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===Civil War===
[[File:Hancock at Gettysburg LCCN2004660235.jpg|200px|thumb|General Hancock at Gettysbury, by [[Alfred Waud]]]]
After the start of the Civil War, Hitchcock applied to return to the service but was rejected. ItMaj. wasGen only[[Henry afterW. theHalleck]], who had a great interventiondeal of Winfieldrespect Scottand thatadmiration hefor wasHitchcock, commissionedproposed giving him a [[Majormajor general's (Unitedcommission States)|majorand general]]an assignment in Februarythe 1862Western andtheater becamebut specialthe 63 year old Hitchcock declined such a demanding post and adviserpreferred to theremain [[Unitedin StatesWashington SecretaryD.C. ofin War|Secretaryan ofadministrative War]]role. FromHe did get promoted to major general of volunteers, however, and from March 17 to July 23, 1862, he served as the chair of the War Board, the organization that assisted [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] and Secretary of War [[Edwin M. Stanton]] in the management of the War Department and the command of the [[Union Army|Union]] armies during the period in which there was no general-in-chief. (Maj. Gen. [[George B. McClellan]] had been relieved of his responsibilities as general-in-chief, and Maj. Gen. [[Henry W. Halleck]] had not yet replaced him.)
Hitchcock sat on the [[Court-martial of Fitz John Porter|court-martial]] of Maj. Gen. [[Fitz John Porter]], which convicted the general of disobedience and cowardice. From November 1862 through the war's end, he served as Commissioner for [[Prisoner of War]] Exchange and then Commissary-General of Prisoners.
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