Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-11-12
GEN. WALKERS GRAFTON.
The Military Character aud Services of
Major Gen. Winfield :. Hancock.


Mr. PrcSdcnt d1id Comrades Of the Re
union Society:
In the early afternoon of the I'd of July,
1863, brigade of Vermont troops, new to
battle, lay under arms, along Cemetery
Ridge, watching the march of confed-
crate column which, panoplied in all the
majesty and terror of war, was bearing
down upon the centre of the army of the
Potomac.
They had borne their share of the hid
eous cannonade. intended to shake the
nerve of the Union forces, when one hun
dred and forty guns opened at a signal.
and for an hour and IA half scourged the
plain and the low crest on which our
troops lay, until the very earth seemed to
shake, and the air was full of bursting
shells and whistling fragments carrying
death to every quarter. They had seen
the confederate columns forming in the
edge of the woods on Seminary Ridge /;
fifty hardy batallions wheeling into their
place. brigade after brigade breaking
from cover to join the desperate enter
prise, while the Confederate cheftains
with their stats, galloped along the lines
to give the last orders, then took their
stations at the head of their troops. They
had seen that column, fourteen thousand
strong, launched by Il word its right direct
edagainst themselves, and had clutched
their muskets tighter, with quiverng
hands and throbbing hearts, as their
thought ran swiftly on to the encount-
err so, soon to come in this their
first battle. They had seen Neazey's
10th regiment driven in from the
skirmish line, as the stones and tim
beers of "A broken dam, uprooted trees
and the wreckage of hundred houses are
swept onward before the mountainous
flood of waters. At half infantry range,
they had opened fire on the brigade of
kemper, forming Pickett's right, fire all
the more deadly because the men who
there welded the musket had from boy
hood been accustomed to the use of the
rifle along the wooded slopes or among
the grassy wales of the Green Mountains.
With mingled feelings of relief, for they
were human, and of regret, for they were
brave, they had seen the Confederates
sheer abruptly and rapidly off to the
north, partly as the effect of the whitening
volleys poured among them by the men of
Stannard and Gates, partly as the result
of the original direction of the column of
assault upon the 'copse of trees on Glib
bons line, partly in consequence of that
instructive tendency to close in upon the
centre which beSetS all aSsaulting col
umnS and leaving their front, bear down
hpon the troops nearer to Cemetery Hill.
While, then, in hope and doubt and fear,
these brave NermOnterS awaited the re-
suit of that terrible collision, seeing them
selves apparently excluded, by the chang
ed direction suddenly given to the Con
tederate column, from all further partci-
patton in the great struggle, there rode
rapidly between their lines, where no
mounted man had for hours been seen, a
general officer of princely port and of a
singularly bold and commanding aspect
II HancOck n flrnW tba Nar-
mont brigade upon he flank of the Con
federate column already pressing up the
slope on which stood the troops of Gibbon
and Alexander Hays 1t has been said
that the commander of the brigade had
anticipated the order and was already
preparing to move his regiments against
the foe. II so, a double share of honor
belongs to George j. Stannard. Few Off
GERS, III his rank and station, even had
they seen the opportunity thus uneXpect.
eddy offered, would have had the neral
courage to assume the responsibility of a
movement away from the general line OF
battle. Certain it is, Hancock had come
down in not haste To direct the advance
and IN person to superlntend its execution.
You Know, many of you, not because it
is so written, but because yourselves saw
it, how, even as Randall's 18th Vermont
regiment, followed fast by the 10th, flung
itself forward, changing front on the right
company, and opened upon the flank of
lllc Nplllt'ltItlt CbluulIl, llldl stately
figure suddenly dropped, the fire died out
of that lmperlous eye, and the heroic lead
er of the left wing of the army of the Po
tomac, there, on the front line of battle
fell stricken into the arms of Hooker and
Benedict. Yet even ON the ground which
he WAS mOistenlug with his blood, tins
prince of soldiers could not relinqUiSh the
charge that had been intrusted to him.
Raising himself on his elbow. to look over
the low tumbie-dOWn stOne-Wall by which
he lay, he watched with fimy eyes the
progress of the fight in a feeble and falt
ering voice issued his orders to command
ers and stan and only when the mighty
column which, forty minutes before emerg-
ed from the woods on Seminary Ridge,
had collapsed under the flank attack of
Stannard aud the advance of Webb, Har-
row and Hall, suffered himself to be borne
from the field.
Comrades, the gallant soldier the bril-
liant tactcian, the born leader of men,
whom so many of you saw fall that day
within your ranks, has passed away from
earth since the last reunion of your soci-
ETY. and | know OF no more fitting sub
1ect Tor the veterans Of Vermont to con
template, on this OCCASION then the mill
tary character and services of Winfield
Scott Hancock.
The outbreak of the war found Hancock
III the 3sth year of his age, captain in
the regular army, in charge of the quart
er-master's depot at Los Angeles, OH the
Paclnc coast ChrlStened with the name
of Americas greatest living soldier grad
uating from the military academy in 1914.
he had joined SCOTS column in time TO
take part in the later battles of the mar
vellous campaign which ended in the cap
ture OF the Mexican capital. At Mono
del Rey he was in the column of attack
with Longstreet, Pickett and Armstead,
men whom he was to encounter sixteen
years later in another and more memora-
BILE assault and was brevetted for his
gallantry at COntreras and Charubusco.
In the long interval which followed the
conclusion OF peace with Mexico, Hancock
saw much instructive service during the
troubles with the Semnoles in Florida,
during the border war in Kansas, in the
tan expedition of Harvey, and on the
Pacific. Coast, Absolutely destitute of
ascetlcism, always of hearty fellowship, |
fond OF ease and given to good cheer, his |
stirring ambition, his intense interest in
his profession and his high standard of
duty rendered these fourteen years one
long term OF military education. | doubt |
II there was an officer in the United States
hot