the nomination with grateful apprecia- tion of the confidence reposed in me. The principles enun- ciated by the Convention are those I have cherished in the past, and shall endeavor to maintain in the future. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Con- stitution of the United States, embodying the results of the war for the Union, are inviolable. If called to the Presidency, I should deem it my duty to resist, with all of my power, any attempt to impair or impede the full force and effect of the Constitution, which in every article, section, and amendment, is the supreme law of the land. The Constitution forms the basis of the government of the United States. The powers granted by it to the legislative, executive, and judicial depart- ments, define and limit the authority of the general govern- ment. Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, belong to the States respectively, or to the people. The General and State governments, each acting in its own sphere without trenching upon the lawful jurisdiction of the other, constitute the Union. This Union, comprising a general government with general powers, and State governments with State powers for pur- poses local to the States, is a polity, the foundations of which were laid in the profoundest wisdom. This is the Union our fathers made, and which has been so respected abroad and so beneficent at home. Tried by blood and fire, it stands to- day a model form of free popular government ; a political system which, rightly administered, has been, and will con- tinue to be, the admu-ation of the world. May we not say, 316 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF nearly in the words of Washington : '* The unity of govern- ment, which constitutes us one people, is justly dear to us ; it is the main pillar in the edifice of our real independence, the support of our peace, safety, and prosperity, and of that liberty we so highly prize, and intend at every hazard to pre- serve ' ' ? But no form of government, however carefully devised, no principles, however sound, will protect the rights of the peo- ple unless the administration is faithful and efficient. It is a vital principle in our system that neither fraud nor force must be allowed to subvert the rights of the people. When fraud, violence, or incompetence controls, the noblest constir tutions and wisest laws are useless. The bayonet is not a fit instrument for collecting the votes of freemen. It is only by a full vote, free ballot, and fair count, that the people can rule in fact, as required by the theory of our govern-r ment. Take this foundation away ar^d the whole structure falls. Public office is a trust, not a bounty bestowed upon the holder. No incompetent or dishonest persons should ever be entrusted with it, or, if appointed, they should be promptly ejected. The basis of a substantial, practical civil-service reform must first be established by the people iu filling the elective offices. If they fix a high standard of qualifications for office, and sternly reject the corrupt and incompetent, the result will be decisive in governing the action of the servants whom they entrust with the appointing power. The war for the Union was successfully closed more than fifteen years ago. All classes of our people must share alike in the blessings of the Union, and are equally concerned in its perpetuity and in the proper administration of public affairs. We are in a state of profound peace. Henceforth let it be our purpose to cultivate sentiments of friendship, and not of animosity, among our fellow-citizens. Our material WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 317 interests, varied and progressive, demand our constant and united efforts. A sedulous and scrupulous care of the public credit, together with a wise and economical management of our governmental expenditures, should be maintained, in order that labor may be lightly burdened and that all persons may be protected in their rights to the fruits of their own industry. The time has come to enjoy the substantial benefits of recon- ciliation. As one people we have common interests. Let us encourage the harmony and generous rivalry among our own industries which will revive our languishing merchant marine, extend our commerce with foreign nations, assist our mer- chants, manufacturers, and producers to develop our vast natural resources, and increase the prosperity and happiness of our people. If elected, I shall, with the Divine favor, labor with what ability I possess to discharge my duties with fidelity, accord- ing to my convictions, and shall take care to protect and defend the Union, and to see that the laws be faithfully and equally executed in all parts of the country alike. I will assume the responsibility, fully sensible of the fact that to administer rightly the functions of government is to discharge the most sacred duty that can devolve upon an American citizen. I am, respectfully yours, WiNFiELD S. Hancock. To the Hon. John "W. Stevenson, President of the Convention ; Hon. John P. Stockton, Chairman ; and others of the Committee of the National Democratic Convention. The political canvass of 1880 was the most hotly con- tested in the history of this generation. It was the end of twenty years of continuous rule by the Eepublican party, and the country was ready for a change. Noth- ing but the most herculean efforts could prevent it, as 318 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF the declaration of Tilclen's election had been prevented four years before. These efforts were put forth. Gen- eral Hancock had opposed to him the entire patronage and machinery of the federal administration, corporate influences which sought government protection, and an unlimited fund of money raised by heavy assessments. But in the face of all this, and in spite of misrepresen- tation and detraction such as unfortunately falls to the lot of every candidate for high office, the contest was most creditable to the Democracy and honorable to the leader of that party. Among the incidents of that canvass which was per- sistently misrepresented to General Hancock's hurt, and which was even to the day of his death quoted as demon- strating an ignorance of public affairs, was tlie pub- lication of a letter, late in the campaign, in which he referred to the tariff as a "- local issue." This expression was seized upon by the press, distorted in every con- ceivable way, and made the occasion of assaults upon the intelligence of the writer. The meaning of the words, of course, was, that the tariff question was vari- ously considered, according as local interests varied, and that it could not enter as a fundamental element into the platform of either of the great political parties. This was a simple statement of a fact which is just as true now as it was then. The expression was perhaps unfortunate, but the idea was clear enough to fair- minded men. In spite of the strength of the opposition, which was then making its last successful struggle to retain power, General Hancock's great popularity, his known strength of character and incorruptible integrity, attracted to him WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 319 an immense popular vote. At that election he received, in all the States, 4,442,035 votes, as against 4,449,053 for Garfield; the successful candidate receiving a plurality of only 7,018 out of a total popular vote of 9,000,000. In the vote of the Electoral College Garfield received a majority of 59, having 214 votes to Hancock's 155. The States which voted for Hancock were : Alabama, Arkansas, California (5 votes), Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Those voting for Garfield were : California (1 vote), Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennysl- vania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. General Hancock received his defeat in a manner that was characteristic and noble. He accepted the result without a murmur and without hard feeling. His first duty after the election was to take charge, in his mili- tary capacity, of the inauguration of his successful rival ; and the ovation which he received at Washing- ton on that occasion attested how large a place he held in the hearts of the people. 320 LITE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER X. Hancock assigned to the Department of the Atlantic. — Life at Gov- ernor's Island. — A Quiet and Honored Existence. — Duties of the Senior Major-General. — His Home Life. — Family Bereavements. — Death of General Grant; — Hancock's Last Public Appearance. The Presidential campaign, with all its stir and tur- moil and excitement, had made no difference with Han- cock's manner of life, nor did his defeat and the election of President Garfield turn him for a moment from the tenor of his way. Hancock was first of all a soldier, and lie had a soldier's idea of dut}'. He accepted the orders of the people as the commands of the authority superior to all others, and he obeyed without hesitation or a thought of murmuring. He would have been more than mortal had he not felt disappointment at the result of the election : he would have been other than himself had he allowed this disappointment to influence him by a feather's weight from what was his duty as a soldier, a citizen, and a courteous gentleman. How gracefully and manfully, and how simply withal, he accepted the situation, appears in a letter written about this time to a friend who had inquired of his intentions as to visiting Washington on the occasion of the inauguration. It is a delightfully informal letter, showing the great general in undress uniform. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 821 Governor's Island, ) New Yokk Harbor, Feb. 24, 1881. ] My DEAR Mrs. Whitney : — Yes, I am going to Washing- ton on the 3d of March for a few days. General Sherman, my commanding officer, has asked me to be present. I have no right to any personal feeling in the matter. It is clearly my duty as a soldier to obey. A Democratic Congress has formally announced that the people have duly elected a President, and that is James A. Garfield. It certainly seems that the Democratic candidate should be there to support the assertion. Otherwise he would not be a good Democrat. Vox popiiU,, vox Dei. The will of the majority rules, you know. What I can do in Washington with dignity, I shall do. I do not expect to be in advance of, or to follow, the triumphal car, either on foot or on horseback. I only expect to do my level best. The situation does not, from this early stand-point, look very well. I hope it may look better as I look back. I wonder how they did these things in Rome. I have read of the Roman ways, to be sure ; but it was a long time ago. When I return from Washington, I can tell you how the Americans do it under the new census. Fifty millions of people have a way of their own, you know. I hope you are well, and may I live to see a Democratic President. I am yours, very truly, WiNFiELD S. Hancock. From this time on, General Hancock had no more thought of the Presidency as an ambition which he could realize. He was no politician, and in no way greedy of public advancement for himself. He stepped forward to lead the Democracy in 1880, when he was called upon, as he was always ready for the service of 322 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF his country. That episode was closed, and he was still the soldier. General St. Clair A. Mulholland, who com- manded a brigade in Hancock's division during a good part of the war, and who was an intimate personal friend, tells of a call upon Hancock at Governor's Island, shortly after he had realized the wish expressed in his letter to Mrs. Whitney, and had seen a Demo- cratic President elected and inaugurated. General Han- cock chatted about old times, and especially his defeat for the Presidency in 1880. He laughed heartily as he recalled anecdotes in regard to that campaign. When asked if he would ever be willing to go before the people again, he assumed a sad air as he said, — " No. I am done with that. I shall never place my- self again prominently before the people, or take an active part in public affairs, unless some great crisis, like the rebellion of 1861, should call me into action. I shall retire from military service in two years." Hancock was now the senior Major-General of the United States Army. Grant had retired. Sherman had been made General, and Sheridan had succeeded to the Lieutenant-Generalcy. Next to these ranked Han- cock. Plis assignment was to the command of the Department of the Atlantic, a position of great respon- sibilit}^ and dignity. Its duties were largely administra- tive. There was no fighting to be done. On the occasion of the great railroad riots in Pennsylvania, Hancock went to the scene of the disturbance in person, at the request of the government, with a small number of troops ; but the only powder burned by this hero of many battles, during his occupancy of this post, was that expended in salutes. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 323 The years spent at the headquarters on Governor's Island were busy but quiet. The affairs of the Depart- ment' called for the exercise of the executive ability which General Hancock possessed in so large measure, and were carefully managed. The social requirements of the commander at this station were also very exacting. Being so near New York, General and Mrs. Hancock were constantly entertaining distinguished guests, few of whom passed through that city without paying their respects to the great soldier. The duties which were thus imposed upon the General were gracefully performed by him and his wife. Mrs. Hancock was always ready for visitors before noon every day, and tea and simple refreshments were handed to those who called. The residence of General Hancock at Governor's Island was a charming spot. It was at once secluded and open ; within sight of the great bustling metropolis, yet quiet as a country village on Sunday ; with all the traffic of the greatest seaport in America passing within hail, but accessible only by one little steamer that ploughed to and fro between the pier at Castle Garden and the wharf at the island. Trees shaded the ample lawn about the General's house, over which vines clambered. Peace and quiet reigned there, and cheerful hospitality. In this domain. General Hancock ruled supreme, but with a kindl}^ sway. General Francis A. Walker saj's of him, that Hancock " was a severe disciplinarian, and de- manded a great deal of his staff, of himself, and of all his subordinates, but there never was a man of more generous appreciation of first-class conduct on the part of his subordinates, both officers and privates. He 324 LIFE AND PUBLIC SEEVICES OF was very fond of bringing up good officers, and I pre- sume that was one secret of what might be called his good fortune. If ever a man showed high quality, he was certain of the warmest and most cordial appre- ciation ; and it inspired the officers and men. He was a very affectionate man, a man of very warm friend- ships, very earnest and faithful in his friendships, and very much beloved by all who knew him. I don't mean that he was incapable of enmities at all, but in general he was liked by his colleagues and other com- manders of his own rank, and was very much beloved by his subordinates. His standard of duty was very high. If a man did not do his very best, he was very likely to hear from him. Hancock was a man who was not mealy-mouthed at all." All who knew Hancock, whether in military or civil life, unite in testimony to the simple kindliness of his nature, and his unselfish regard for others. Nothing could be more touching than the affection which his old school-teacher, Eliphat Roberts of Norristown, retained for him to the last. This old gentleman, who survives his pupil, reached his ninetieth birth- day on the day of the General's death ; and though his sight is dim, and his walk is tottering, his eyes brighten, and his voice has a heartier ring, as he speaks about "his General." " Winfield came to my school," he says, " when he was only seven years old, and I taught him for seven years. I won't flatter him. He was just like other boys about studying his lessons; but I always liked the little fellow as a school-boy, and you know him as a man. That boy was a born commander. He hadn't been at WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 825 school six weeks before he had organized a company, and was captain ; and he had them in good drill too. These school-boy soldiers never thought of having any other commander. " I remember a funny story about him. One time the proud boy-captain was reviewiiig his troops, when the order came from headquarters that he would have to come in and wipe the dishes because his mother Avas sick. The little fellow sheathed the wooden sword bravely for the apron and dish-towel ; but his troops stood at the kitchen window, and taunted him, so that, finally exasperated, he chased the whole lot of them seven blocks with the towel. " Then, again, I picked him up bodily out of a fight, and carried him into the schoolhouse. When he left my school, he went to West Point, and I didn't see him again for twenty-five years. I heard he had been brought here from Gettysburg, wounded; and, with some trepidation as to how the great General would receive me, I went to the hotel to see him. I'll never forget his welcome in my life. He grasped both my hands, and said, ' My old friend, I could never forget you.' " Then, one time after the war, when he was review- ing the troops, he was coming out of the La Pier House, where the Lafayette now stands, accompanied by his staff; and I edged my way through the crowd, just to get a glimpse of him. The colored porter was very officious, and was ordering me and others off the steps, when Hancock caught sight of me. He sprang between the porter and me, and, taking me by the hands, brought me up on the steps, and introduced me to all the officers 326 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF as his schoolmaster, who had once saved him from being whipped in a fight by carrying him off. " One day last March I was sitting in the parlor here, and the door-bell rang. I opened the door, and a fine- looking man entered. He said, ' Don't you know me ? ' My sight was bad then, and I didn't. Then he said, 'I am Hancock.' It was a happy meeting. He learned about my daughter Clara, and went from here to Wash- ington, and by his influence got her in the Mint, where she now is. He once acted as pall-bearer when a mem- ber of my family died, and he has always been more than kind to me." "Hancock was a man of infinite kindness," says Con- gressman Brigham, who was on his staff at one time. He was not only such to those with whom he was brought into official relations, for whose comfort he was more solicitous than for his own, but the same quality was displayed by him to all. He had a woman's gentle- ness, with the bravery of a lion, and a strong man's stern sense of dut}^ A little girl, whose grandmother was born in the neighborhood from which Hancock's parents came, and who thought some family connection might possibly exist, wrote him a childish letter of inquiry. Hancock did not pass it over with neglect, nor did he put her off with a curt and formal reply. He wrote little Virgie Wentz a letter, chatty, simple, and full of boyish detail, that would delight the heart of any child. But this letter tells so much of the story of General Han- cock's early life, in such an informal, free, and unre- strained fashion, that we give it entire. "I like your religious ways," he writes, "and the way WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 327 you think and speak about matters of that nature. I was- pleased to hear that your grandmamma was born in the same county in which I was born, — Montgomery, Penna. You do not tell me her maiden name, however. I was not born in Norristown, but at Montgomery Square (in the country, twelve miles away), in Mont- gomery Township, Montgomery County. The name Montgomery has a Welsh origin, no doubt, for many Welsh were settled about the place of my birth. Some of my ancestors were of Welsh origin. Many of the names in that section to-day, of places and persons, are Welsh. Gwj^nedd Township comes from Wales. Jen- kins, a family name of descendants of one of the old- est families there, is Welsh, and one belonging to my great-grandmother on my mother's side. Of that rela- tionship, the earliest settled there, and one of the earliest settlers, was named Jenken, afterwards corrupted into Jenkins. " Your father's name also seems to me to be of Mont- gomery. I have had friends of my own of that name, in my own county, forty years ago. I believe I have seen the old ^ Wentz Church,' of which you speak, but have forgotten exactly where it is located. " I left home for West Point in 1840, and since have not returned to Montgomery County, save at intervals of a few 3^ears, and then for brief periods only, to see my parents. My father died in 1867 ; my mother a few years since, about 1878 (I have not the date by me). None of my name, or of the family of my name, reside there to-day. I have kinfolks on my mother's side (a number of them) who reside in the country; possibly, now, in Norristown. 328 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF " The dead of my mother's family are hurled at Montgomery Square Baptist Church, so far back as my great-grandfather, John Hexwortli, or Hawkesworth as it was then probably spelled, and including my grand- father, Edward Hexworth : my great-great-grandfathers now buried at Barren Hill, or in some churchyard in that section of country now Montgomery, then a part of Philadelphia County. My mother, with my father and some of their grandchildren (their children, three boys, all live: I and another are twins), are buried in the Montgomery County Cemetery, at Norristown, all named Hancock. "I am always pleased to hear of people who visited my father at his home in Norristown, when I was a cadet or at any other time ; and I should be gratified to know the name of your friend who was a visitor there when I was a West Point cadet, on furlough I presume. I never knew a man whom I respected as much as my father. (It was due to his character, his appearance, and the method of his life.) My mother was a good woman, did her duty always, and belonged to a family of resolute and hospitable character. "In looking over your letter carefully, I observe that you say your father's ancestors came from Germany in 1729, and settled in now Montgomery County (then a part of Philadelphia County). It was about 1728 that my grandfather John, or his fiither (Peter, if I recall aright as to his name), built the homestead of Hexworth, in Hatfield Township, a few miles (I believe four) from Montgomery Square (adjoining Lansdale, a railroad town on the North Penn road). It adjoins an addition built in 1761. The latter is standing, and the older part appears in a state of decay. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 329 "I have been in both fifty years (or less) ago, and have seen them as I have described them but three or four years since. The Hexworth farm adjoined the John Jenkins farm. Lansdale is built upon the latter. John Jenkins, I believe, is still alive. I saw him in ' North Wales ' (Gwynedd) three or four years ago. He was then ninety years of age, walked on the country road, say eight miles a day, for exercise, and had pre- served his faculties. " I recollect well, when I was a boy, fifty years ago, driving frequently from my grandfather's house to Montgomery County Baptist Church, at Montgomery Square, on Sundaj^s. M}^ mother's people were all Bap- tists. I visited the church fifty years afterwards, one Sunday, and I observed that the young men remained on the outside (sitting on fences, if I recollect aright, and looking like so many crows). They had not strong- minded mothers or fathers, I imagine. There were, no doubt, some older reprobates among them ; but the ladies and the children, and the old and religious men, and the good boys like myself, went inside, — just as they had done fifty years before.'' During his residence at Governor's Island, General Hancock made many warm friends outside the army circles. He and his wife were welcome guests at the firesides of more houses than they had time to visit, both in New York and Philadelphia. The last appear- ance of General Hancock in Philadelphia was at the annual dinner of the Clover Club, in January, 1886. In the reception-room he was the central figure among the guests ; and it was remarked by every one who took the genial soldier's hand, that he was at least in 830 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF fair health. His manner was fascinating, and he was in extreme good-humor. At the table he occupied the seat of honor. The first of the guests to speak, he was given a reception as he arose, which, in cordiality and enthusiasm, exceeded that which greeted any other speaker. He spoke only a few words, but they were such as perfectly fitted the occasion. He is said to have expressed, at that time, the belief that it would be his last visit there. Hancock had a faculty of attaching to himself, by the ties of affection as well as of respect, every one with whom he came into official association. He was a strict disciplinarian, exacted the hardest and most con- stant work cf his staff, and yet bound them to him by the strongest sentiment of esteem. One of his staff- officers. General Mitchell, is spoken of by General Walker as follows : — "General Hancock sustained a great loss in the death of General Mitchell of his staff, who was singularly close to him. I don't think that any other man in the army ever had a staff-officer who was to him quite what Mitchell was to Hancock. Mitchell was, I should say, almost the best aide- de-camp in the army, a man of singular ability and force of character, and was utterly devoted to Hancock. He went on his staff in 1861, saw his first battle by Hancock's side, and he remained with him after the war as staff-officer, until his own death three years ago. If Hancock woke m the middle of the night, and put out his hand, he expected to feel Mitchell at the end of his fingers. He leaned upon him. Mitchell knew every detail of Hancock's career, every feature of his campaigns, and was able to ward off annoyances and troubles of a military character from him as no other man could have WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 831 done ; and his death was a fearful blow to Hancock. I don't suppose any son was ever any dearer to a father than Mitchell was to Hancock." General Joseph H. Sleeper, who was also on General Hancock's staff, and who kept up the friendship thus formed, says that " his success as a commander was due to his personal magnetism and courage, and his careful attention to the minutest details. His watchfulness was unceasing. As a man he was patient, tender, and magnanimous, a true and loyal friend. " Perhaps my clearest recollection of him in action is as he rode with reckless daring in front of the ' death angle,' at Spottsylvania. His coat flew open as he rode, and showed his shirt, stained with the red blood that sprang from the re-opened wound of Gettysburg, to which he paid not the slightest attention. " His character, in its full beauty, can only be known to those of us who have been near to him, as friends, for years. His way of receiving his nomination and de- feat for the Presidency was thoroughly characteristic and noble. He took his defeat without a murmur or hard feeling , and his first dut}^ almost, was to take charge, in his military capacity, of the inauguration of his rival. His life was wholly clean and open, and he was never mixed up with the intrigues and jealousies which had so large a place in the Army of the Po- tomac." Congressman Brigham, another of Hancock's staff, says, -— '^He was every inch a soldier, who did his duty irrespec- tive of party feeling or personal desire. No matter how 332 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF difficult the task, he never flinched, or lost his head. He commanded more men than any other corps commander in the army. At the battles of Gettysburg and the Wilderness he commanded half the army, and commanded it well. At the battle of Spottsylvania Court House he was holding a position where the danger was so imminent that his officers every moment expected to see him fall. The minie balls were flying so thickly that they had cut in two an adjacent tree, one and a half feet in diameter. General Barlow was so impressed by General Hancock's danger that he bade him good-by, saying that he never expected to see him again. ' Keep cool, boys,' said the General ; ' it will be all right ; we must maintain our position, and we are going to do it ; ' and he did." Among the many incidents told to illustrate the simple, straightforward manliness of General Hancock's character, is this: One day a number of officers who were serving in General Hancock's division selected as their speaker a distinguished officer and personal friend of General Hancock, and the party called on General Hancock. '* We have come," said the speaker, '' to express to you our sense of wrong and our indignation at the removal of General McClellan." '' Stop one moment, gentlemen," was General Hancock's quick resj^onse. " Return to your commands at once, and remember always that we are here not to serve the interests of any one man. We are here to serve our country." General Hancock was one of McClellan's devoted friends and admirers. Nothing could better illustrate his subordination of all his personal concerns and preferences to the interests of his country. General Hancock never appeared in public except HANCOCK AT THE HEAD OF GRANT'S FUNERAL PROCESSION, NEW YORK. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 333 when called by official duty. He did not seek display, or strive for personal prominence. Still less was he heard from in politics. The campaign of 1884, so vigorously contested, passed without a word from him who had been the candidate four years before , but on the occasion of the inauguration of President Cleveland, General Hancock, in his military capacity, had charge of the arrangements at Washington. His last public appearance as general commanding was at the head of the grand pageant witnessed on the day that the remains of General Grant were taken to the tomb on the little knoll in Riverside Park. His appearance on that occasion was greeted with a feeling of admiration that on any other occasion would have found vent in cheers of enthusiasm. He seemed then in the full bloom of health. His face was full, without being gross or fleshy, his eye bright and clear, and his form erect and stately. He was every inch a general. From the moment that, by direction of the President, he assumed charge of the funeral, he was busy night and day ; and mail and telegraph-wires were burdened with orders that were necessary to make the ceremonies as dignified and impressive as became the General of the armies and the first citizen of the republic. From Mount McGregor to its resting-place in River- side Park, the casket containing the body of the great General and President was in charge of General Han- cock. On the 8th of August, 1885, the funeral proces- sion, the greatest and most impressive display ever seen on this continent, formed on Broadway for its march of nine miles through streets thronged with reverential spectators. Not a foot of room was unoccupied, the 334 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF doorsteps and places of vantage having been held by patient spectators since midnight. One hundred posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, fifteen hundred regular troops and marines, with an apparently unend- ing cortege of carriages, and persons on foot, made up a procession which numbered thirty thousand men in line. When Hancock made his appearance on his big black horse, with his mounted staff about him, at the head of the line, there was almost a cheer, so profoundly did his superb bearing and the remembrance of his great deeds impress the people. Hancock silenced it with a gesture, and performed the last honors to his departed chief with that decorum which always distinguished his public duties. General Hancock's family life at Governor's Island w^as quiet and happy, although there the cloud of bereavement fell upon him. Mrs. Hancock is a woman of rare accomplishments and a most lovely character. She presided as queen of the community at the island, dispensing its hospitality with the utmost grace ; and in society she shone as one of the leading ornaments. For years she officiated as organist of St. Cornelius' Chapel on the island, for which she composed a number of pieces of sacred music, among them a '' Venite," of great beauty, which has been published. The death of the only daughter of General and Mrs. Hancock, Ada, occurred in 1873. Affliction also visited the house on Governor's Island. Mrs. Hancock's mother, Mrs. Russell, died there in 1884, and, sliortly after, the only son of the General, Russell Hancock. This son had married early, and settled on a plantation in Clarks- dale, Mississippi, where there were born to him four WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 335 children. The eldest, a boy, died while on a visit at Governor's Island. As one by one those whom General Hancock loved were removed by death, his affection seemed to cling more and more closely to his grandson, Gwynn, who, with two sisters, Ada and Almira, survived their father, Russell Hancock. The grandchildren were much at the island, and the General retained little Gwynn when his mother and sisters returned to their Southern home. The child brightened the household, which, though saddened, was peaceful and happy. 836 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF CHAPTER XL Last Days. — Hancock's Short and Fatal Illness. — On Duty to the Last Moment. — A Nation in Mourning. — Funeral Services in Trinity Church. — Return of the Hero to the Home of His Child- hood. — The Cemetery at Norristown. — Tributes of Honor, Respect, and Affection. At half-past two o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1886, the flags on Castle William and Gov- ernor's Island were seen floating at half-mast. Through the length and breadth of the land the unexpected word flashed over *the wires, " General Hancock is dead." To all it came as a sudden and unforeseen blow. None outside the little military colony on the island knew of the short illness which had preceded. Even these were unprepared for a fatal event until within a few hours before it occurred. On the desk of one of the General's aides-de-cainp was a pile of letters, written by his order, and awaiting a signature they could never receive. They were answers to letters from widows of soldiers, asking for a good word from the General in behalf of an increase in their pensions ; from poor peo- ple out of work, asking for aid ; and from all sorts and conditions of people who wanted help. To all of these the General had dictated answers of the most kindly and generous description. Without warning, his com- rades and his country were called upon to mourn. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 337 General Hancock's death, although caused finally by an acute and rapid disease, was really the death of one who had worn himself out in the service of his country. General Walker expressed the fact in these words : — *' He wore his staff all out, and, of course, he wore himself out to a great extent ; that is to say. General Hancock's dy- ing to-day means that he was more than half dead when the war closed, because he was a man of superb physique and boundless vital force. But the man could not go on that way year after year without giving himself death-wounds, though it might take him some time to die of them." He had been in poor health, more or less, all winter; although when, about a fortnight before his death, he Attended a dinner-party in New York, he seemed in the best of spirits,^ and no one thought of him as one whom they were not to meet again. Nevertheless, he remained at headquarters almost constantly, going out very little, but receiving all who came to see him ; and it was thought that he never fully recovered from the shock caused by the death of his only son, Russell Han- cock, which occurred Dec. 30, 1884. A few days before his death he made a trip to Wash- ington, on official and private business, accompanied by Lieutenant J. A. Da Pray. There he made formal calls on the President, the Secretary of War, and General Sheridan. Several of the General's old classmates at West Point were in Washington, and they all called on him, to talk over old times at the academy and the stirring events which had happened since their gradu- ation. On Thursday, Jan. 28, he sat all the evening with Lieutenant Da Pray and General Franklin, who 838 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF were at the Point with him, recalling incidents of his career as a cadet. Of no other subject did he think or talk that night. It was as if his memory, all at once, had leaped back into the past, and he was living his cadet-life over again. The most minute incidents of his life OD the Hudson, incidents forgotten for years, came back to him freshly and vividly. It was like the setting sun, Avhich sometimes after a stormy day breaks through the clouds before it sinks from sight ; for in the morning the General returned to Governor's Island to die. While at Washington, he was suffering from a boil on the back of his neck, which he had lanced while in that city. Upon his return to Governor's Island, Dr. John H. Janeway, his attending physician, found that the boil had been growing for several days, and thought that it might prove troublesome. The loss of blood was such as to make a very perceptible difference in the General's usual robust appearance. The boil continued to grow; and, three days later, it took the appearance of a carbuncle, and caused considerable pain. Two days afterward. General Hancock was feeling xery ill; but at night he took a turn for the better, and the symptoms were thought to be entirely in his favor. This favorable condition lasted only a short time, how- ever ; for on Friday, the day following, he grew worse very rapidly. The carbuncle pained him greatly, and at 11.30 o'clock that night he became delirious. For the first time. Dr. Janeway considered him very seriously ill, and watched by him constantly. On Saturday, General Hancock rested easier, the symptoms being more fiivorable; and on Sunday he seemed neither to gain nor to lose. He was in a cheerful frame of mind, WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 339 and seemed hopeful of a speedy recovery. He talked pleasantly with his wife, who was with him day and night, and with his little grandson, Gwynn Hancock, wliose toys took up a good share of the unoccupied space in the General's bed-chamber. In spite of all alleviative remedies, however, General Hancock continued to grow worse. He sank slowly but steadily during all of Sunday night ; and during Monday the decline was so rapid, that, at evening, it was thought that he would lapse into unconsciousness before morning. Mrs. Hancock refused to leave his bedside for a mo- ment. She spoke to him from time to time, and he replied only in monosyllables. Although nurses were in and out of the room constantly, yet Mrs. Hancock would let no one administer the medicines but hervself. Early Tuesday morning, worn out with watching, she rose to leave the room to catch an hour's sleep in another part of the house. General Hancock's eyes followed her to the door. As if by instinct she stopped on the threshold, and looked back. He struggled to speak. " O Allie, Allie ! Myra ! Good " — He tried to finish the sentence, but could not. Those were his last words. The names Allie and Myra had been pet names for Mrs. Hancock during their entire wedded life. Mrs. Hancock burst into tears, and was led away to another room. General Hancock soon became unconscious. An examination confirmed the fears of the physicians, show- ing that, in addition to the carbuncle, he was suffering severely from diabetes ; and, with tears in his eyes, Dr. Janeway communicated to Mrs. Hancock the sad news 340 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF that death was inevitable within a few hours. She was completely prostrated. She had guessed the truth early in the morning before the examination was made, yet she had borne up with remarkable bravery until the physicians should give their final decision. She re- mained at the General's bedside, overcome with grief, until one o'clock in the afternoon, when she was prevailed upon to leave the room. Her sorrow at parting with her husband was very touching, made doubly so by the fact that he could not respond to her expressions of endearment and sobbing words of farewell. When she was at length half carried from the room, every member of the household, from the officers in attendance down to the servants in the kitchen, was in tears. Soon after one o'clock, all pretence of work in the house stopped, and all waited in silence for the end. About half-past two, the General's breathing grew labored ; but this passed, and he lay as if asleep. The little group of watchers gathered about the bedside. General Hancock drew a long, deep breath, and with it his great soul passed away. In that quiet chamber, furnished with the simple comforts of home, and strewn with the playthings of his grandchildren, — the tin locomotive with its train of cars, and the toy schooner under full sail, — death found the great soldier who had looked smilingly in the face of the dread angel in the hottest fury of battle. He was spared for the work that he had to do for his country and for his fellow-men. He had finished his course. The man of war had found peace. His face bore a calm and natural expression, although the eyes were much sunken. His body was as slender as that of a young man. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 341 The news of General Hancock's death was received by President Cleveland shortly after the adjournment of the cabinet-meeting in the afternoon. The national flag was run up at half-mast on the White House, and the President at once issued the following general order : — Executive Mansion, j Washington, Feb. 9, 188(5 — 4 o'clock p.m. ) Tidings of the death of Winfield Scott Hancock, the senior Major-General of the Army of the United States, have just been received. A patriotic and valiant defender of his country ; an able and heroic soldier ; a spotless and accom- plished gentleman, — crowned alike with the laurels of military renown and the highest tribute of his fellow-countrymen to bis worth as a citizen, — he has gone to his reward. It is fitting that every mark of public respect should be paid to his memory. Therefore it is now ordered by the President that the national flag be displayed at half-mast upon all the buildings of the Executive Departments in this city until after his funeral shall have taken place. Daniel S. Lamont, Private Secretary. The President also sent the following despatch to Mrs. Hancock : — Executive Mansion, i Washington, D.C., Feb. 9, 1886. } Mrs. W. S. Hancock, Governor's Island, New York : — Accept my heartfelt sympathy and condolence in your terrible bereavement. The heroism and worth of your late husband have gathered to your side in this hour of your affliction a nation of mourners. Grover Cleveland. It was* the wish of Mrs. Hancock that her husband should not be buried with the pomp of military honors 342 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF to which his rank entitled him, but that the obsequies should be as simple and unostentatious as possible. A despatch from President Cleveland, asking for informa- tion concerning the funeral, was answered to this effect, and preparations were made accordingly. Mrs. Han- cock was physically prostrated by her grief and her watching, and, by the advice of her physician, took no part in the ceremonies after the last sad farewell. On Friday evening everybody upon the island was allowed to enter the parlor in which General Hancock's body lay, and take a farewell look at his dead face. For nearly an hour, officers, privates, servants, and messen- gers filed by the coffin. Many an eye was filled with tears at the solemn spectacle. Those who had served the General many years ago, who cherished for him warm feelings of attachment, were deepest in their mourning. The morning of Saturday, Feb. 13, dawned cold and rainy. Governor's Island was banked in fog, through which the little steamer " Atlantic " carried loads of officers in uniform, and citizens in dripping overcoats, from the city to the place where Hancock lay dead. At half-past eight o'clock the military escort, consist- ing of three batteries of the Fifth Artillerv, armed as infantry, marched through the salh-port of Fort Co- lumbus, and drew up in front of the house with reversed arms. Every movement was noiseless, the rain-soaked sod giving no sound to the martial tread. A little later the sixteen non-commissioned officers of the guard of honor marched down the brick walk, and entered the house. A score or so of people, living on the island, stood reverently about, and waited for the appearance of the WIKFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 343 coffin. A drizzling rain was falling at the lime. Not a sound was heard until the order was given to present arms, and then through the heavy air came the tread of the soldiers bearing the coffin across the veranda and down the steps. Then the booming of minute-guns from Castle William told that the journey to the grave had begun. On the pier at New York the pall-bearers were wait- ing ; and as the casket was borne from the boat to the shore, General Sherman and Secretary Bayard stepped forward, with uncovered heads, to meet it. The pall- bearers were, Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State, General W. T. Sherman, Lieuteiiant-General Philip H. Sheridan, Major-General J. M. Schofield, General W. R. Franklin, General W. B. Smith, Brigadier-General James B. Fry, Brigadier-General T. H. Terry, Brigadier- General N. A. Miles, Bi'igadier-General John New- ton, Brigadier-General O. B. Wilcox, General Francis W^alker, Mr. J. W. Hartshorne, Colonel W. P. Wilson, and Major D. W. Miller. The funeral services were to take place at Trinity Church ; and thither the procession took its way, through streets crowded on each side by a silent throng, stand- ing with heads bared to the falling rain as the simple cortege passed with the body of the dead hero. The church, whose only decoration was a white cross on a black border, which rested upon the pulpit, was filled as the hour approached for the arrival of the funeral procession ; and the assembly rose to its feet as the casket was borne in, and up the aisle to the chancel, preceded by Rev. Dr. Dix, and Rev. E. H. C. Goodwin, Post-Chaplain at Governor's Island. The opening 344 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP words of the burial service were recited as the proces- sion moved down the aisle, and the coffin was deposited on the pavement in front of the chancel-rail. The funeral service was the simple ceremonial of the Episcopal Church. There was no eulogy, no address. There was no need of that. The casket, draped with the flag of the Union, on which rested the dead Gen- eral's sword and chapeau and a simple laurel-wreath, spoke more solemnly than any oratory. Those who gathered there had not come to witness a spectacle, but to participate in a last tribute of respect to the memory of a great soldier and patriot, who had served his coun- try long and faithfully. Gray heads were numerous in the assemblage. Every face looked thoughtful, some sad; and here and there something much like tears glistened. From the church the body was taken to the barge- office, and thence by boat to the station at Jersey City, where a special train, draped in black, awaited it. Amid the tolling of bells the train slowly moved out along the road toward Hancock's boyhood's home. The track was lined with crowds that bared their heads as the funeral-car swept by. As each station was passed, the same silent reverence was paid the hero, by throngs who had patiently waited the coming of the black-robed train. Through the country its progress was watched with the same mournful interest. At three o'clock Norristown Avas reached. The town was draped in black, and the bells were tolling ; and the procession was at once formed for the march to the cemetery. It passed by the spots made celebrated by the great man who now came home for his last rest. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 845 The little deserted stone house, where Hancock was brought, as a baby, from his birthplace at Montgomery Square, had its crumbling walls hidden in folds of black drapery. The mourning-color covered the brick dwell- ing near the corner of Swede Street, where Hancock lay wounded after Gettysburg. Every thing spoke of the dead hero. At the cemetery, thousands of persons had congre- gated, from all the country about, clustering on the hillside above the tomb. When the hearse arrived, sixteen blue-coats, of the Fifth Artillery, eight on a side, lifted the casket, and carried it slowly to the sep- ulchre. Formed in two lines, facing each other, the pall-bearers stood in front of the tomb with uncovered heads. General Sherman stood at the head of one line, with General Sheridan standing next to him ; and oppo- site, at the head of the other line, stood Secretary of State Bayard. Then the first of three salvos was fired from the hillside hard by. In the vault, two wreaths of white Marguerites were taken by a blue-coated messenger. They were tributes from Mrs. Hancock to her dead husband and daughter. One had woven in it, in purple immortelles, '' Hus- band;" and the other read, ''Daughter." General Han- cock long ago said to his wife, one night, that when he died, he wanted only a plain wreath placed on his coffin. The upper right-hand niche was opened, and upon the casket of the General's daughter, Ida, was placed one of the tokens from the widow, while the other was placed upon the casket. Then the marble blocks were set in position, and sealed. As the blue-coated soldiers filed out of the vault, and 346 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF the doors were closed, Bugler Richard Frank came out from the ranks, and, mounting the gentle slope beside the tomb, sounded the " taps " for General Hancock, the soldier's last good-night. The echo of the bugle- notes was drowned in the major-general's salute of thirteen guns, which boomed from the hillside. All was over. The tomb in which General Hancock's body rests is a plain stone structure, eight feet high, with a gable roof of granite, and a doorway seven and a half feet from the ground. There is no inscription anywhere upon the exterior ; and the vault itself is plain, and rendered especially inconspicuous from the fact that it is built in the face of a small hill, and the approach to it is by means of a roadway which descends several feet below the level of the general plane of the cemeter}^ Within the vault are six catacombs, seven feet from the doorway and extending back eight feet. Upon a marble coping-stone, above these catacombs, is the simple legend, '' Hancock." The body of little Winfield Scott Han- cock, the General's grandson, is buried near the vault, as are also the bodies of the General's father, mother, and numerous nephews. General Hancock's only son lies buried in a St. Louis graveyard. The four Han- cock lots, including the one in which the vault is situated, are clustered about a plain granite monument, fourteen feet high, upon which are inscribed the names of those of the family who are buried about it. An iron fence encloses the entire piece of ground, which is well kept and traversed with well-marked walks. General Hancock died a poor man. He gave his life and his strength to the service of his country, and WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 347 he gathered no pecuniary recompense. He was not a spendthrift. Far from it. General James B. Fry, who intimately knew his manner of life, says : — '' While General Hancock was economical in all things, the demands that pressed upon him for aiding destitute followers and old soldiers were so constant and heavy, that, in spite of all he could do, he fell behind. The salary of his lowest clerk would meet all that he and Mrs. Hancock spent upon themselves. All the rest of their income went for the good of others who needed it." Not only the endless charities, which were a constant drain npon his resources, but the expenses devolving upon him by reason of his official position, were the cause of this. The pay of a Major-General, seventy-five hundred dollars, by no means covered the obligations which he was compelled to assume. Hancock's duties after the war were peculiar. He was constantly being put forward into positions making demands upon his private means. Sent to Baltimore in 1866 to placate public sentiment ^ to New Orleans again for the same purpose ; stationed in New York, where his visitors numbered thousands ; placed in charge of the Yorktown celebration, and requested personally by Secretary Lin- coln to do every thing to make it a success, he had to receive and entertain the admirals and officers of the English, German, and French fleets, as well as our own, and the throng on his headquarters boat was incessant. The bills were presented, and were paid by him to the amount of. over six thousand dollars; and he was never reimbursed. During the Presidential campaign nearly 348 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF ninety thousand visitors went to Governor's Island, and Hancock had to incur large expenses connected with it. He owned property, which, if he could have held on to it, would be worth to-day some one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; and yet from time to time he had to part with it to defray expenses imposed upon him by his official superiors. It was manifestly proper, then, that some action should be taken to show in a material way the senti- ment which all felt toward General Hancock, and to provide for his widow. A fund for this purpose was promptly raised, Ex-Governor Samuel J. Tilden heading" the list on the day following General Hancock's death. With the pension voted by Congress, Mrs. Hancock is thus happily placed above want. The property which General Hancock left consisted only of household furniture, not exceeding one thousand dollars in value, so simple were his tastes. Had he lived, it is not improbable that he would have been advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-General, by the revival of the rank of General and the appointment of General Sheridan to that position, which would have entitled him to higher pay, and a greater pension on his retire- ment in 1888. A bill to that effect had, indeed, been prepared, although not presented to Congress, alleging his distinguished services, and his prominent public position, as a sufficient cause for the action. General Hancock left two brothers, — Colonel John Hancock, formerly of the army, now living at Jackson- ville, Fla. ; and Hilary Hancock, who lives in Minne- apolis, where he practises law. His only descendants are his grandchildren, Ada, Gwynn, and Almira Han- cock, children of his deceased son Russell. HANCOCK'S TOMB, NORRISTOWN, PENN. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 349 General Hancock's death called forth expressions of respect for the memory of the man, and admiration for the soldier, from every quarter. In addition to the formal resolutions passed by Congress and by other legislative bodies throughout the land, the words of his companions-in-arms have a yet greater significance. At the annual meeting of the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, of which order General Hancock was the senior officer, General Sherman pronounced a eulogy which, in its simple and almost childlike phrases, speaks the feelings of a great and warm soldier's heart. Ex- President Hayes, who ranked next to General Hancock in the Loyal Legion, presided at the meeting, at which General Sherman spoke as follows : — "Ladies, and Companions in the Glorious Cause: — General Grant records on the front fly-leaf of his book, that man proposes, and God disposes. We feel that here to-night. Yesterday we hoped to have a jolly good time ; and yet the telegraph wafted over the wire the sad intelligence that the glorious man, your former commander-in-chief, one who prob- ably has done more to sustain the Loyal Legion than any other man on earth, lies to-day in his shroud, and waits but a few hours until he will be buried at his old home in Penn- sylvania. It is right and fit, ladies and gentlemen, that we should pause, and do this glorious subject martial honor, without record and without notes. I must speak, and will be as brief as possible. " I knew Hancock well-, for my memory goes back to the time when he came to West Point, a tall, slender boy, with fair hair and blue eyes, cheeks with the down of the freshly ripened peach. I have seen him from that time until a few months ago. He made a good name in the Mexican war. 350 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES^ OF When I got to St. Louis, a captain in the commissary de- partment, I found Hancock there, developed in manly beauty, strengthened in character, a regimental quartermaster still, with the rank of First Lieutenant, a young groom of a beau- tiful bride. '' And here permit me, ladies, to speak of that good woman who is now a widow, for I knew her well. She was the child herself of an Ohio lady. Her parents, Russell by name, came from Zanesville, Ohio. Russell and Bennett, two young men living in Zanesville as boys, clerks in a store, found in two beautiful Creole girls, descendants from the old French stock, which came over here by reason of the revolution of 1789, settled at Marietta or Gallipolis or Belpre, — found in them their wives. These two young men took their young girl-brides to St. Louis, and by labor, industry, and thrift rose to great eminence as merchants. Their houses were the very abode of happiness, and of hospitality such as I have never seen surpassed, even if equalled. " From that time on, General Hancock rose steadily in the estimation of his fellows ; and when the war broke out, tiiere was no hesitation there ; not a bit. He was a Union man. He was a soldier. There was not one quiver of the eyelid, not one tremble of the hand. Hancock wa^ a soldier, a man, — a very splendid man, too, as you who have seen him can bear testimony. He went into the war with his whole heart and soul, and carried with it experience, and the teachings of West Point, the teachings of the army, the teacJungs of the field. He knew a soldier, from the heel up to the top of his head ; and he sympathized with a soldier, and was himself a soldier in every walk of life. " Now, when the time came for battles to be fought, here we had a man who was qualified and capable, sustained by friends at home, encouraged by admiring companions ; and when the battle of Gettysburg came, Hancock was the im- WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 351 personation of the defence. I have stood npon that very spot, behind the very stone wall, — not during the battle, but afterward, — and there was pointed out to me the place where Pickett's division came up, and where Hancock stood and fell ; and if there ever should be erected a monument on earth to man, there is the spot for Hancock's monument. But I will go farther, and say that I, and others with me, were going up through Virginia, after the war was over, and we went out of our way, and we saw the spot where Han- cock's corps had charged across those parapets, and saw the trees through which these men charged with Hancock at their head. Those were the two points probably most historic which marked him as a man in whom confidence could be bad. ^'He had the confidence of General Grant, and of every man who ever had Hancock on his command, myself included. He was the most loyal, the most obedient, the most com- pletely satisfactory ; never questioning an order, loyal to the backbone, generous to a fault, and willing to execute any order, whether he approved it or not. I will go farther, and say that 1 knew Hancock on the plains, where there was no chance for glory, no hope for fame, no desire to attract notice, nothing but abuse and hardships, the same consci- entious man ; anxious to do right, anxious to fulfil the orders of his government, anxious to complete a job after which he had been despatched, and generally successful. " Now General Hancock is dead ! The big, strong, ner- vous man lies dead in his house on Governor's Island ; and we, his companions, may well shed a tear here to-night. It was a sad piece of news which came to us yesterday. O my friends ! when that woman sat at the gates of paradise, disconsolate, and appealed to the heavens what she should brino; to admit her into the gates, she went back and forth, and "finally returned with the expired spirit of a soldier-pa- 352 LIFE OF WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. triot ; and the gates of heaven were opened to her. If the gates of heaven will be opened for the poor girl, how much more will it be with the manly soldier ! The gates of heaven will remain ajar until he enters it ; and you and I, each arid every one of us, are the better for the life which this man lived. Our country is better for it. Our boys in school are the better for it. You yourself can point to this man, born of humble parents, reared at the common schools, who went into life with very little help, and rose by being a true, honest, and brave man and soldier, beloved by everybody, mourned by everybody. "And I say, Hancock, you are rewarded. I would not recall his life if I could. He has filled his life with a full measure. He will be honored by all mankind, be loved by all mankind, and be loved by all womankind too.'* Of all the testimony borne to General Hancock's character, there is none more appreciative or more fit- ting than that given by Secretary Bayard in his letter addressed to the Military Service Institution, on the occasion of the memorial service held by that associa- tion, Feb. 25, on Governor's Island : — *' While his shield bore many a mark of blows received in conflict, he laid it down in death as free from stain, as un- sullied by mean imputation or even suspicion, as when he first uplifted it m life's morning march." With this tribute, so well earned, so fully merited, the story of this great and knightly life may fitly close. ^ LB Mr '05 '* u V FEB 959 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 700 313 2 ilili: ■' =■ ■-;;] -':i' *w. ,,<•?!■? iiii