Editing Winfield Scott Hancock (section)

===Joining the Army of the Potomac===
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| style="text-align: left;" |Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command. He commanded a corps longer than any other one, and his name was never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible. He was a man of very conspicuous personal appearance.... His genial disposition made him friends, and his personal courage and his presence with his command in the thickest of the fight won for him the confidence of troops serving under him. No matter how hard the fight, the 2nd corps always felt that their commander was looking after them.
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| style="text-align: left;" | —Ulysses S. Grant, ''Personal Memoirs''<ref>Grant, Ulysses S., ''Personal Memoirs'', 1885, Vol. II, pp. 539–40.</ref>
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[[File:WScottHancock.jpg|thumb|left|General Winfield Scott Hancock]]
Hancock returned east to assume quartermaster duties for the rapidly growing [[Union Army]], but was quickly promoted to [[Brigadier General#United States|brigadier general]] on September 23, 1861, and given an [[infantry]] [[brigade]] to command in the division of Brig. Gen. [[William Farrar Smith|William F. "Baldy" Smith]], [[Army of the Potomac]].<ref name=Eicher/> He earned his "Superb" nickname<ref name=Eicher>Eicher, pp. 277–78.</ref> in the [[Peninsula Campaign]], in 1862, by leading a critical counterattack in the [[Battle of Williamsburg]]; army commander [[Major general (United States)|Maj. Gen.]] [[George B. McClellan]] telegraphed to Washington that "Hancock was superb today" and the appellation stuck.<ref name=Tagg/> McClellan did not follow through on Hancock's initiative, however, and Confederate forces were allowed to withdraw unmolested.<ref>Walker, pp. 41–42.</ref>

In the [[Battle of Antietam]], Hancock assumed command of the 1st Division, [[II Corps (Union Army)|II Corps]], following the mortal wounding of Maj. Gen. [[Israel B. Richardson]] in the horrific fighting at "Bloody Lane". Hancock and his staff made a dramatic entrance to the battlefield, galloping between his troops and the enemy, parallel to the Sunken Road.<ref>Walker, pp. 51–52.</ref> His men assumed that Hancock would order counterattacks against the exhausted Confederates, but he carried orders from McClellan to hold his position.<ref>Sears, p. 257.</ref> He was promoted to major general of volunteers on November 29, 1862.<ref name=Eicher/> He led his division in the disastrous attack on Marye's Heights in the [[Battle of Fredericksburg]] the following month and was wounded in the abdomen. At the [[Battle of Chancellorsville]], his division covered Maj. Gen. [[Joseph Hooker]]'s withdrawal and Hancock was wounded again.<ref>Walker, pp. 81–91</ref> His corps commander, Maj. Gen. [[Darius N. Couch]], transferred out of the Army of the Potomac in protest of actions Hooker took in the battle and Hancock assumed command of II Corps, which he would lead until shortly before the war's end.<ref name=Tagg/>