Start of the sale:
Tuesday, 3 September 2013 at 19:14
Item n°229601090
Sale ends:
Wednesday, 9 October 2024 at 15:10
Country: USA
Winfield Scott Hancock (February 14, 1824 - February 9, 1886) was a
career U.S. Army officer and the Democratic nominee for President
of the United States in 1880. He served with distinction in the
Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican-American
War and as a Union general in the American Civil War. Known to his
Army colleagues as "Hancock the Superb",[1] he was noted in
particular for his personal leadership at the Battle of Gettysburg
in 1863. One military historian wrote, "No other Union general at
Gettysburg dominated men by the sheer force of their presence more
completely than Hancock."[2] As another wrote, "... his tactical
skill had won him the quick admiration of adversaries who had come
to know him as the ´Thunderbolt of the Army of the Potomac´."[3]
His military service continued after the Civil War, as Hancock
participated in the military Reconstruction of the South and the
Army´s presence at the Western frontier.
Hancock´s reputation as a war hero at Gettysburg, combined with his
rare status as a prominent figure with impeccable Unionist
credentials and pro-states´ rights views, made him a quadrennial
presidential possibility in the years after the Civil War. His
noted integrity was a counterpoint to the corruption of the era,
for as President Rutherford B. Hayes said, "... [i]f, when we make
up our estimate of a public man, conspicuous both as a soldier and
in civil life, we are to think first and chiefly of his manhood,
his integrity, his purity, his singleness of purpose, and his
unselfish devotion to duty, we can truthfully say of Hancock that
he was through and through pure gold."[4] This nationwide
popularity led the Democrats to nominate him for President in
1880.[5] Although he ran a strong campaign, Hancock was defeated by
Republican James Garfield by the closest popular vote margin in
American history.[6]
This looks like a very fine engraving that has been taken from a
19th century book of the American Civil war, one of 7
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