Winfield Scott Hancock: The Outbreak Of War

Winfield Scott Hancock was born on February 14, 1823, in Montgomery square, Pennsylvania. The son of Benjamin Franklin Hancock and Elizabeth Hoxworth Hancock. Winfield was named after the a famous general in the war of 1812. Winfield 's parents and family has lived in Montgomery for generations and there of English, Scottish, and Welsh descent. Winfield was first educated at Norristown and then when the first public school came out in the 1830s, he was taken out of Norristown Academy and was put in the-the new school. In 1840, the local congressman Joseph Fornance nominated Hancock to the West Point. He graduated 18th in his class of 25 in 1844, and he was assigned to the infantry. Hancock was brevet second lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Infantry regiment and was stationed in Indian Territory in the Red River Valley. His time being stationed in Red River Valley was not too pleasant. During the outbreak of the Mexican-American war, Winfield tried to acquire himself in the frontier. His superior was relentless to let him go because he was great at recruiting soldiers in Kentucky. By July 1847, however, Hancock was granted to

Hancock’s duties were of a quartermaster, and he did not see action in that campaign when he was stationed in Florida. Once the situation of Florida began to settle down, Hancock was appointed to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he served in the West, during the partisan warfare of "Bleeding Kansas”. The main cause of the “Bleeding Kansas”, was the Kansas-Nebraska Act which was the violent hostilities between slavery and antislavery of Kansas and