Commanded the 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg where he was seriously wounded repulsing Pickett's Charge!

United States Presidential Candidate in 1880

(1824-1886) Winfield Scott Hancock and his identical twin brother, Hilary Baker Hancock, were born in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, a hamlet just northwest of Philadelphia. Winfield was named after Winfield Scott, a prominent U.S. general in the War of 1812, and the Mexican War, and who was commander-in-chief of the Union armies at the beginning of the Civil War. He graduated in the West Point class of 1844, and earned a brevet for gallantry in the Mexican War. Hancock played a gallant role in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, and in the 1862 Maryland campaign which climaxed with the bloody battle of Antietam, Maryland. He greatly distinguished himself in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. During the battle of Gettysburg, General Hancock commanded the 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac. His decisive actions on July 1, 1863 helped to save the strategic position of Culp's Hill for General George G. Meade's army. On July 3rd, his corps became the focal point for the celebrated Pickett's Charge in which he was seriously wounded, but refused to leave the battlefield until the victory was secured. After his recovery, he went on to fight in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, Va., and earned the sobriquet of "Hancock The Superb." At the close of the war, Hancock was assigned to supervise the execution of the conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. After the executions, Hancock was assigned command of the newly organized Middle Military Department, headquartered in Baltimore. In 1866, on General U.S. 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. He reported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he took up his new position. Soon after arriving, he was assigned by General William T. Sherman to lead an expedition to negotiate with the Cheyenne and Sioux, with whom relations had worsened since the Sand Creek massacre. 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. In 1872, General Meade died, leaving Hancock the army's senior major general. In 1880, he was the Democratic nominee for the Presidency of the United States. He was narrowly defeated by another ex-Civil War General, the soon to be assassinated President James A. Garfield. The last public act performed by General 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. He died in 1886, at Governors Island, New York, while in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic. He is buried in Montgomery Cemetery, near Norristown, Pa.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Seated view wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of major general. Back mark: Philadelphia Photographic Co., 730 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. Light age toning and wear. Very desirable Union Gettysburg general.