nt column of eighteen thousand men moved up the slope,
with its red battle-flags flying, and the sun playing on its burnished
bayonets. On they came on the run. Infantry volleys struck their ranks.
Their ranks were broken, and their supports were scattered to the winds.
Pickett's veterans and A. P. Hill's best troops went down. Out of that
magnificent column of men, only one-fourth returned to tell the story.
Three generals, fourteen field officers, and fourteen thousand men were
either slain or captured. This was the supreme moment of the war; from
that hour the Confederate cause waned and slowly died.

All honor to Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg, who was borne bleeding
from the field, not to resume active service until March, 1864, when he
took a leading part in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania
Court-House, North Anna, the second battle of Cold Harbor, and in the
operations around Petersburg. After the war was over he was placed in
command of the Middle Department, the Department of Missouri, of
Louisiana and Texas, of Dakota, and on the death of General Meade,
promoted to command the Department of the East, which position he held
at his death.

In 1868 he was a very prominent candidate for the Democratic nomination,
receiving 114-1/2 votes, but after an exciting contest, Horatio Seymour
was nominated on the 22nd ballot. The next year he was tendered the
Democratic nomination for Governor of his native State, but respectfully
declined.

In 1880 he accepted the nomination from the same party for the highest
honor within the gift of the party, but in the subsequent election was
defeated by James A. Garfield, the Republican nominee. His last
conspicuous appearance in public was at the funeral services of General
Grant, where he acted as marshal of ceremonies. Scarcely six months were
passed when we were startled with the news: Hancock is dead, and on
February 13th, 1886, with military honors, but no elaborate display, he
was laid at rest beside his father and beloved daughter. No long line of
troops, no sound of dirges, no trappings of woe, marked the funeral of
General Hancock. The man who had received the nomination of a great
party for the highest honor in the nation's gift, who had turned the
fortunes of many a battle, and whose calm courage in the midst of death
had so often inspired the faltering regiments, was laid at rest quietly,
without pomp or vain show, at Norristown, Pennsylvania.

GEO