HANCOCK. 520 HAND. border troubles there, and in 1855 was ordered to proceed to Utah, arriving at Fort Bridgcr with his wagon-train after a march of 700 miles in 26 days. At this point he found his old regiment under orders to march overland to California. He was directed to accompanj' it, in charge of the transportation. Organizing and equipping a train of 128 wagons, from inferior materials, he conducted it safely over a rough trail of 1100 miles to its destination, at Benicia. From May, 1859, to August, 1861, he was chief quarter- master on the Pacific Coast, with headquarters at Los Angeles. At the outbreak of the Civil War (iijitain Hancock was among the first to be appointed to the grade of brigadier-general of United States Volunteers, his commission being dated Septem- ber 23, 1861. Assigned to command a brigade in Smith's Division, Fourth Corps, Army of the Potomac, he first led it in action at Williams- burg, Va. (May 5, 1862), where he earned the mention, in General McClellan's dispatches, that "Hancock wa« superb." At Antietam. upon the death of General Richardson, he was placed in command of the First Division, Second Corps. In November, 1862, he was promoted to be major-general United States Volunteers. At Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862, his new command suffered a loss of 40 per cent., including 150 oflicers killed and wounded. The battle of Chancellorsville (May 2-4, 1863) was to a great extent prevented from becoming a total rout of the Federal forces by the steadiness of TIancnck"s division. Soon afterwards the command of the Second Corps was given to him. On the morning of July 1, 1863, the .advance of Lee's army, having encountered the left wing of the Army of the Potomac in front of Gettysburg, was steadily pressing it back, with the loss of its commander, Reynolds. General Meade ordered Hancock to proceed to the battlefield, assume command there, and virtually to decide at liis dis- cretion whether the Army of the Potomac should meet the Army of Northern Virginia at that time and place. Hancock arrived on the field at 3.30 P.M., to find the Confederates massing their forces for a farther advance while confronted by the depleted lines of the Federal Army. He quickly infused confidence among the troops, reformed the Federal lines, and in various ways so strength- ened his position as to deter General Lee from making his contemplated attack. On the follow- ing day, during the nearly successful attempt of Lee to turn tlie flanks of the Federal Army, Hancock was ])laced in command of the left wing, and, by judicious handling of his men and gallant personal effort, stemmed the tide of battle. On the Ihird day a Confederate charge was directed against Hancock's command, the Federal centre, and succeeded in penetrating the first line, but was finally repulsed. Each side suffered terrible losses, and Hancock received a wound from which he never entirely recovered. In March, 1864. he resumed command of his corps, which, in the reorganization of the army imder Grant, was reenforced by the transfer of two divisions from the Third Corps, making an aggregate strength of 43.0.55. Hancock was dis- tinguished by the energ>'. good judgment, and tactical skill displayed in the Wilderness cam- paign. The unfortunate engagements in front of Petersburg and at Ream's Station were the first occasions in which his command met with re- verses. On August 12, 1804, he was promoted to be brigadier-general in the Regular Army, and in November he was placed in command of the Middle Military Division. He received his commission as major-general in the Regular Army on July 26, 1806. He was then sent to conunand the Depart- ment of Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, and during the year 1807 personally led an expedition against the Indians. In August of that year he was sent to New Orleans to super- vise the rehabilitation of the States of Louisiana and Texas. In a general order he defined his duty, stating that "crimes and ofl'enses committed in this district must be left to the consideration and judgment of the regular civil tribunals," but added that "armed insurrection or forcible re- sistance to the law will be instantly suppressed by arms." His conservative course not meeting with the support from the Washington authori- ties which he expected, he was at liis own re- quest relieved, and assigned' to conmiand the Military Division of the Atlantic, with headquar- ters at Governor's Island, where he remained until March. 1869, when he assumed charge of the Department of Dakota. In 1872 he was reas- signed to the Division of the Atlantic. White act- ing in this capacity. General Hancock was in 1880 made the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, but was defeated by his Re- publican opponent, Garfield. General Hancock died at Governor's Island after a brief illness, on February 9, 1886. In 1850 he married Miss Almira Russell, of Saint Louis, by whom he had two children. Consult: Walker, flenercil Han- cock (New York, 1894), in the "Great Com- mander Series;" and id.. History of the Second Corps I 1S86). HANCOCK HOUSE. The former residence in Boston of Governor John Hancock. It was erected in 1737 and taken down in 1863. HAND (AS., Icel. hand, Goth, handus, OHG. haiit, Ger. Hand; perhaps connected with Goth. hinpan, AS. hentan, to seize). The terminal por- tion of the superior limb of man. It is almost invariably distinguished by name from the same organ in other vertebrate animals: but actually there is little essential difference, and it is legiti- mate and proper, therefore, to speak of the ter- minal part of the fore limb of any quadruped as the 'hand' or maims, in distinction from the 'foot' or pes. We will first consider the human hand, and afterwards its homologue in the lower animals. "That," says Cuvier, "which constitutes the hand, properly so called, is the faculty of oppos- ing the thumb to the other fingers, so as to seize upon the most minute objects — a faculty which is carried to its highest degree of jjcrfection in man, in whom the whole anterior extremity is free, and can be employed in prehension." The peculiaj' prehensile power of the human hand is chiefly dependent upon the length, power, and mobility of the thumb, which can be brought into exact opposition to the extremities of all the fingers, whether separately or groiped together. The general arrangement of the bones of the arm is similar to that of the leg. The hnmrriis or arm-bone corresponds to the femur or thigh-bone: the lower end of tlie humerus is connected Avith the two bones of the forearm, the radius and the ulna, which correspond with the two bones of
