Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-07-15
HANCOCK AT GETTYSBURG.

now THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE SAVED
HIS STATE SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.
From the New York Sun.
Seventeen years ago Saturday last
Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock fell des-
perately wounded, at the very moment
that Longstreet's corps had been so
splendidly repulsed, and tho issue of
the three days fight at Gettysburg
was at last decided. Hancock com
manded the left centre. Lee ordered
Longstreet to begin the fierce assault
on Cemetery hill by attacking Han
cocks line. For an hour the battle
ragged. Hancock rode up and down
the line, encouraging his men. The
assault was again and again renewed,
but the left centre stood firm. As
Longstreet's corps wavered, Hancock
received bullet in his thigh, but the
victory had been won. Lying on the
ground, with the surgeon examining
his wound, Hancock called an aid.
"Tell Gen. Meade" he said, "that the
corps under my command have re-
pulsed the enemy's assault, and we
have gained a great victory. The
enemy is now flying in all directions
in my front"
Tell Gen. Hancock" Gen. Meade
sent back word in reply, "that thank
him for the country and for myself for
the services he has rendered to-day"
BY q joint resolution of Congress
Gen. Hancock received the unanimous
thanks of that body for his gallant,
meritorious, and conspicuous share in
that great and decisive victory" After
the battle he was borne to the field
hospital, and thence to his fathers
home at Norristown, where he suffered
greatly from his wound but it was
not fully healed when he reported at
Washington for active duty in the
field.
Among the officers under him on
this eventful day was Gen. William
McCandless, who was on the left of
Gen. Hancock line, posted on Round
Top hill. Gen. McCandless COM
manded the First brigade of Pennsyl-
vania reserves, composed of the famous
"Bucktails," the First, Second, Sixth
and Eleventh regiments. Gen. Nc
Candless lives in Philadelphia, but is
now on n visit to Col. Richard Penn
Smith, of Staten Island. also an officer
under Hancock on that 3rd of July.
These two gentlemen were recalling
the incidents of the great victory yes
terday. at was, perhaps, the most
important battle of the war in all its
results" said Gen. McCandless. Here
the Confederacy received the wound
which ranked till death, and gradual
ly sapping its strength, left il an easy
prey to the armies of Grant. And
perhaps to no other man so much as to
Winfield Scott Hancock was this re-
suit due. His command, the Second
corps, reached the field on the evening
of July |, 1868. and took position on
the left centre Of the line of battle, the
key point of the Union army, and the
ground around which the tide of war
ragged most fiercely. Gen. Hancock
personally superintended the dispose.
ton of his troops, and the line which
he then formed was held unbroken
until the close of the third and last
day. 1t was an hour when the head
and heart of a hero were needed.
Gen. Reynolds, who was with him at
West Point, had fallen dead in the
front of battle. Sickles had lost his
leg. On the night of the I'd it seemed
as if the stubborn line would be broken
and Hancock's corps driven from its
all-important position.
"But the cool wisdom born of prac-
teal experience exhibited by the brave
man ayerted the disaster. The follow
ing day was the most sanguinary OF
all. The Second corps was for two
hours under the converging fire of 257
pieces of Confederate artillery. About
1880 p. NJ. of the Sd the Confederates
were discovered in the act Of moving
forward. They were repulsed at both
the right and left of Gen. Hancock's 9
line, but were evidently determined to
break his centre, divide the army and
overcome it in detail, if they could.
Heavy masses of their infantry began
TO diverge from the woods in front OF
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