that quickly reached him, that Bragg had been defeated and driven from Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga. He knew that help would now quickly reach Burnside from Grant, and his only hope lay in taking Knoxville by storm before it could arrive. Burnside received the same tidings and resolved to defend the place till the last extremity.

The assault took place on the 28th, at eleven o'clock of a dark night, the storming parties being directed against Fort Saunders, one of the chief points in the defences. The rifle-pits were quickly taken, but behind these were lines of abatis and of wires stretched from stump to stump, a foot above the ground. The charging party was thrown into utter confusion by these obstacles, whole companies being prostrated by the wires, while the guns of the fort played fearfully upon them. A single officer alone gained the summit of the parapet, and his body quickly rolled into the ditch, pierced by a dozen balls. The storm of shot was so heavy that three hundred of the foremost assailants surrendered, the others retreating. The fort was saved, and with it Knoxville and perhaps Burnside's army. Longstreet had promised his men that they should dine in Knoxville that day, a promise not kept except to the three. hundred prisoners.

Meanwhile help was swiftly on its way, Granger approaching with twenty thousand men, while Sherman led another strong body northward. Sherman's cavalry entered Knoxville on December 3, when Longstreet, finding himself in serious peril, raised the siege and hastily retreated. Burnside had won his fight.

with the remainder of

We must deal very briefly General Burnside's career. He had no further inde

pendent command, but led the ninth corps in Grant's advance on Richmond, fighting in the several battles from the Wilderness onward. He occupied important political positions after the war, being elected governor of Rhode Island successively in 1866, 1867, and 1868, and United States senator in 1875 and 1881, dying September 13 of the latter year. As a man Burnside was warm-hearted and generous and as a soldier able, but the weight of a command like that of the army of the Potomac seemed beyond his strength.

WINFIELD S. HANCOCK, THE SUPERB INFANTRY LEADER

"HANCOCK was superb," said McClellan, in allusion to that gallant soldier's bayonet charge at Williamsburg, and the saying became proverbial during the war and was heard again in later years when Hancock was a prominent candidate for the Presidency. He never held an independent command, like the other soldiers whose deeds we have chronicled, but we select him from among the many distinguished subordinate soldiers, both for his notable record in the war and the prominent part he afterwards played in National politics.

Winfield Scott Hancock was born near Norristown, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1824. He graduated at West Point in 1844 and continued in the army till his death, not leaving it to engage in business pursuits, like many others. He served on the frontier till 1846, and afterwards took part in the Mexican War, in which he won the grade of first lieutenant by gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco. This war ending, he went back to frontier duty, and in 1855 was appointed captain in the quartermaster's department and ordered to Florida, where there was new trouble with the Seminoles. In 1858 he was in the expedition to Utah to bring the Mormons to terms. He was serving as quartermaster of the southern district of California when the Civil War broke out.

Eager to take part in the contest, he requested to be relieved from his peaceful duties, and sought active

service in the East, being first sent to Kentucky and afterwards being made brigadier-general of volunteers at McClellan's request, organizing a brigade at Lewinsville, Virginia. He aided McClellan in training the army of the Potomac, and in the advance to the Peninsula his brigade was conceded to be the finest and best drilled in the whole army.

On May 5, 1862, after the retreat of the Confederate defenders from Yorktown and their stand at Williamsburg, Hancock and Hooker were the principal leaders in the assault, Hooker fighting almost without aid for nine hours on the left, while Hancock was sent to the right to keep the Confederates in check in that direction and to flank their works if possible.

He had been sent at an early hour, with twenty-five hundred men, to seize an unoccupied redoubt. This he took without opposition and then advanced to another, twelve hundred yards in front of it. With his guns he now drove the defenders from two occupied redoubts still farther in front. General Johnston, in command of the Confederate army, had not known of the existence of the redoubts taken by Hancock. They were on the flank and rear of his line, and as soon as he learned of their occupation he sent General Early with a strong body of infantry to drive out the Federal troops.

Hancock meanwhile had earnestly demanded reinforcements, but, like Hooker, he was left to shift for himself. He was soon ordered to abandon the advance redoubt and fall back to his first position, but this he was loath to do, for he was soldier enough to know the advantage he had gained. But when, about five o'clock, he saw the two redoubts from which he had driven the defenders reoccupied by Confederate soldiers and

a force moving on his front with the war-cry of "Bull Run!" he retired, fighting as he went, and taking post beyond the crest of a ridge in the rear, where he awaited Early's approach.

Forming in line of battle, the troops rested impatiently until Early was within thirty paces, when Hancock gave the word to rout them with a bayonet charge, saying, "Now, gentlemen, we'll give them the bayonet." Instantly they sprang over the ridge and rushed with loud shouts upon the enemy, who quickly broke and fled before the spirited charge, losing over five hundred of their men. Hancock held his post without further trouble until reinforcements reached him. That post was the key of the position and Johnston did not dare remain with his flank so seriously threatened. During the night Williamsburg was evacuated. The army of the Potomac had won its first victory, Hooker and Hancock had done the work, and McClellan complimented the latter with his high words of praise, "Hancock was superb."

In the battles around Richmond that followed Hancock rendered valuable service, especially at Frazier's Farm, and was active during the Maryland campaign, taking command of the division of General Richardson on the death of the latter at Antietam. He was promoted major-general of volunteers November 29, 1862, and took a prominent part in the attack on Fredericksburg in the following month.

In this sanguinary battle Hancock was posted in front of Lee's strongest point of defence, Marye's Hill, at the foot of which, behind a stone wall, Longstreet was posted, with heavy reserves in his rear. The first attack on this formidable line was made by General French, whose troops were met with such a torrent