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.

6th Wisconsin at Gettysburg

The Sixth Wisconsin was a member of the Iron Brigade.  The Iron Brigade was a tough fighting brigade who earned their nickname at the battle of Antietam in September of 1862.  When the battle started in Gettysburg, one of the first brigades on the scene was the Iron Brigade. 

When they first arrived, the other regiments within the brigade arrived first.  Once the 2nd WI, 7th WI, 19th IN, and 24th MI were in place and fighting their hearts out, the 6th WI was told to stand back and wait.  Being held in reserve when their brothers were fighting, was a difficult thing for these men to do, but waiting didn't last long. 

The men were told to change the direction they were facing and to look towards the north.  To the north, Cutler's brigade was fighting a tough battle with the men of Davis' brigade.  These men couldn't hold them off forever and they didn't.  When Davis' men started to head towards the south, the 6th Wisconsin was waiting for them. 

By this time, the 95th NY had joined the Wisconsin men and little known to the 6th, the 84th NY (14th Brooklyn) was right on the other side of them.  When things started to get sticky, the 6th WI and 95th NY put their heads together and decided it was time to attack.  So, a charge across the field was planned.  Davis was heading straight for them, when suddenly it was as if the earth had swallowed them up.  Davis and his men had just vanished. 

What the men of the NY and WI regiments didn't know, was that about a 150 yards or so from the Chambersburg Pike was a railroad cut.  The railroad tracks had never been lain, but the cuts were there.  The Mississippians of Davis's brigade went down into the cut, thinking that this would be a great place to use as a rifle pit.  However, the sides of the cut ranged from even with the surrounding ground, to about 15 feet high.  Even the tallest men couldn't use the cut as a rifle pit. 

In the meantime, the WI troops ran towards the cut and when they realized that these men were down in it they decided to take advantage of it.  There were only two ways out:  the east end of the cut and the west end of the cut.  Rufus Dawes, the commander of the 6th WI took some of his men and cut off the escape of the east end.  Then Dawes called down into the cut and demanded their surrender.  When all was said and done, these three regiments were able to capture over 200 men from Davis' brigade.

The front monument is to the 6th Wisconsin and the rear monument is to the 95th New York.  This picture was taken at the railroad cut in Gettysburg, PA.