Hancock Park

St Nicholas Av, Manhattan Av, W 123 St

Manhattan, 10027

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886) was born in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania. Following his education at home, in the Norristown academy, and a public high school, young Winfield graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1844 at the age of twenty. He immediately entered military service, serving on the frontier, in the Mexican War, in the Seminole War, in Kansas during the border troubles, and in California. In 1861 Hancock requested to be returned east for active duty, and he was commissioned a Brigadier-general of volunteers by General-in-Chief of the Army George B. McClellan on September 23 of that year.