Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/98

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HAND
HAND

of the house of representatives, advanced from 6 to 128^ votes. On the next ballot Gen. Hancock received 705 votes, and the nomination was made unanimous. The election in November resulted in the following popular vote : James A. Garfield, Re- publican, 4,454,416 ; Winfield S. Hancock, Demo- crat, 4,444,952 : James B. Weaver, Greenback, 308,- 578 ; Neal Dow, Prohibition, 10,305. After the con- clusion of the canvass Gen. Hancock continued in the discharge of official duty. His last notable ap- pearance in public was at Gen. Grant s funeral, all the arrangements for which were carried out under his supervision. The esteem in which he was held as a citizen and a soldier was perhaps never greater than at the time of his death. He had outlived the political slanders to which his candidacy had given rise, and his achievements in the field during the civil war had become historic. His place as a general is doubtless foremost among those who never fought an independent campaign. He was not only brave himself, but he had the ability to inspire masses of men with courage. He was quick to perceive opportunities amid the dust and smoke of battle, and was equally quick to seize them ; and although impulsive, he was at the same time tenacious. He had the bravery that goes for- ward rapidly, and the bravery that gives way slowly. Gen. Grant says : " 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 ap- pearance. Tall, well-formed, and, at the time of which I now write, young and fresh-looking, he presented an appearance that would attract the at- tention of an army as he passed. His genial dis- position made him friends, and his personal cour- age and his presence with his command in the thickest of the fight won him the confidence of troops serving under him. To a reporter in search of adverse criticism during the presidential canvass of 1880, Gen. Sherman said : " If you will sit down and write the best thing that can be put in language about Gen. Hancock as an officer and a gentleman, I will sign it without hesitation." See " Life of Gen. W. S. Hancock," by Junkin and Norton (New York, 1880) ; " Addresses at a Meeting of the Military Service Institution in Memory of Hancock " (1886) ; Francis A. Walker's " History of the Second Corps " (1887) ; and " In Memoriam : Military Order of the Loyal Legion " (1887).


HAND, Augustus C., jurist, b. in Stoneham, Vt., 4 Sept., 1803; d. in Elizabethtown, Essex co., N. Y., 8 March, 1878. He studied law at the Litchfield, Conn., school, and, removing to Eliza- bethtown, N. Y., was soon afterward appointed surrogate of Essex county. He served in congress in 1839-'41, having been chosen as a Democrat, and was a member of the state senate and chair- man of its judiciary committee in 1845-8. He was elected a justice of the state supreme court in 1848, and on this bench and that of the court of appeals he sat until his defeat for the latter office in 1855. He then resumed the practice of his profession, in which he continued till his death. He was a delegate to the National Democratic convention of 1868. — His son, Samuel, jurist, b. in Elizabethtown, N. Y., 1 May, 1834 ; d. in Al- bany, N. Y., 21 May, 1886, was graduated at Union college in 1851, and practised law with his father in Elizabethtown till his removal in 1860 to Al- bany. He was corporation counsel for the city of Albany in 1863, reporter of the court of appeals in 1869-'72, and in June, 1878, he was appointed judge in the supreme court to fill out the unex- pired term of William F. Allen, but returned to practice in the autumn of the same year. He de- clined the Democratic nomination for governor, and also the appointment of judge of the superior court in 1875, and was one of the commissioners for the reform of the municipal government. In 1885 he was president of the special water commis- sion of Albany. Judge Hand had a large practice before the court of appeals of New York. He was senior counsel in all the elevated railroad cases, represented the state against the canal contractors, and frequently declined to be a candidate for pub- lic office during his latter years. He collected one of the most valuable libraries in the state, was president of the Young men's Christian associa- tion of Albany in 1863, and of the New York state bar association in 1865, and received the degree of LL. D. from Union in 1884. He edited " The Phi- lobiblon of Chancellor Debury " (Albany, 1861).


HAND, Daniel Whilldin, surgeon, b. in Cape May Court-House, N. J., 18 Aug., 1834. He re- ceived an academic education, took a partial course at the University of Lewisburg, Pa., and then studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1856. In 1857 he be- gan practice in his profession at St. Paul, Minn. In July, 1861, he was appointed assistant surgeon of the 1st Minnesota volunteers, and in the next month was commissioned brigade-surgeon with the rank of major. He accompanied the Army of the Potomac in the peninsular campaign; was slightly wounded at Fair Oaks ; in August, 1862, was placed in charge of the general hospital at Newport News ; and in October made medical di- rector of U S. forces at Suffolk, Va. While on duty near Suffolk, he was taken prisoner in May, 1863, confined in Libby prison, and after his release, in July, 1863, was made medical director of North Carolina. In February, 1865, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and in the next month to colo- nel. He was mustered out of service in November, 1865, and resumed practice in St. Paul. Since 1872 he has been president of the Minnesota board of health, in 1883 was appointed professor of sur- gery in the University of Minnesota, and is one of the founders of the State medical society. He has written largely for medical journals.


HAND, Edward, soldier, b. in Clyduff, King's co., Ireland, 31 Dec, 1744; d. in Rockford, Lancas- ter co., Pa., 3 Sept., 1802. In 1774 he accompanied the 18th Royal Irish regiment to this country as sur- geon's mate, but resigned and set- tled in Pennsylva- nia in the practice of medicine. At the beginning of the Revolution he joined Gen. Will- iam Thompson's brigade as lieuten- ant - colonel, and served at the siege of Boston. He was promoted colonel in 1776, engaged in the battles of Long Island and Trenton, and was appointed brigadier-gen-