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.

[10] By July 1847, however, Hancock was permitted to join his regiment in Puebla, Mexico, where they made up a part of the army led by his namesake, General Winfield Scott.

[13] Although he was well enough to join his regiment at Molino del Rey, fever kept Hancock from participating in the final breakthrough to Mexico City, something he would regret for the rest of his life.

[22] He remained there, joined by Allie and the children, until the Civil War broke out in 1861, serving as a captain and assistant quartermaster under future Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston.

"[25] Hancock returned east to assume quartermaster duties for the rapidly growing Union Army, but was quickly promoted to brigadier general on September 23, 1861, and given an infantry brigade to command in the division of Brig.

[28] 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".

[36] Following the action toward his right, he sent the 13th Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the 1st Corps, which had come from Cemetery Hill to help quell the crisis, to recover some artillery pieces the Confederates had captured and were pulling away.

[42] Helped from his horse by aides, and with a tourniquet applied to stanch the bleeding, he removed the saddle nail himself and, mistaking its source, remarked wryly, "They must be hard up for ammunition when they throw such shot as that.

[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.

[2] After his corps participated in the assaults at Deep Bottom, Hancock was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army, effective August 12, 1864.

On August 25, Confederate Maj. Gen. Henry Heth attacked and overran the faulty Union position at Reams's Station, shattering the II Corps, capturing many prisoners.

[48] Despite a later victory at Hatcher's Run, the humiliation of Reams's Station contributed, along with the lingering effects of his Gettysburg wound, to his decision to give up field command in November.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

[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.

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.

As a result, Hancock found himself transferred, this time away from the sensitive assignment of reconstructing the South and into the relative backwater that was the Department of Dakota.

As in his previous Western command, Hancock began with a conference of the Indian chiefs, but this time was more successful in establishing a peaceful intent.

In August 1870, he ordered the 2nd Cavalry at Fort Ellis to provide a military escort for General Henry D. Washburn's planned exploration of the Yellowstone Region.

In 1871, Captain John W. Barlow during his exploration of the Yellowstone region formally named a summit on what would become the southern boundary of the park Mount Hancock to honor the general's decision to provide the escort.

[71] The vast department covered the settled northeast area of the country and was militarily uneventful with the exception of the army's involvement in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

"[81] Garfield's campaigners used this statement to paint the Democrats as unsympathetic to the plight of industrial laborers, a group that would benefit by a high protective tariff.

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.

[87] Hancock died in 1886 at Governors Island, still in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic, the victim of an infected carbuncle, complicated by diabetes.

A number of scenes in the novel Gods and Generals that depict Hancock and his friend Lewis A. Armistead in Southern California before the war were omitted from the film.