The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-02-18

DIVISION. In november, lOOz, lauCeeh
received his commission as major general
aud on the 18th of December was engag
ed in the desperate and bloody assault or
Marye's Heights. His behavior on this
occasion was in keeping with the hig!
reputation he had achieved. He was
with his division, in the thickest of the
conflict, leading his men as far as it was
possible, under the circumstances, fol
men to go, and only falling back whcr
attempt at further advance WAS foolhardy
and useless. In this fight, as, in fact, ir
almost every one in which he was engag
ed, he seemed to wear a charm on bis
life. He received in the Slaughter pen,
as the rank and file were wont to call the
position they occupied in this fight, 9
slight flesh wound, coming out otherwise
unharmed, though with uniform perfo
rated with bullets. In this battle Han.
cock lost one half of his command, killed
and wounded, and all his aides were
wounded.
At Charlottesville, in May, 1868, he
commanded his division and covered the
roads leading towards fredericksburg
where, amid surrounding disaster, al
though constantly attacked, his troops
maintained their position to the last, and
formed the rear guard of the army ir
moviag off the field. The General had
his horse shot under him in the battle
Early in June he relieved Gen. Couch
in command of the I'd corps, and late,
in the same month was assigned by MIR
Lincoln to be its permanent conman'
der.
It was at Gettysburg Hancock again
loomed up before the country as hero
He was commanding the rear guard o.
the army in its advance on Gettysburg
and had reached Tarrytown, the place
where his grandfather, one hundred
years before, had started to escort one
thousand Hessian prisoners of Burgoyne's
army TO Valley Ford, when Gen. Meade
sent him an order 10 hasten to the front
and assume command of the troops
there. The report bad reached Meade
of the fall of Gen. Reynolds, and the
check and repulse of the advance, and
his mind at once turned to Gen. Hancock
as the man above all others bestquali6ed to
replace Reynolds and restore order to the
head of the army. Hancock was not the
ranking General, but in the critical state
of affairs Meade, knowing him to be the
best man, did not hesitate to assign him
On his way from Tarrytown to the
battlefield Gen. Hancock met the ambu-
lance containing the dead body of Gen.
Reynolds. When he arrived on the field
he found the army in confusion, and a
retreat had already beguo. Planting
some infantry and batteries on Cemetery
Hill, be threw his whole energy into the
battle and checked the retreat. Schweriu
and SAKE were said to be worth each q
reinforcement of 10000 men to an army
Torstensen was rated as equal to $4,000,
and the Duke of Wellington said the
arrival of Napoleon on battlefield was
better reinforcement to the French
army than the accession of 10000 fresh
troops. What, then, shall we say of the
value of Gen. Hancock's arrival at the
critical moment on the battlefield ol
Gettysburg. a battle that by common
consent is now admitted to have decided
the fa,e of the Union and fixed the fnal
result of the war?
Of Gen. Hancock's individual action
at Gettysburg it would require volume
to tell. His was really the action of the
army, and Round Top, Culp's Hill and
Cemetery Heights were his creations
He sent word to Gen. Meade that was the
place to fight, and seizing the favorable
positions, with the eye of consummate
general, hung on to them with the ad
vance until Meade brought up the whole
army and delivered his battle.
Hancock was grand and magnificent
in the battle of Gettysburg and seemed
the very incarnation of war. On the
second day he was at Cemetery Heights
during the frightful cannonade wher
Gen. Lee concentrated the fire of one
hundred and fifty. guns on the Unior
lines. The air was full of missiles
streams of shot and shell screamed ane
hissed everywhere; it seemed as though
nothing could live under that terrible
fire-men and horses were torn limt
from limb; caissons exploded one aftel
another in rapid succession, blowing the
gunners to pieces. The infantry huggee
the ground closely and sought every
slight shelter that the light earthwork:
afforded. 1t was literally storm of sho
and she'll, like the fall of raindrops o.
the beat of hailstones. Those who hac
taken part in every battle of the wa
never had seen anything like that can
nonade, and the oldest soldiers began tt
be uneasy for the result. Hundreds ant
thousands were stricken down; tht
shrieks of animals and screams O
wounded men were appalling; still tht
awful rushing sound of flying missiles
went on and apparently never would
cease. 1t was then, when the frmes
hearts had begun to quail, the army wit
messed one of the grandest sights eve
beheld by any army on earth. Suddenl!
a band began to play "The Star Spanglet
Banner" and Gen. Hancock, with hi
stafr-Major Mitchell, Capt. Bingham
Capt. Parker, Capt. Bronson-with corp
!! flag flying in the hands of Private Wells
appeared on the right of his line uncov
cred and rode down the front of his mel
to the left. The soldiers held thei
breath, expecting every moment to SCI
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