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The below chronological sequence of events describe interactions of participants with Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock on July 3. They highlight his energy and decisiveness up until the time of his wounding in the mid-afternoon. For a similar description on Hancock’s battlefield activities for a portion of the previous day (which together with this post encompasses roughly a 24-hour period), see:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/mo...s-hancock-july-2-4-9-p-m.126233/#post-1369423
July 2/3, around midnight. Hancock, with Gibbon and Newton, crawled into Gibbon’s personal ambulance close to the Peter Frey house on the Taneytown Road (about 400 yards south of Meade’s headquarters at the Leister cottage). (John Gibbon, Personal Recollections of the Civil War)
July 3, daybreak, about 4:45 a.m. Hancock was on the southern end of his corps line, personally rectifying the alignment of Kelly’s brigade. He positioned the 116th Pennsylvania to support the guns of Sterling’s 2nd Connecticut battery. (St. Clair A. Mulholland, The Story of the 116th Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, War of Secession 1862-1865)
July 3, early morning. Hancock appeared and ordered the building of works (which can still be seen today), intimating that rails from fences in front could be used for this purpose. (Major R. H. Forster, Dedication of Monument to 148th Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania at Gettysburg)
July 3, noon. Hancock joined Gibbon for a light lunch behind the 20th Massachusetts. Meade, Newton and Pleasonton arrived in succession. Cigars were lighted afterward. Meade then rode away and the party broke up. (George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865)
July 3, 1 p.m. Hancock resumed command of the Second Corps and Gibbon returned to command his division. (Gibbon’s Official Report)
July 3, after 1:10 p.m. Hancock spent part of the cannonade at Meade’s headquarters. (Thomas Livermore, Days and Events 1860-1866)
July 3, around 1:45 to 2 p.m. Hancock rode to Maj. McGilvery’s artillery line and ordered the batteries to commence firing, then returned (multiple sources, including the Official Report of Capt. Patrick Hart)
July 3, about 2:45 p.m. Fifty men of the Second Corps came running past headed to the rear. Hancock turned to his staff, who were following him, and in a tremendous rage cried, “Go after them! Go after them!” (Thomas Livermore, Days and Events 1860-1866)
July 3, about 2:55 p.m. Lieutenant Wheeler’s battery rode south along the Taneytown Road and when near Meade’s headquarters reported to Hancock, who showed him the position he was to take on the ridge (behind and to the left of Battery B, 1st New York). (July 26 letter of Lt. William Wheeler)
July 3, about 3:03 p.m. Hancock was riding past the left rear of the 19th Massachusetts when he checked his horse and pointed toward the clump of trees to the right and front. It was construed (over the din of battle) as an order for the 19th Massachusetts and 42nd New York to run for the trees to prevent the enemy from breaking through. (Lt. Col. Edmund Rice, 19th Massachusetts, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, III: 388) /// “Hancock came riding furiously up. I halted him, pointing out the enemy’s colors crossing the stone wall and asked permission to put my men in there. His prompt direction was to ‘Get in *** **** quick.’” (Col. Arthur F. Devereaux to J. B. Bachelder, The Bachelder Papers, III:1609) /// Hancock shouted, “Now, men, forward! Now’s your chance. Get up and go at them.” (History of the Nineteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, comp. by Ernest Linden Watt)
July 3, about 3:06 p.m. Hancock conferred with Brig. Gen. Stannard (of the First Corps), intending to order a flank attack on Pickett’s men, however, Stannard had just issued those orders and the 13th Vermont was already on the move when Hancock rode up. (George G. Benedict, The Element of Romance in Military History, Vermont Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, War Paper, 14 March 1893; reprint Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1994)
July 3, about 3:10 p.m. Hancock was wounded in front of the Union lines near a position indicated by a monument. A large conical (minie) ball had entered his thigh near the femoral artery and lodged in his pelvis, carrying with it a large wrought iron nail from the saddle tree. He was assisted from his horse by two officers on Stannard's staff, but remained upon the ground giving orders until the enemy had been driven from the field. (Brooklyn Eagle, September 30, 1880, which quoted Hancock's AAG, William G. Mitchell)
July 3, about 3:45 p.m. An ambulance was taking Hancock to the hospital. Near the Taneytown Road Hancock insisted the ambulance stop, probably to write a dispatch. At the time “a rebel piece of artillery (it must have been a Whitworth on Oak Hill) was throwing shot and shell down the road every three or four minutes. I suggested we had better move on as the rebels were enfilading our line, to which he replied, ‘We’ve enfiladed them – **** them!’ ” adding that if other troops were only now sent in, they could be routed. (Thomas Livermore, Days and Events 1860-1866)
July 3, about 4 p.m. “Along the (Taneytown?) road in rear of our regiment, our men recognized Hancock’s horse being led in rear of the ambulance in which he was conveyed, and at once rushed to see what casualty had befallen their former commander, whom they literally adored. As Hancock, white and faint, raised his head, they greeted him with wild hurrahs. The old fire came into his eyes, and he said affectionately, ‘Why, this is my old Sixth Maine.’ ” (Charles A. Clark, War Sketches and Incidents, as related by the companions of the Iowa Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1898; reprint Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1994)
July 3, after 4 p.m. At the hospital Assistant Surgeon Alfred Thornley Hamilton, 148th Pennsylvania, made a second examination of Hancock’s wound and found a (saddle) nail. (Adjt. J. W. Muffly, ed., The Story of our Regiment, A History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers) (Hamilton was initially assigned to the aid station at the Jacob Hummelbaugh farm but may have attended Hancock at the main Second Corps hospital.)
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