Winfield Hancock

Winfield S. Hancock was a distinguished Union soldier. He graduated from West Point in 1844 and won a brevet for gallantry in the Mexican War. As a Union general in the Civil War, Hancock participated with distinction as a brigade, and then division, commander in the Army of Potomac during the Peninsular campaign and at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. As a corps commander, he made the critical decision for Gen. George G. Meade to fight at Gettysburg. Hancock played a pivotal role in the second and third days of battle there, where he was severely wounded. He served under Ulysses S. Grant in the latter's 1864 campaign. Hancock was an army district commander in the South during Reconstruction and was the Democratic candidate for president in 1880. After his defeat by James A. Garfield, he returned to the army as a department commander.

Winfield Scott Hancock