Known as "Hancock the Superb"

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

United States Presidential Candidate in 1880

Autograph Letter Signed to U.S. Congressman William E. Robinson

(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.

Autograph Letter Signed: 5 1/4 x 8, in ink.

Governor's Island, New York
April 10, 1885

Dear Sir:

Please accept my thanks for the copy of the "Congressional Record" containing your recent speech entitled - American Citizenship - which you have kindly sent me.

I am Very Sincerely,
Yours,
Winfd. S. Hancock

The Hon. E. Robinson, M.C.
Washington, D.C.

Small archival tape repair on the reverse. Very fine. Neatly written with nice large autograph. Very popular and desirable Union general.

WBTS Trivia: William E. Robinson, the recipient of General Hancock's letter, was born near Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City in November 1836, graduated from Yale College in 1841, was admitted to the bar in 1854, and practiced law in New York City. President Abraham Lincoln appointed him assessor of Internal Revenue for the third district of New York in 1862. He served in the United States Congress from New York, 1867-69; and 1881-85. Robinson died in Brooklyn, N.Y., on January 23, 1892, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.