CHAPTER VIII. HIS PROMOTION. "With master-spirits of the world, Who hath the skill to use them." Joanna Baillie. D URING the year 1849 Lieutenant Hancock was promoted to the post of regimental Adjutant. This position he retained until the autumn of 1855, being stationed throughout the whole of that period, six years, at St. Louis and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. The Barracks are on the Mississippi, about twelve miles below St. Louis. He was on the staff of Brigadier General N. S. CLARKE, an accomplished soldier and gentleman, then commanding the Sixth Infantry, and with whom he had served in Mexico. On the 24th of January, 1850, he was married to Miss ALMIRA RUSSELL, daughter of Mr. SAMUEL RUSSELL, a much esteemed merchant of St. Louis. She is a lady of good sense and accomplishments, worthily filling the position she has been called to occupy. now They have two interesting children-a boy, named from his grandfather, RUSSELL, now fourteen years old, and a daughter, of eight, named ADA ELIZABETH. The wife and children of the then LieutenantGeneral Hancock have been but rarely separated from him, until the present rebellion. They are now residing at "Longwood"-the elegant and delightful home of the RUSSELLS, a few miles from St. Louis. In the month of November, 1855, through the exertions of the Honorable JOHN CADWALADER, (then member of Congress for the district in which his birth-place is situated,) he was appointed an Assistant Quartermaster, with the rank of Captain. In the summer of 1842, while yet a cadet, Winfield first returned home from West Point-a furlough of two months being allowed each cadet in the middle of the four years' term. It was pleasant to the young officer, now about eighteen years of age, to revive the scenes of his boyhood. He had not forgotten home. His father had accompanied him, two years before, as he entered the Academy, and he now greeted him, with the mother by his side, to the dear homestead of other days. Instructions and counsels were renewed. The worship at the family altar revived the sacred impressions of truth within his heart. Here, too, the proofs of his earlier devotion to science were reviewed; the specimens he had labelled were reexamined; the home-made galvanic apparatus he had helped to construct, and which had served to illustrate his private lectures before his classmates, and his more public performances in the old academy then on Airy street, was tenderly handled, and carefully readjusted, ere it was passed by in silence; and the whole paraphernalia of his incipient love of learning were more safely placed away in the recesses of the mansion, where they still remain. The large, two-storied brick building on Airy street, Norristown, will long be remembered as the spot where Winfield and his associates of early days went to school. It was situated at the end of DeKalb street, looking down the whole length to the bridge crossing the Schuylkill, half a mile in front. The site was commanding, and well adapted for such a purpose. The view on all sides was very fine. The town lay on the gentle slope beneath, with here and there a spire jutting up against the sky, in the foreground. At the sides and in the rear the cultivated fields and gardens spangled the landscape with grass and flowers, while overhanging trees skirted the edges with their variegated fringes of beauty. The lovely Schuylkill swept gently on in the distance, its surface dotted by an occasional boat, and its mirrored waters reflecting the multiplying and ever-changing pictures of earth and sky. The modest hills stood silent beyond, clad in their sweet robes of misty blue, as if reluctant to cast their shadows too long or too deeply on the quiet rural scene. days! Who can forget them? them, if he could? Happy school-boy Who would forget The principal of the academy, in the period when Winfield was one of its scholars, was Mr. ELIPHALET ROBERTS-now a teacher in Philadelphia. His inte rest in the subject of this biography was always strong and deep. We shall have occasion, in the course of these pages, to show with what propriety General HANCOCK recognized the teacher of his boyish years, when we come to speak of his public reception in that city, during his visit of the year 1863. Mr. Roberts was succeeded in the academy and as a teacher to Winfield by Mr. WILLIAM HOUGH, who was himself deeply interested in scientific subjects, and who took peculiar pleasure in fostering Winfield's love of chemistry and electricity. When the Norristown High School was established, under the superintendence of Mr. ASHBEL G. HARNED, Jr. a gentleman who was very popular and successful as a teacher-Winfield was among his most favorite pupils. He remained at this school, making good 9 progress in his studies, until just previous to his leaving home to become a cadet. But with all these scholastic advantages, let it never be forgotten, especially by our young readers, that very much that Winfield was, and now is, he owes to the influence and instructions of home. Both his parents are deservedly much respected for their great moral and religious worth; for their useful and unselfish lives. Their part in life has been, and still is, an earnest one whether for the benefit of their family or mankind at large. In the pursuit of business, in the performance of duties of every kind; superintending or teaching in the Sunday school, which is at the distance of a mile from their resi dence, across the river; attending to the intellectual wants, the spiritual aspirations of scores of these distant children, through the heat of summer and the cold of winter; visiting the sick, caring for the poor, relieving the oppressed; thus are the lives of the honored father and mother of Winfield ripening into the fruitage of holy deeds, and preparing for the awards of a glorious immortality. The chief characteristics of his father are energy, perseverance, caution, sound judgment, and good sense. His opinions have ever been highly valued by all who know him. No man has been more frequently called to adjudicate |