MAJOR GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK - MANUSCRIPT LETTER SIGNED 11/28/1883 - HFSID 30293

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK
He forwards a fund-raising letter to a subordinate commander.
Manuscript Letter signed: "Winfield Scott Hancock", 1 page, 5x8. Governor's Island, New York, 1883 November 28. To General R. H. Jackson, Fort Columbus. in full: "The enclosed circular was received by me today. [Item not included.] Please have it sent to the officers and soldiers of your command, so they may subscribe, or not, as they deem proper. Any money that they do subscribe please send to Capt. G. S. L. War, who will give you a receipt for the amount. I am very truly yours". Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886), a highly successful Union Corps commander during the Civil War and a hero of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), was the Democratic Party's candidate for President in 1880, losing very narrowly to James A. Garfield by a margin of fewer than 40,000 votes out of 9 million cast. (The Electoral Vote margin was wider, but far from a landslide: 214-155.) Hancock was Commanding General of the U.S. Army's Department of the East, headquartered on Governor's Island, from 1877 until his death. Fort Columbus, on Governor's Island, was part of the ring of defenses protecting New York Harbor. By the date of this letter, it was largely an administrative post. Originally named Fort Jay, it was renamed for partisan reasons by the Jefferson administration in 1802, and returned to its original name by President Theodore Roosevelt a century later. One vertical fold. Lightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.