Just a quick note about one of the men in the past that I consider my greatest hero.  I'm not going to say too much about his military career, but focus a bit on the personal life of Winfield Scott Hancock.

He was born in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania on February 14, 1824.  He has an identical twin brother by the name of Hilary Baker Hancock.  When the boys were four years old, they left their home in Montgomery Square and moved to the larger city of Norristown, Pennsylvania.  Their father, Benjamin, was a teacher who was studying to become a lawyer and Norristown proved to be a better area for him to learn his trade. 

When Winfield was 16 years old, he was accepted at West Point Military Academy in New York and moved there to learn how to be a military man, which would prove to be his vocation for the remainder of his life.  In 1844, he was graduated from West Point.  Throughout his career, he would find himself stationed in several locations throughout the United States.  Probably the most important location that he found himself stationed was right outside of St. Louis, Missouri.  It was during his time that he met and married Almira Russell.  They went on to have two children:  Russell and Ada.  Unfortunately, neither child outlived their parents.  Ada passed away when she was 18 from a fever and Russell lived to be 30.

Hancock fought in two wars during his lifetime.  First, although he did very little fighting if any, was the Mexican War (1846-1848) and then again during the Civil War (1861-1865).  During the Civil War, he was severely wounded at Gettysburg, although he did recover enough to resume command of his 2nd Corps and finished out the war.

In 1880, because he had become such a well known military leader, he ran against James A. Garfield for the presidency of the United States.  Although there was a small difference in the number of popular votes between Garfield and himself, the electoral college chose Garfield as the president.  Hancock was not too terribly upset about losing and continued his life as a military man.

In his final years, he was stationed at Governor's Island, New York, just south of Battery Park in Manhattan.  He was bothered repeatedly by a boil on the back of his neck which just would not heal.  He eventually fell into a coma and his doctor decided to do a test on his urine to see if he was diabetic.  Not only was he diabetic, but he was dangerously diabetic and it was too late to do anything about it.  On February 9, 1886, Winfield Scott Hancock passed away.

He was buried in his beloved Norristown, Pennsylvania, were he remains still.  He has a mausoleum at Montgomery Cemetery and he and his daughter Ada are buried together in the mausoleum.  Today, it is still possible to go visit the final resting place of this beloved national hero.