Winfield Scott Hancock (February 14, 1824 – February 9, 1886) was a career U.S. Army officer and the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880. He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican-American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War. Known to his Army colleagues as "Hancock the Superb",[1] he was noted in particular for his personal leadership at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. One military historian wrote, "No other Union general at Gettysburg dominated men by the sheer force of their presence more completely than Hancock."[2] As another wrote, "... his tactical skill had won him the quick admiration of adversaries who had come to know him as the "Thunderbolt of the Army of the Potomac"."[3] His military service continued after the Civil War, as Hancock participated in the military Reconstruction of the South and the Army"s presence at the Western frontier.

After the Civil War, Hancock"s reputation as a soldier and his dedication to conservative constitutional principles made him a quadrennial Presidential possibility. His noted integrity was a counterpoint to the corruption of the era, for as President Rutherford B. Hayes said, "... [i]f, when we make up our estimate of a public man, conspicuous both as a soldier and in civil life, we are to think first and chiefly of his manhood, his integrity, his purity, his singleness of purpose, and his unselfish devotion to duty, we can truthfully say of Hancock that he was through and through pure gold."[4] This nationwide popularity led the Democrats to nominate him for President in 1880.[5] Although he ran a strong campaign, Hancock was defeated by Republican James Garfield by the closest popular vote margin in American history.[6]

Winfield Scott Hancock and his identical twin brother Hilary Baker Hancock were born on February 14, 1824, in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, a hamlet just northwest of Philadelphia in present-day Montgomery Township.[7] The twins were the sons of Benjamin Franklin Hancock and Elizabeth Hoxworth Hancock.[8][9] Winfield was named after Winfield Scott, a prominent general in the War of 1812 and later the Mexican-American War and the commanding general of the United States Army at the start of the Civil War.[7]