Winfield Scott Hancock, Hero of Gettysburg and Prosecutor of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators, Gives His Assessment of Abraham Lincoln
“Mr. Lincoln’s history will be ‘of all time’ and he will be recalled as one of the grandest figures of the world’s history.”
Winfield Scott Hancock served as a Union general and was widely recognized as one of the war’s most brilliant commanders. He served at the Battles of Williamsburg, Antietam and Chancellorsville before assuming command of the Army of the Potomac’s II Corps in May 1863. His finest moment came in July 1863 during...
Winfield Scott Hancock served as a Union general and was widely recognized as one of the war’s most brilliant commanders. He served at the Battles of Williamsburg, Antietam and Chancellorsville before assuming command of the Army of the Potomac’s II Corps in May 1863. His finest moment came in July 1863 during the Battle of Gettysburg, when he commanded the Union center and repulsed the Confederate assault known as Pickett’s Charge. He later participated in Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign and saw extensive action at the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House as well as the Siege of Petersburg.
At the close of the war, Hancock was assigned to supervise the execution of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14, 1865, and by May 9 of that year a military commission had been convened to try the accused. The assassin of Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, was already dead, but the trial of his co-conspirators proceeded quickly, resulting in convictions. President Andrew Johnson ordered the executions to be carried out on July 7. Although he was reluctant to execute some of the less-culpable conspirators, especially Mary Surratt, Hancock carried out his orders, later writing that “every soldier was bound to act as I did under similar circumstances.”
In the 1880s, O.H. Oldroyd wrote to a handful of the men involved in the Civil War, asking their opinion on Lincoln’s legacy. He was a collector and aimed to publish a book on reminiscences of Lincoln, which he did, entitled The Lincoln Memorial. He wrote Hancock.
This letter belonged to Lincoln historian and collector Oliver Barrett, whose documents were sold in the middle of the 20th century. It has been in a private collection since that time.
Autograph letter signed, November 15, 1881. “My young friend, you see not to know that I am a very busy man, and have no time to write essays, even upon the most important subjects. Your letter of Nov 1 as you may imagine from the foregoing has been received.
“Mr. Lincoln’s history will be ‘of all time’ and he will be recalled as one of the grandest figures of the world’s history.”
An important statement by one of the Civil War’s greatest generals, placing Lincoln in the Pantheon of all time.
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