Gettysburg and in the preceding conflicts under Hooker, but because Grant had special confidence in Hancock's good sense, experience and courage. His first battle under Grant took place in the Wilderness on the 5th of May of that year.

With the ranks of the Second Corps well recruited during his absence in the North and his command increased by the addition of the gallant old Third, making in all upwards of 30,000 men, Hancock became a most conspicuous figure in the wonderful battles of the Wilderness. Those bloody engagements commenced on the second anniversary of the day at Williamsburg, where he won the first renown. Hancock displayed his old tactics. He made a countercharge at the crisis of the fight, threw himself among his troops, sword in hand, and exposed himself like a private soldier.

On the 10th he made an assault on the enemy's line at Alsop's House, near Spottsylvania. On the 12th, in immediate command of his old Second Corps, he accomplished a splendid feat. At the head of his corps he made the assault at daylight, favored by a dense fog. The position was carried with a rush. Five thousand prisoners, twenty pieces of artillery, thirty stands of colors and several thousand muskets, were the fruits of the victory. It was after this fine demonstration that Hancock telegraphed to Lieutenant General Grant: "I have captured from thirty to forty guns. I

have finished up Johnson, and am now going into Early."

On the 18th, General Hancock again assaulted the enemy near Spottsylvania. On the 19th he repelled an attack in force by Ewell's corps, Ewell losing several hundred men, and being driven by Hancock across the Ny River in great disorder.

On the 23d and 24th of May, he engaged the enemy on the North Anna; and fought again at Tolopotomy on the 29th, 30th and 31st, in a bloody engagement. At Coal Harbor, on June 3d, he was again engaged; and took an important part in the operations before the enemy's works at that place, up to June 13th. The army then crossed the James on the 15th and 17th of June, and it was actively engaged in the assaults on the enemy's works before Petersburg.

It is impossible to give full details of these successive engagements, or to describe the privations of his men during their long marches, their constant fighting, the perils of the bivouac, the horrors of the hospita's, the dangers of the picket lines, their incessant deeds of daring, and ceaseless personal dangers.

On the evening of the 17th of June, 1862, Hancock's iron constitution broke down from the effects of his Gettysburg wound, and he was compelled to turn over the command of his corps, though he did not leave the field, suffering intense pain, forced to occupy an ambulance during that

long march, yet he fearlessly mounted his horse when his troops came in contact with the enemy. His wound was in the upper part of the thigh; it had fractured and splintered the upper part of the femur, and once it was thought his life could not be saved. But his splendid constitution pulled him through, and his entire recovery would have been ensured had he not been impatient to go into the battle again, the penalty for which was a forced brief retirement from his command.

On the 27th of June, however, he again participated in the operations before Petersburg, until July 26th, 1864, when he crossed to the north side of the James River with his corps and a division of cavalry, and assaulted the enemy's line at Deep Bottom, capturing the outer works, two hundred prisoners, several stands of colors and four pieces of artillery.

On the next 12th of August, he was made Brigadier General in the regular army, and on the same day, while at the head of his old Second Corps, the tenth corps and a division of cavalry, he assaulted the enemy's line, carried part of the enemy's works, captured three hundred prisoners, three stands of colors, and four howitzers. On the 25th of August, he fought the battle of Ream's Station, with two divisions of his own corps and a division of cavalry against greatly superior forces. Here another horse was shot under him. On the 22d of October, with the same forces, he was en

gaged at Boynton Road, inflicting a heavy loss in killed and wounded on the enemy, driving them from the field and capturing one thousand prisoners and two stands of colors.

GRAPHIC PICTURE OF THE BATTLES OF THE WILDER

NESS.

[From Draper's Civil War, Vol. III. p. 375.]

On the morning of the 7th reconnoissances showed that the Confederates had fallen behind their intrenched lines, with pickets to the front, covering a part of the battle-field. From this Grant inferred that Lee was satisfied of his inability to maintain the contest in the open field, and that he would wait an attack behind his works. Grant therefore determined to put his whole force between Lee and Richmond, and gave orders for a movement by Lee's right flank. On the night of the 7th the march for Spottsylvania Court-house commenced. Warren and Hancock marched by the Brock Road; Sedgwick and Burnside, with the trains, by a detour eastward by Chancellorsville, and then southward. Lee discovered the movement, and, it so happened, reached Spottsylvania first. Anderson, who commanded Longstreet's corps, after the disabling of that officer, had received orders to march next morning, but was driven by the flames out of the burning woods, and kept on all night, moving by a road parallel to that on which Warren was marching to Spottsylvania. Not meeting with the obstructions that Warren encountered, he reached Spottsylvania first. Now, learning of Warren's approach, he drew up his men across the road on which Warren was coming. The country was undulating, and dotted here and there with thick groves of pine for the distance of a mile from the point where the wilderness terminates.

As Grant's rear-guard was firing its last gun in the Wilderness, its advance had thus reached Lee's troops three miles in front of Spottsylvania.

It was not until four hours after the expected time that Warren's column emerged into the open clearing, and saw the court-house on its

wooded ridge. He had been delayed by barricades; at once he endeavored to force his way, and succeeded for the time, after a desperate struggle, in driving back the Confederates, with severe loss on both sides. The First Michigan, 200 strong, came out of the conflict with only twenty-three men. The day was intensely hot, and many suffered from sun-stroke.

On the 9th, Sheridan, with his cavalry, started on a movement agains. Lee's lines of communication with Richmond.

The 9th, 10th and 11th were spent in manœuvring and fighting. The sharp-shooters up in the trees were busy picking off officers. It was on the first of these days that Sedgwick, commanding the Sixth Corps, was killed. He was superintending the placing of a battery where the men were exposed to a pretty sharp fire. "Pooh!" said he, “they could not hit an elephant at that distance." At that moment he was struck by a rifle-shot in the face, and instantly fell dead. The command of the Sixth Corps devolved upon Wright.

On Tuesday morning, the 10th, Grant occupied substantially the same position as on the previous day. His line stretched about six miles on the north bank of the Po, in the form of a crescent, the wings being thrown forward. The Second Corps, across the Potomac, held a line on the right nearly parallel to the road from Shady Grove Church to the Court-house; the Fifth held the centre, on the east side of the Po; the Sixth held the left, facing toward the Courthouse; farther on the left was the Ninth; in front was a dense forest. Lee held Spottsylvania and the region north of the Court-house. His left rested on Glady Run, bending northward, and sheltered by strong works made previously in anticipation; his right curved in a similar direction, and rested on the Ny River; his centre, thrown forward a little from the right and left centres, was posted on commanding ground. His position was well supported by breast-works; along the centre was the forest and underbrush lining a marsh partially drained by the Run. The conflict opened in the morning by a terrific fire of artillery, which lasted all the forenoon. An attack was then made by the Fifth Corps, and by Gibbon's and Birney's divisions of the Second, on Lee's centre. Grant's losses were very severe in the repeated charges