him. The confidence between the two was complete, the affection inexpressible.

Yet still another "insupportable and touching loss" befell Hancock when, in December, 1884, his only son, Russell, an amiable and courteous young gentleman, died in Mississippi after a brief illness, leaving three little children. These successive losses told powerfully on the constitution of the gallant general. He still kept his interest in his military duties; still busied himself in arranging his war papers; still wrote countless long letters to those who from every part of the country consulted him on points relating to the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac; still entertained all comers at Governor's Island with his usual hospitality. But the reserved strength of his once powerful nature was completely exhausted; the tide of life was running swiftly out; a mortal diseasethat one which is the most usual result of care and sorrow had begun to work within him.

In March of 1885, as commander of the Military Division of the Atlantic, he attended the inauguration of President Cleveland, as, in 1881, he had attended that of his competitor, Garfield. In the summer of that year he made his last conspicuous public appearance, as the commander of the mighty column. which for hours poured through the streets of New York to testify the nation's gratitude to the great chieftain who had brought the rebellion to an end.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans then for the first time saw, and looked with admiration and delight upon, the splendid soldier whose name had so long been a synonym of dauntless valor, martial enthusiasm, and prowess in battle. To the eye of the spectator he was still the superb Hancock.

Among the last expeditions of his active life was that which he made, with several officers of his former staff and with other personal friends, to the field of Gettysburg in November of 1885, at the request of Colonel Batchelder, for the purpose of identifying certain positions which had long been in dispute, and of explaining upon the ground certain tactical manœuvres of the second and third days. Hancock had not visited Gettysburg since the battle except once when, just after the war, he went up from Baltimore with a party which comprised his young daughter. For some time he had manifested great interest in the approaching expedition, and had written many letters to obtain the material to make this visit to the battlefield as conclusive as possible. The expedition was successfully accomplished. The scene, the presence of those who had been with him in the action, the flood of reminiscences called forth as he passed from point to point, from Culp's Hill to the place where he had fallen. from his horse among the soldiers of the Vermont brigade-all combined to raise his mind, to evoke the very spirit of those memorable days, and to fill

him with something like the stern joy with which he stood in his place on the afternoon of July third, and watched Longstreet's column move down Seminary Ridge on its great enterprise.

Returning to Governor's Island after this brief absence, he busied himself with his daily duties, having probably no premonition that the end was near. But the tide was now well out. In the early days of February, immediately after a trip with General Franklin to Washington, he was struck down, never to rise again. On the 9th of that month the knightly gentleman fell away. He had been true in every relation of life; loyal to the nation and its laws; brave among the bravest; honorable beyond reproach; faithful to his lights and his privileges. He had served his country well, and he had received nearly its highest honors.

It must, I think, be a source of regret to all thoughtful and fair-minded Americans that when Sherman, in February, 1884, retired by reason of age from the high office of general of all the armies of the United States, Sheridan was not advanced to that position and Hancock made lieutenant general. The wrong was righted, so far as Sheridan was concerned, while that heroic soldier lay in the very grasp of death. A repentant Congress, then first appreciating its error, hurried through both branches. a bill providing for his promotion to the grade of general; and the parchment, with the President's

signature still wet, was placed in his dying hand, which had just strength enough to close upon it. But it was then too late to correct the omission in the case of the illustrious commander of the Second Corps. Hancock's fame does not need this testimony. The story of Williamsburg and Fredericksburg, of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, of the Wilderness and the Salient at Spottsylvania, can never be told to the youth of America through all the coming ages and his name be left out. Yet, for the honor of the republic, it would have been better had not political and personal prejudices stood in the way of this act of simple justice.

General Hancock's interment took place at Norristown, his childhood home, on February 13, 1886, where he was laid beside his father in the family tomb. The remains were escorted from Governor's Island to Norristown by a distinguished group of his former comrades and associates in arms, comprising Generals Sherman, Sheridan, Schofield, Franklin, Fry, Miles, and many others. The gathering around the grave of thousands of Hancock's fellow-citizens and old soldiers was impressive in the extreme. The salute was fired by a detachment of Light Battery F, Fifth United States Artillery; and when the famous bugler of the Fifth, from a little prominence in the cemetery, sounded "taps"-the soldier's good night! lights out to sleep!-tears filled many an eye long unused to weep.

Upon General Hancock's death a popular subscription was made, which resulted in the investment of a fund of about fifty-five thousand dollars for the benefit of Mrs. Hancock. In addition to this, friends presented to her a handsome house in Washington, at a cost of twenty-two thousand dollars. There Mrs. Hancock resided, when not visiting relatives in New York city or Yonkers, until she went, in 1891, to Dresden, where she spent nearly a year. After her return from Europe, in the fall of 1892, she made her home with Captain and Mrs. Eugene Griffin, the former long an officer on the general's staff, the latter his niece and adopted daughter. There, in Gramercy Park, New York, she died, after a protracted illness, on April 20, 1893. Mrs. Hancock prepared and published, in 1887, a loving tribute to her husband's memory, entitled Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock, by his Wife, containing many of the addresses delivered at the memorial meeting held at Governor's Island by the Military Service Institution, soon after the gallant soldier's death. It has been stated that General and Mrs. Hancock's daughter, Ada, died at seventeen, and that their son followed her in 1884. Russell Hancock left a widow and three children-Ada, Gwyn, and Almira-who all survive at this writing. The son was, in June, 1894, admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Visible memorials of General Hancock will not