Winfield Scott Hancock
Winfield Scott Hancock | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania, U.S. | February 14, 1824
Died | February 9, 1886 New York City, U.S. | (aged 61)
Resting place | Montgomery Cemetery (West Norriton Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.) |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Almira Russell (m. 1850) |
Children | 2 |
Education | Major General |
Commands | II Corps |
Battles/wars |
|
Winfield Scott Hancock (February 14, 1824 – February 9, 1886) was a
Hancock's reputation as a war hero at Gettysburg, combined with his status as a Unionist and supporter of states' rights, made him a potential presidential candidate. When the Democrats nominated him for president in 1880, he ran a strong campaign, but was narrowly defeated by Republican James A. Garfield. Hancock's last public service involved the oversight of President Ulysses S. Grant's funeral procession in 1885.
Early life and family
Winfield Scott Hancock and his identical twin brother Hilary Baker Hancock were born on February 14, 1824, in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, a hamlet just northwest of Philadelphia in present-day Montgomery Township.[1] The twins were the sons of Benjamin Franklin Hancock and Elizabeth Hoxworth Hancock.[2][3] Winfield was named after Winfield Scott, a prominent general in the War of 1812.[1]
The Hancock and Hoxworth families had lived in
Hancock was at first educated at
Early military career
Mexican War
Hancock was commissioned a
Scott's army moved farther inland from Puebla unopposed and attacked
Marriage and peacetime
Hancock served in a number of assignments as an army
Hancock's tour in Florida coincided with the end of the
Civil War
Joining the Army of the Potomac
Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command. He commanded a corps longer than any other one, and his name was never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible. He was a man of very conspicuous personal appearance.... His genial disposition made him friends, and his personal courage and his presence with his command in the thickest of the fight won for him the confidence of troops serving under him. No matter how hard the fight, the 2nd corps always felt that their commander was looking after them. |
—Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs[26] |
Hancock returned east to assume quartermaster duties for the rapidly growing
In the Battle of Antietam, Hancock assumed command of the 1st Division, II Corps, following the mortal wounding of Maj. Gen. Israel B. Richardson in the horrific fighting at "Bloody Lane". Hancock and his staff made a dramatic entrance to the battlefield, galloping between his troops and the enemy, parallel to the Sunken Road.[29] His men assumed that Hancock would order counterattacks against the exhausted Confederates, but he carried orders from McClellan to hold his position.[30] He was promoted to major general of volunteers on November 29, 1862.[13] He led his division in the disastrous attack on Marye's Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg the following month and was wounded in the abdomen. At the Battle of Chancellorsville, his division covered Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's withdrawal and Hancock was wounded again.[31] His corps commander, Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch, transferred out of the Army of the Potomac in protest of actions Hooker took in the battle and Hancock assumed command of II Corps, which he would lead until shortly before the war's end.[27]
Gettysburg
Hancock's most famous service was as a new corps commander at the
On July 2, Hancock's II Corps was positioned on
On July 3, Hancock defended his position on Cemetery Ridge and thus bore the brunt of
One military historian wrote, "No other Union general at Gettysburg dominated men by the sheer force of their presence more completely than Hancock."[27] As another wrote, "his tactical skill had won him the quick admiration of adversaries who had come to know him as the 'Thunderbolt of the Army of the Potomac'."[44]
Virginia and the end of the war
Hancock suffered from the effects of his Gettysburg wound for the rest of the war.[27] After recuperating in Norristown, he performed recruiting services over the winter and returned in the spring to field command of the II Corps for Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign, but he never regained full mobility and his former youthful energy.[45] Nevertheless, he performed well at the Battle of the Wilderness and commanded a critical breakthrough assault of the Mule Shoe at the "Bloody Angle" in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 12, shattering the Confederate defenders in his front, including the Stonewall Brigade.[46] His corps suffered enormous losses during a futile assault Grant ordered at Cold Harbor.[47]
After Grant's army slipped past Lee's army to cross the
Hancock's only significant military defeat occurred during the
Post-war military service
Execution of Lincoln assassination conspirators
At the close of the war, Hancock was assigned to supervise the execution of the conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.[50] Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14, 1865, and by May 9 of that year, a military commission had been convened to try the accused.[51] The actual assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was already dead, but the trial of his co-conspirators proceeded quickly, resulting in convictions. President Andrew Johnson ordered the executions to be carried out on July 7. Although he was reluctant to execute some of the less-culpable conspirators, especially Mary Surratt, Hancock carried out his orders, later writing that "every soldier was bound to act as I did under similar circumstances."[52]
Service on the Plains
After the executions, Hancock was assigned command of the newly organized Middle Military Department, headquartered in Baltimore.[53] In 1866, on Grant's recommendation, Hancock was promoted to major general and was transferred, later that year, to command of the military Department of the Missouri, which included the states of Missouri and Kansas and the territories of Colorado and New Mexico.[54] Hancock reported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and took up his new posting.
Soon after arriving, he was assigned by General Sherman to lead an expedition to negotiate with the Cheyenne and Sioux, with whom relations had worsened since the Sand Creek massacre.[55] The negotiations got off to a bad start, and after Hancock ordered the burning of an abandoned Cheyenne village in central Kansas, relations became worse than when the expedition had started.[56]
The official report to the President by the
Orders were then given to surround the village and capture the Indians remaining. The order was obeyed, but the chiefs and warriors had departed. The only persons found were an old Sioux and an idiotic girl of eight or nine years of age. It afterwards appeared that the person of this girl had been violated, from which she soon died. The Indians were gone, and the report spread that she had been a captive among them, and they had committed this outrage before leaving. The Indians say that she was an idiotic Cheyenne girl, forgotten in the confusion of flight, and if violated, it was not by them.
The next morning General Custer, under orders, stated in pursuit of the Indians with his cavalry, and performed a campaign of great labor and suffering, passing over a vast extent of country, but seeing no hostile Indians. When the fleeing Indians reached the Smoky Hill they destroyed a station and killed several men. A courier having brought this intelligence to General Hancock, he at once ordered the Indian village, of about 300 lodges, together with the entire property of the tribes, to be burned.
The Indian now became an outlaw -- not only the Cheyennes and Sioux, but all the tribes on the plains. The superintendent of an express company, Cottrell, issued a circular order to the agents and employees of the company in the following language: "You will hold no communications with Indians whatever. If Indians come within shooting distance, shoot them. Show them no mercy, for they will show you none." This was in the Indian country. He closes by saying: "General Hancock will protect you and our property."
Whether war existed previous to that time seems to have been a matter of doubt even with General Hancock himself. From that day forward no doubt on the subject was entertained by anybody. The Indians were then fully aroused, and no more determined war has ever been waged by them. The evidence taken tends to show that we have lost many soldiers, besides a larger number of settlers, on the frontier. The most valuable trains belonging to individuals, as well as to government, among which was a government train of ammunition, were captured by those wild horsemen. Stations were destroyed. Hundreds of horses and mules were taken, and found in their possession when we met them in council; while we are forced to believe that their entire loss since the burning of their village consists of six men killed.
The Kiowas and Comanches, it will be seen, deny the statement of Jones in every particular. They say that no war party came in at the time stated, or at any other time, after the treaty of 1865. They deny that they killed any Negro soldiers, and positively assert that no Indian was ever known to scalp a Negro. In the latter statement they are corroborated by all the tribes and by persons who know their habits; and the records of the adjutant general's office fail to show the loss of the 17 Negro soldiers, or any soldiers at all. They deny having robbed Jones or insulted Page or Tappan. Tappan's testimony was taken, in which he brands the whole statement of Jones as false, and declares that both he and Page so informed Major Douglas within a few days after Jones made his affidavit. We took the testimony of Major Douglas, in which he admits the correctness of Tappan's statement, but, for some reason unexplained, he failed to communicate the correction to General Hancock. The threats to take the horses and attack the posts on the Arkansas were made in a vein of jocular bravado, and not understood by any one present at the time to possess the least importance. The case of the Box family has already been explained, and this completes the case against the Kiowas and Comanches, who are exculpated by the united testimony of all the tribes from any share in the late troubles.
The Cheyennes admit that one of their young men in a private quarrel, both parties being drunk, killed a New Mexican at Fort Zarah. Such occurrences are so frequent among the whites on the plains that ignorant Indians might be pardoned for participating, if it be done merely to evidence their advance in civilization. The Indians claim that the Spaniard was in fault, and further protest that no demand was ever made for the delivery of the Indian.
The Arapahoes admit that a party of their young men, with three young warriors of the Cheyennes, returning from an excursion against the Utes, attacked the train of Mr. Weddell, of New Mexico, during the month of March, and they were gathering up the stock when the war commenced.
Though this recital should prove tedious, it was thought necessary to guard the future against the errors of the past. We would not blunt the vigilance of military men in the Indian country, but we would warn them against the acts of the selfish and unprincipled, who need to be watched as well as the Indian. The origin and progress of this war are repeated in nearly all Indian wars. The history of one will suffice for many.
Nor would we be understood as conveying a censure of General Hancock [empasis added] for organizing this expedition. He had just come to the department, and circumstances were ingeniously woven to deceive him. His distinguished services in another field of patriotic duty had left him but little time to become acquainted with the remote or immediate causes producing these troubles. If he erred, he can very well roll a part of the responsibility on others; not alone on subordinate commanders, who were themselves deceived by others, but on those who were able to guard against the error and yet failed to do it. We have hundreds of treaties with the Indians, and military posts are situated everywhere on their reservations. Since 1837 these treaties have not been compiled, and no provision is made, when a treaty is proclaimed, to furnish it to the commanders of posts, departments, or divisions. This is the fault of Congress.
Reconstruction
Hancock's time in the West was brief. President Johnson, unhappy with the way Republican generals were governing the South under
Hancock's new assignment found him in charge of the Fifth Military District, covering Texas and Louisiana. Almost immediately upon arriving, Hancock ingratiated himself with the secessionist white population by issuing his General Order Number 40 of November 29, 1867. In that order, written while traveling to New Orleans, Hancock expressed sentiments in support of President Johnson's policies, writing that if the residents of the district conducted themselves peacefully and the civilian officials perform their duties, then "the military power should cease to lead, and the civil administration resume its natural and rightful dominion."[60] The order continued:
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.[61]
Hancock's order encouraged white Democrats across the South who hoped to return to civilian government more quickly, but discomforted blacks and Republicans in the South who feared a return to the antebellum ways of traditional white dominance.[62]
Hancock's General Order Number 40 was quickly condemned by Republicans in Washington, especially by the Radicals, while President Johnson wholeheartedly approved.[63] Heedless of the situation in Washington, Hancock soon put his words into action, refusing local Republican politicians' requests to use his power to overturn elections and court verdicts, while also letting it be known that open insurrection would be suppressed.[63] Hancock's popularity within the Democratic party grew to the extent that he was considered a potential presidential nominee for that party in the 1868 election.[64] Although Hancock collected a significant number of delegates at the 1868 convention, his presidential possibilities went unfulfilled. Even so, he was henceforth identified as a rare breed in politics: one who believed in the Democratic Party's principles of states' rights and limited government, but whose anti-secessionist sentiment was unimpeachable.[65]
Return to the Plains
Following
It was during this tour that Hancock had the opportunity to contribute to the creation of
Command in the East and political ambitions
In 1872,
All the while Hancock was posted in New York, he did his best to keep his political ambitions alive. He received some votes at the Democrats' 1876 convention, but was never a serious contender as New York governor Samuel J. Tilden swept the field on the second ballot.[73] The Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, won the election, and Hancock refocused his ambition on 1880. The electoral crisis of 1876 and the subsequent end to Reconstruction in 1877 convinced many observers that the election of 1880 would give the Democrats their best chance at victory in a generation.[74]
Election of 1880
Hancock after the War |
---|
Democratic convention
Hancock's name had been proposed several times for the Democratic nomination for president, but he never captured a majority of delegates. In 1880, however, Hancock's chances improved. President Hayes had promised not to run for a second term, and the previous Democratic nominee, Tilden, declined to run again due to poor health.
Campaign against Garfield
The Republicans
Later life
Hancock took his electoral defeat in stride and attended Garfield's inauguration.[84] Following the election, Hancock carried on as commander of the Division of the Atlantic. He was elected president of the National Rifle Association in 1881, explaining that "The object of the NRA is to increase the military strength of the country by making skill in the use of arms as prevalent as it was in the days of the Revolution."[85] Hancock was a Charter Director and the first president of the Military Service Institution of the United States from 1878 until his death in 1886.[86] He was commander-in-chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States veterans organization from 1879 until his death in 1886. He was the author of Reports of Major General W. S. Hancock upon Indian Affairs, published in 1867.[13] Hancock's last major public appearance was to preside over the funeral of President Grant in 1885, although he also made a less publicized trip that year to Gettysburg.[87]
Hancock died in 1886 at Governors Island, still in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic, the victim of an infected
In 1893, Republican General Francis A. Walker wrote,
Although I did not vote for General Hancock, I am strongly disposed to believe that one of the best things the nation has lost in recent years has been the example and the influence of that chivalric, stately, and splendid gentleman in the White House. Perhaps much which both parties now recognize as having been unfortunate and mischievous during the past thirteen years would have been avoided had General Hancock been elected.[88]
His noted integrity was a counterpoint to the corruption of the era, for as President Rutherford B. Hayes said,
If, when we make up our estimate of a public man, conspicuous both as a soldier and in civil life, we are to think first and chiefly of his manhood, his integrity, his purity, his singleness of purpose, and his unselfish devotion to duty, we can truthfully say of Hancock that he was through and through pure gold.[89]
The last public act performed by Hancock was his oversight of the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant in 1885, and his organizing and leading of Grant's nine-mile funeral procession in New York City. From Grant's home at Mount McGregor, New York, to its resting place in Riverside Park, the casket containing Grant's remains was in the charge of General Hancock. As he appeared on the scene at the commencement of Grant's funeral procession, Hancock was met with a mild applause, but with a gesture he directed a silence and respect for Grant.[90]
Legacy
Winfield Scott Hancock is memorialized in a number of statues:
- An equestrian statue on East Cemetery Hill on the Gettysburg Battlefield.
- A portrait statue by Cyrus Dallinas part of the Pennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg.
- An alto-relievo representing Hancock's wounding during Pickett's Charge, on the New York State Monument at Gettysburg.
- An equestrian statue located at Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street, NW in Washington, D.C.
- An equestrian statue atop the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- A monumental bronze bust in Hancock Square, New York City, by sculptor James Wilson Alexander MacDonald.
- Fort Hancock, Texas
- Sandy Hook, New Jersey, was named for General Hancock.
The original Winfield Scott Hancock Elementary School, located at Arch and East Spruce Streets in Norristown, Pennsylvania, was built in 1895 in memory of the General who grew up not far from the site. It was replaced in 1962 by a new building still in use by the Norristown Area School District only a few blocks away at Arch and Summit Streets, which is also named after General Hancock. The original 1895 building still stands and is used by a community non-profit organization.
A
Hancock's portrait adorns U.S. currency on the $2 Silver Certificate series of 1886. Approximately 1,500 to 2,500 of these bills survive today in numismatic collections. Hancock's bill is ranked number 73 on a list of "100 Greatest American Currency Notes".[91]
Hancock was an important character in the Shaara family's Civil War
See also
- List of American Civil War generals (Union)
- List of equestrian statues in the District of Columbia
- List of equestrian statues in Pennsylvania
Notes
- ^ a b c d Jordan, p. 5.
- ^ a b c d e Cluff, pp. 922–23.
- ^ Walker, p. 7.
- ^ Jenkins, Howard M. (1886). "Genealogical Sketch of General W.S. Hancock". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. X: 100. Retrieved September 8, 2007.
- ^ Jordan, p. 6.
- ^ Tucker, pp. 18–21; Walker, p. 10.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 10–11; Walker, pp. 12–15; list of West Point officers in the Civil War Archived December 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine .
- ^ Jordan, p. 13; Walker, p. 17.
- ^ Jordan, p. 13.
- ^ a b Jordan, p. 14; Walker, p. 18.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Jordan, p. 16; Walker, p. 20.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Eicher, pp. 277–78.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Jordan, p. 19.
- ^ Tucker, p. 44.
- ^ Walker, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Walker, p. 22.
- ^ Jordan, p. 24.
- ^ Jordan, p. 25; Hancock, pp. 24–27.
- ^ a b Jordan, p. 25.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 28–32.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 33–34.
- ^ A History of US, Revised Third Edition, War, Terrible War, by Joy Hakim
- ^ Grant, Ulysses S., Personal Memoirs, 1885, Vol. II, pp. 539–40.
- ^ a b c d e f Tagg, pp. 33–35.
- ^ Walker, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Walker, pp. 51–52.
- ^ Sears, p. 257.
- ^ Walker, pp. 81–91
- ^ Jordan, p. 81.
- ^ Tucker, pp. 131–34
- ^ a b Jordan, pp. 89–94.
- ISBN 1-58218-056-3.
- ^ a b Jordan, p. 93.
- ISBN 0-8078-1749-X.
- ISBN 0-8078-2118-7.
- ISBN 0-8078-2118-7.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 96–99.
- ^ Foote, p. 545.
- ^ Jordan, p. 98.
- ^ Foote, p. 561.
- ^ Tucker, p. 15.
- ^ Jordan, p. 103.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 126–33.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 136–39.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 159–64.
- ^ a b Jordan, pp. 169–73
- ^ Jordan, p. 177.
- ^ Trefousse, pp. 211–12; Jordan, pp. 176–77.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 179–80; Tucker, p. 272.
- ^ Jordan, p. 182.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 183–84.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 185–89.
- ^ Jordan, p. 194; Walker, p. 296.
- ^ Indian Peace Commission 1868
- ^ Trefousse, pp. 289–90.
- ^ a b Jordan, pp. 200–01.
- ^ Jamieson, pp. 152–53.
- ^ Jordan, p. 203.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 204–05; Tucker, pp. 279–84.
- ^ a b Jordan, pp. 206–08; Walker, pp. 301–03.
- ^ Jordan, 213–28; Warner, p. 204.
- ^ Jordan, p. 212; Walker pp. 301–02.
- ^ Jordan, p. 229.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 220–21.
- ^ Jordan, p. 232.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 233–34.
- ISBN 1-59971-716-6.
- ^ Jordan, p. 235; Tucker, p. 292.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 242–50.
- ^ Jordan, p. 239.
- ^ Robinson, Lloyd, The Stolen Election: Hayes versus Tilden–1876, Agberg, Ltd. 1968, pp. 199–213.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 255–59.
- ^ Jordan, p. 262.
- ^ Walker, p. 306.
- ^ Walker, p. 306; Jordan, p. 281.
- ^ Tucker, pp. 300–01.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 292–96; Walker, p. 307.
- ^ Jordan, p. 297.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 297–301.
- ^ Jordan, p. 306.
- ^ Walker, p. 311.
- ^ Kopel, National Review.
- ^ Constitution, by-laws and register: together with memoranda relating to the history and work of the institution, Military Service Institution of the United States, Governor's Island, N.Y.H., Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford co., 1906.
- ^ Jordan, pp. 312–13.
- ^ They Also Ran, Irving Stone, p. 188.
- ^ Jordan, p. 319.
- ^ Goodrich, 1886, pp. 333–34
- ^ Bowers, D.Q., and Sundman, D.M., 100 Greatest American Currency Notes, Whitman Publishing, LLC, 2006.
- ^ "Gods and Generals" review, Variety, February 16, 2003. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
References
- "REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT BY THE INDIAN PEACE COMMISSION, JANUARY 7, 1868", in Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Year 1868, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1868), 26–50.
- Cluff, Mary Lynn. "Winfield Scott Hancock." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
- Eicher, John H., and ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Goodrich, Frederick Elizur (1886). Life of Winfield Scott Hancock, major-general, U.S.A. Boston, B. B. Russell.
- ISBN 0-394-49517-9.
- ISBN 0-914427-67-9.
- Hancock, Almira Russell. Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock. New York: Charles L. Webster, 1887. ISBN 1-58218-056-3.
- Jamieson, Perry D. Winfield Scott Hancock: Gettysburg Hero. Civil War Campaigns and Commanders Series. Abilene, TX: McWhiney Foundation Press, 2003. ISBN 1-893114-39-2.
- Jordan, David M. Winfield Scott Hancock: A Soldier's Life. Bloomfield: Indiana University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-253-36580-5.
- Kopel, David, et al. National Review Online, July 2, 2004.
- ISBN 0-89919-172-X.
- Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
- Trefousse, Hans L. Andrew Johnson, A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1991. ISBN 0-393-31742-0.
- Tucker, Glenn. Hancock the Superb. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1960. OCLC 715628.
- OCLC 747952.
- Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.
Further reading
- Chalfant, William Y. Hancock's War: Conflict on the Southern Plains. Norman, OK: Arthur H. Clark Company, 2010. ISBN 978-0-87062-371-4
- Cole, J. R. (1880). The life and public services of Winfield Scott Hancock, major-general, U.S.A. Also, the life and services of Hon. William H. English. Cincinnati, Douglass Brothers.
- Dennison, Charles Wheeler; Herbert, George B. (1880). Hancock "the superb" : the early life and public career of Winfield S. Hancock ... including also a sketch of the life of Hon. William H. English. Philadelphia : H. W. Kelley. OCLC 81289926
- John Wien, Forney (1880). Life and military career of Winfield Scott Hancock : [and,] biographical sketch of Hon. Wm. H. English. Philadelphia: Hubbard Bros.
- Freed, Augustus Toplady (1880). The life and public services of Winfield Scott Hancock. Chicago, H. A. Sumner & company.
- Goodrich, Frederick Elizur (1880). The life and public services of Winfield Scott Hancock, major-general, US A. Boston, Lee & Shepard=. Google eBook OCLC 6782477
- Hancock, Almira Russell (1887). Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock. New York, C. L. Webster & company.
- Junkin, David Xavier (1880). The life of Winfield Scott Hancock: personal, military, and political. New York, D. Appleton and company.
- Southworth, Alvan S.; Bayard, Thomas Francis (1880). Life of Gen. Winfield S. Hancock. New York, The American news company.