Hancock, named after the premier American military hero of the first half of the 19th century (Winfield Scott, who was born in 1786 near Petersburg), deserved his popular sobriquet, ‘Hancock the Superb.’ He had repeatedly demonstrated conspicuous bravery and a cool decisiveness in battle, winning the admiration of both his men and his superiors. He had risen rapidly from brigade to division to corps command, and was widely supposed to be a possible successor to Meade as head of the Army of the Potomac.

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Previously in Grant’s campaign against Lee, Hancock and his famed II Corps had been repeatedly called upon to plunge into the very worst of the fighting. Losses had been terrible. At the beginning of May 1864, the II Corps numbered 30,000 officers and men. Casualties since then had topped 26,000 killed, wounded or missing. Massive reinforcements flowed in to make up for some of the losses, but the damage to the II Corps could not be measured by numbers alone. The new men in the ranks were for the most part inexperienced, and many were bounty men or draftees, distrusted by the surviving combat veterans. One of Hancock’s division commanders wrote that the ‘bravest and the most efficient officers and men were those who fell; it is always so.’

On the Jerusalem Plank Road in late June, a sudden Confederate flank attack on Hancock’s corps had resulted in the capture of more than 1,700 men, taken with little fight. Two months later at Reams’ Station, during an effort to destroy the Weldon Railroad, Hancock was attacked again in an inadequately entrenched position. One division collapsed under the Confederate assault, and another cowered behind its fieldworks, refusing to counterattack to retake the lost trenches. Appalled and shamed by the conduct of his men, Hancock said to one staff officer, ‘I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field.’ More than 2,000 II Corps soldiers were taken prisoner. By order of their division commander, with the concurrence of Hancock and Meade, three regiments that had lost their flags–the 8th New York Heavy Artillery, 164th New York Infantry and 36th Wisconsin–underwent the ultimate public mark of dishonor for a Civil War unit: They were forbidden to bear colors until, by subsequent conduct in battle, they should again earn the right.

If Hancock felt any fear for the safety of his command during the proposed maneuver against the Southside Railroad, he expressed it only in his request to change the composition of his force. Meade had directed that his 3rd Division, commanded by Brig. Gen. Gershom Mott, be left behind to man the lines in front of Petersburg. Hancock asked that Mott accompany him, keeping Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles’ 1st Division in the trenches instead. He explained that this latter unit contained a ‘very large proportion of conscripts and new men and fewer experienced subaltern officers,’ and that Mott’s division ‘would perhaps be more effective in the field.’ Meade immediately granted Hancock’s request.

Before daybreak on the morning of October 25, Mott’s 3rd Division and the 2nd Division, led by Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Egan, were quietly withdrawn from the trenches. The next day they marched to a point on the Weldon Railroad, ready to head toward Hatcher’s Run and the Southside Railroad early the next morning. Meanwhile, the V and IX corps and Gregg’s cavalry division also made preparations for movement. All troops would carry four days’ rations, along with 60 rounds of ammunition; 40 more rounds were to be transported in ammunition wagons. To limit congestion on the narrow woodland roads, no baggage or headquarters wagons would be taken, and only half the full number of ambulances.

At 3:30 a.m. on October 27, about two hours before daylight, Hancock’s two infantry divisions started out toward the Vaughan Road and Hatcher’s Run. Simultaneously, Parke’s IX Corps began its advance toward the Confederate line of entrenchments. Warren and the V Corps moved out half an hour later in support.

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