Captain Hancock received and justly deserved great credit.

It was now toward the close of the month of September, 1861. The army of the United States was not then fully organized. There was much inexpe ́rience and occasional demoralization among our raw troops. With all their patriotism and general intelligence, as citizen soldiers, they could not always be depended on in sudden emergencies and moments of critical danger. In the responsible work of their organization, drill, discipline, and setting in the field of action, General Hancock was called to take a prominent part. His remarkable traits of character, now ripened into full manhood, here displayed their worth in the service to the greatest advantage. He was at home, in his own chosen field. We shall see, as we progress, how worthily he continued to fill his role.

CHAPTER XII.

HIS FIRST FIGHT FOR THE UNION.

"Death, to the hero, when his sword

Has won the battle for the free,
Sounds like a prophet's trumpet word;
And in its hollow tones are heard

The thanks of millions yet to be."

Fitz Greene Halleck.

HE beautiful fall of September, 1861, dawned

THE

were

on the country. The national forces were now nearly organized. Troops were arriving at the front from all the free States, and gradually taking part in the conflict. The most busy fields of action at that time were in Missouri and Western Virginia. In the last-named region, especially, the traitors in arms were very belligerent, being constantly stimulated by their allies in civil life all around them. It was soon perceived that the contest for the supremacy of the Union in that section would be prolonged and

severe.

Fighting had taken place early in this month at

several points along the Western Virginia lines. At Boone Court House, Boone county-named in honor of the old pioneer, Daniel Boone, of Kentucky-the Union troops had encountered a body of armed rebels and signally defeated them. This point is only about two hundred miles, in a direct line, west from Richmond. But the contest there speedily convinced the rebels that the Union would not consent to allow any part of the Old Dominion it could control to pass, without a struggle, under the black flag of secession. Our troops, fresh and comparatively undisciplined as they were, fought well on this occasion. We drove the enemy at all points, routing them totally, killing thirty, wounding a large number, and taking over forty prisoners. None were killed on the National side, and but six were wounded. The town was burned during the engagement.

A picked body of the Charleston, South Carolina, Home Guards, who had penetrated through the Shenandoah country to within a short distance of Harper's Ferry, Virginia, were attacked by the Thirteenth regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. The despised 'Yankees' performed their parts so well on the 'chivalry' that they soon drove them, pell mell, killing three, wounding five, and capturing twenty prisoners. These, with the wounded, were brought into camp by

the Massachusetts boys, who greeted them blandly with the song 'Gay and Happy.'

Victories were being won by the Union arms in different parts of the country. We had captured Forts Hatteras and Clark, on the coast of North Carolina, possessed several important points on the Western waters, and done the enemy considerable damage in Missouri, while he was pursuing the Fabian policy of masterly inactivity by remaining in his trenches in Virginia.

The patriotic feeling of the country was steadily rising. Large popular meetings were held, presided over by the civil authorities, and addressed in earnest and courageous strains of patriotism by eminent men of all parties. General Rosecrans-formerly, it will be remembered, a fellow Lieutenant with General Hancock, in Mexico-had won a decided victory near Summersville, Virginia. The effect of this victory was marked, through all that region to which Hancock was at that time assigned. The rebel General Floyd - notorious as the prominent secessionist, who, when the nominal Union Secretary of War, at Washington, had treacherously sequestrated all the government arms and munitions of war under his control to the base purposes of treason-was then in position near the summit of Carnifax mountain, with

five thousand rebel troops and sixteen pieces of artillery. The rear and extreme of both flanks of the enemy were inaccessible. The front was masked with heavy forests and a dense jungle. The brigade commanded by General BENHAM one of the most accomplished and energetic of all our soldiers-was in the advance, and assailed the enemy with such skill and force that they were driven, on a number of occasions, from their guns. Several companies of picked Irish troops, led by Colonel Lytle, of the Tenth Ohio, charged the battery, in the face of the hottest fire that the rebels could pour from the heights. A German brigade, under Colonel McCook-son of the old patriot Judge DANIEL MCCOOK, of Kentucky, who has given himself and four sons to the war for his country-followed in the assault with great bravery, and, for a time, silenced the battery.

Floyd, as usual with that consummate traitor, fled during the night; but the depth of the adjacent river over which he passed in his flight, and the obstructions thrown by him in his way, prevented a successful pursuit. He left his camp, however, as a trophy to the Union, including his own equipage, together with wagons, horses, large quantities of ammunition and fifty head of cattle.

In Hardy county, Virginia, the rebels had been