going to Mexico continued to be 'doubtful'! But all his doubts on that subject were soon after removed. In a few weeks he was ordered to the front.

there he writes to his father:

"MY DEAR FATHER:

From

"TACUBAYA, MEXICO, August 26, 1847.

I feel thankful that I am able to write to you from this place. We have had to fight desperately to get here. It has been the theatre of a sanguinary battle. I left off my last letter to engage in preparations for it."

In the following October he writes from Mexico:

"I am exceedingly anxious to see you all. I send you some of the plans of our engagements."

Writing to his brother Hilary, under date of City of Mexico, December 6, 1847, he says:

"MY DEAR HILARY:

I am again made happy by the arrival of three letters from home. You ask me whether have been in battle? I answer, proudly, yes! Beside being in several skirmishes, on the road from Puebla to Vera Cruz,-in all of which I can truly say I have endeavored to do my duty,—it was my part to participate in the battles of San Antonio, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and the conquest of the City of Mexico. I only missed the fight of Chepultepec by being sick in my tent, and off duty, at the time. I shall always be sorry that I was absent. I was lying ill with chills and fever, directly under

the fort, at the time the action began. I could not remain still under the firing; but, wrapping my blanket about me, I crept to the top of the roof of the nearest house, watched the fight, and had strength enough to cheer with the boys when the Castle fell. The balls whizzed around me, but I kept my post, doing what I could; and when I learned that the colors I saw hoisted on the conquered walls were those of my own regiment, my heart beat quick at the glorious sight.

The winter has set in here, and some chilly days are the consequence. The summits of lofty Popocatapetl are capped with more snow than is usual at this season. No snows, however, are on the plains. Here the roads are open and many of them beautiful. The Almada, or great Square of the Capital, is far superior to anything of the kind in the United States. The carriage road on the outskirts is splendid, and, at times, crowded with gay equipages. It is, also, a fashionable resort for walks. Its age is three centuries. Give my love to father, mother, brother John, and all my other friends. WINFIELD."

He again writes his family from near Toluca, January 5th, 1848:

"We have another snow mountain overlooking us—the Neviado. When the wind blows from that direction it is bitterly cold. But January is the end of the Mexican winter. The days begin to grow warmer as the month advances, although the nights continue chilly. There are no fire-places, and consequently no fires; as we more Northern-born find, to our great discomfort.

The Valley of Toluca is most beautiful, and very fertile. Like all the other Mexican valleys I have seen, it is perfectly level, as if it had once been the bottom of a large lake. Some of these wonderful areas look like the craters of extinct volcanoes. In the Valley

of Mexico one of the remaining lakes is twenty miles long and fifteen broad.

The variety of fruits produced here is astonishing. On one of the market days, recently, over fifty different kinds were on sale. Think of opening a fine, fresh, ripe watermelon, in the month of January! Love to all. WINFIELD."

All his letters to his friends are written in this free and affectionate style. They contain, beside his descriptions of places and landscapes, his expressions of personal interest, full and correct accounts of his battles, and graphic drawings of the fields. It would be pleasing to give longer extracts, did the extent of our volume admit of it. These will suffice to show the character of the writer, inasmuch as he wrote without the remotest expectation that his letters would ever appear in print.

In what a pleasing light do these unstudied epistles present the subject of this memoir! His love of home, of kindred, of country, of the cause in which he has enlisted, his quiet devotion to duty in the midst of battle and danger, show the man as he is, and reflect new lustre on the niche of fame where his valor has placed him.

CHAPTER XVII.

RETURNING FROM THE PENINSULA.

"They come! they come! O, waiting souls!

They gather in their might;

Their hearts are leal, their words are true,

They battle for the right."

Anon.

URING the operations of the Union army im

to operations of la une

mediately before Richmond, in the spring of 1862, General HANCOCK had taken his usual active. part. His brigade had continued in the division of General Smith, now a part of a new provisional army corps, in command of General W. B. Franklin. He was posted on the right of the main body, aiding in conducting the siege. His duties were peculiarly arduous in those pestilential swamps of the Chickahominy. He shared in all the dangers and fatigues of the principal attacks, and rendered important aid by his regular army experience in conducting the safe withdrawal of the men under his command.

At the fierce battle of Gaines' Mills, Hancock was

in charge of an independent body of troops, temporarily attached to his brigade. His position was in the extreme advance, his picket line extending across an intersecting ravine. At this point he met and overcame a terrific fire of the enemy, massed in five regiments; keeping them at bay, and thereby preventing them from pushing on to another part of the field they were anxious to reach.

Late in the afternoon of the 27th of June, the enemy, being reinforced, commenced to attack the lines of Hancock more furiously than ever, from the south side of the stream. It was evidently their purpose to force him back, and thus separate him from the main portion of the army. The attack was opened with a heavy artillery fire of grape, shell, round shot and shrapnel. It was the most furious onset made by the rebels in that portion of the field. The cry ran along the lines of the enemy:

66

No quarter to the Yankees! Into the river with them!

Shoot them down in the water!"

This fiery assault was led by General Toombs, of Georgia, formerly for several years a member of Congress, and for some time a Senator of the United States. The enemy came forward with a yell and a dash, calculating to drive everything before them. There were five regiments of infantry, yelling and