Hancock, Winfield Scott (1824-1886), was a general of the Union Army in the American Civil War (1861-1865). He also ran as the Democratic Party candidate for president of the United States in 1880, but James A. Garfield defeated him.
When the Civil War started, Hancock became a brigadier general of volunteers. He fought in the battles of the Peninsula, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Promoted to major general, he helped select the battlefield at Gettysburg, where he skillfully commanded a corps and was wounded. He later served in the Wilderness campaign.
Hancock was born in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 14, 1824, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1844. He also served in the Second Seminole War (1835-1842); the Mexican War (1846-1848); and the Utah, or Mormon, War (1857-1858). Hancock died on Feb. 9, 1886.
