Existing comment:
Winfield Scott Hancock with his division commanders and staffs:
Union general Winfield Scott Hancock (1824–1886) commanded the Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He won praise from soldiers and peers alike for his bravery and leadership at Gettysburg (1863), where he was seriously wounded, and in the Virginia battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor (1864). At Gettysburg, Hancock's command repulsed the brunt of Pickett's charge. In response to a subordinate who urged Hancock not to ride his horse in the midst of the fight, he replied, "There are times when a corps commander's life does not count."
In this photograph of Hancock's camp headquarters, possibly near Cold Harbor in June 1864, Hancock is shown in the center, resting his hand on a tree. His division commanders -- Francis C. Barlow (leaning against the tree) and David Bell Birney and John Gibbon (left front) -- stand near him.
A woodcut illustration of this photograph, appeared in Harper's Weekly on August 13, 1864.
Mathew Brady Studio, 1864 |