of shot that they staggered back in dismay, nearly half of them being left on the field. Hancock, who was close behind, now pressed forward into that death-dealing tempest, his brigades fighting gallantly, especially the Irish regiments of Meagher, who dashed time after time against the fatal stone wall without a man being able to cross it. Fifteen minutes of this terrible work sufficed, and Hancock's men followed those of French in retreat. In this brief quarter of an hour, of his five thousand six hundred men more than two thousand had fallen. Other divisions came to the aid of French and Hancock, but all in vain, and in the end Hooker sent Humphreys in a bayonet charge against the same fatal point, only to have nearly half of them stretched dead or wounded on the field.

Hancock next came into action at Chancellorsville, May 4, 1863, where he sustained his well-earned reputation, being the last to yield before the furious assault upon the Chancellor House, the central point of the battle. Only after the Federal lines were giving way on both sides did Hancock yield and gradually retire, his men fighting gallantly at every step. The struggle had lasted six hours before the Confederates at length got possession of the Chancellor House, and not until their artillery had beaten the once fair mansion into a ghastly ruin.

Hancock was soon after put in command of the second corps, and at Gettysburg, after the death of General Reynolds, was sent by Meade in haste to take command. He was given power to offer battle where the advance of the army then was or to retreat to the line of Pipe Creek, which Meade had selected as an excellent point at which to make a stand. He reached Gettysburg just as the beaten forces were hurrying

back towards Cemetery Ridge, which General Howard had selected as a good line of defence. Hancock agreed with him, checked the retreat and seized Culp's Hill and Round Top as advantageous points, sending Meade word of what he had done. A new battle-line was quickly formed along the ridge between those two elevated points, and Hancock turned over the command to General Slocum, on his arrival with his corps. He met his own corps coming up, on his way back to report to General Meade.

In the third day's fight, July 3, Hancock's corps, forming the left centre of Meade's army, sustained the terrible cannonade from Lee's artillery which preceded Pickett's famous charge. Hancock's brigades had been so severely punished that not more than six thousand men remained when Pickett's powerful column moved upon them. Yet shot and shell from his batteries tore lanes of death in Pickett's ranks and musketry mowed them down as they came nearer, until mere handful of them was able to mount the slope and plant their flag on the stone wall of defence. It was a last effort of courage, and those who remained alive were quickly forced to surrender. Three-fourths of the charging column were dead or captives. Hancock himself received a severe wound which disabled him from service in the field for several months.

Despite his wound, and while lying on a stretcher, he sent word to Meade that the Confederate army was in retreat. Meade returned him his grateful thanks and Congress also voted him thanks, while his service in repelling Pickett's charge won him the complimentary title of "The Hero of Gettysburg."

He was back in the army in time for Grant's great advance and took an active part in the battle of the

Wilderness, but it was at Spottsylvania, on May 12, that his most conspicuous service was rendered. The armies had fought fiercely all day of the 10th, and rested on the 11th, making busy preparations for the next day's struggle. Grant had determined to deliver his blow on Lee's right centre, and Hancock was chosen for the work. At midnight he left his position in front of Hill's corps and moved silently to the left, guided by the compass only; then in two lines, under cover of a dense fog, he glided swiftly and noiselessly forward, over broken and wooded ground, towards the salient of an earthwork occupied by Johnston's division of Ewell's corps.

Johnston's men were at breakfast, not dreaming of an assault, when they were startled by cheers of triumph, and the next moment a host of armed men came clambering over their works and rushing upon them with bayonets and clubbed muskets. Resistance was useless, and almost in less time than it takes to tell it the entire division was captured and with it the two brigades of General G. H. Stewart. Hancock sent back three thousand prisoners to Grant, with a pencilled note briefly saying: "I have captured from thirty to forty guns. I have finished up Johnston and am going into Early."

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Going into Early" did not prove so easy. The disaster had roused the entire Confederate army and Lee was making strenuous efforts to prevent further loss. Hancock's men, filled with enthusiasm, could not be restrained. They followed the fleeing Confederates for a mile through the woods, but here found themselves before a second line of breastworks, behind which the fugitives rallied and turned upon them. Other troops were hurried up, and the victors were

forced back to the works they had captured and upon which heavy masses of men were soon hurled by Lee. At the same time strong reinforcements came to Hancock's aid, and a desperate struggle began, Lee being determined to retake the lost works. A tremendous weight of men and weapons was hurled upon Hancock, in charge after charge, five times in succession, the combatants fighting all day long, though a heavy rain fell all afternoon. It was midnight before Lee at length sullenly withdrew his men, leaving Hancock in possession of the works for which he had fought so long and well. But the Confederates were not at rest, and by the morning of the 13th an inner line of intrenchments had risen in front of Hancock. Lee's position seemed as strong as before. Yet he had lost very heavily, in killed, wounded and prisoners, on that eventful day.

Hancock took an active part in the succeeding battles, and at the bloody struggle of Cold Harbor his corps lost three thousand men. His efforts caused his old wound to break out again, but he took part in the siege of Petersburg and, in the following winter, organized a veteran corps at Washington.

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As for his character and conduct in the war, we cannot do better than quote McClellan's words of praise: He was a man of most chivalrous courage and of superb presence, especially in action; he had a wonderfully quick and correct eye for ground and for handling troops; his judgment was good, and it would be difficult to find a better corps commander."

When the war ended Hancock was in command of the middle military division. In 1866 he resigned from the volunteer service and was made a majorgeneral in the regular army and transferred to the

department of Missouri, where he conducted expeditions against the Cheyenne and Sioux Indian tribes. He was ordered to the department of the Gulf in 1867, and on taking command there issued an order which attracted much attention and high commendation in the South, it stating that the military force was to be used only in subordination to the civil authority. This in time brought him the Democratic nomination for the Presidency.

He was a prominent candidate in the Democratic convention of 1868 and again in 1876, and in 1880 received the nomination. In the election contest that followed, his popular vote fell only seven thousand below that of Garfield, though in the electoral college be was beaten by fifty-nine votes.

He would probably have been elected but for an unfortunate remark made by him during the campaign, in which he spoke of the tariff as a local issue." This evident lack of familiarity with civil affairs no doubt cost him many votes.

Hancock remained in the army till his death. When General Meade died Hancock succeeded him in command of the division of the Atlantic, dying at Governor's Island, New York harbor, February 9, 1886.

General Hancock throughout was a brave, chivalrous and able soldier, ever loyal to his superiors, and a gentleman at all times and in all places. How able he would have proved as a President was never tested, though a life in the army is not a good school for statesmanship; but as a soldier he won a great and unstained reputation.