Hancock, Winfield Scott

(1824–1886), known as ‘Thunderbolt of the Army of the Potomac’ served with distinction in the army for four decades, including service in the Mexican-American War and as a major general in the Civil War. Known to his army colleagues as ‘Hancock the Superb’, he was noted in particular for his personal leadership at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. He was the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880, but was defeated. One military historian wrote, “No other Union general at Gettysburg dominated men by the sheer force of their presence more completely than Hancock.”