His ardent patriotism placed him in the saddle before his wound had healed, and at one time during the battle of the Wilderness he was obliged to give up his command. At Chancellorsville he captured the whole division of General Edward Johnson. When that officer was brought into Hancock's tent the latter extended his hand to his old acquaintance, exclaiming heartily, "How are you, Ned?"
"I refuse to take your hand," replied the humiliated prisoner.
"All right," said Hancock, "I shouldn't have offered it to you under any other circumstances."
Hancock was in command of the Second Army Corps for the last time at the battle of Boydton. His remarkable skill in training soldiers caused Secretary Stanton to assign to him the task of organizing the First Veteran Corps, composed of soldiers, all of whom had been in service two years. He afterward commanded the Army of the Shenandoah, and was in charge at Washington at the time of the assassination of Lincoln.
In 1869, he was transferred from the command of the division of the Atlantic and assigned to that of Dakota, where he remained until 1872, when he resumed command of the division of the Atlantic. His last public appearance was when he commanded the military forces which assisted in the funeral ceremonies of General Grant.
As a proof that General Hancock's skill with the pen was hardly less than that with the sword, the following extract is given from an article by him on the battle of Gettysburg:
"Cemetery Hill has since become consecrated ground. The place where General Howard was superseded in command on the first day of the fight is now covered with the graves of thousands of gallant soldiers whose bones lie buried at the base of the beautiful monumental column which commemorates their fame. Two of the marble statues ornamenting the pedestal personify War and History. War, symbolized by a soldier resting from the conflict, narrates to History the story of the struggle and the deeds of the martyr-heroes who fell in that famous battle. In remembrance of these noble comrades who laid down their lives for the general weal, it were simply sacrilege for any survivor to pour into the ears of History an incorrect account of the contest, still more to assume to himself honors belonging perhaps less to the living than to the dead.
"The historian of the future who essays to tell the tale of Gettysburg undertakes an onerous task, a high responsibility, a sacred trust. Above all things, justice and truth should dwell in his mind and heart. Then, dipping his pen as it were in the crimson tide, the sunshine of heaven lighting his page, giving 'honor to whom honor is due,' doing even justice to the splendid valor alike of friend and foe, he may tell the world how the rain descended in streams of fire, and the floods came in the billows of rebellion, and the winds blew in blasts of fraternal execration, and beat upon the fabric of the Federal Union, and that it fell not, for, resting on the rights and liberties of the people, it was founded upon a rock." General Hancock died February 9, 1886.
