Winfield Scott

Included here are in-depth biographies of General Winfield Scott. Sources include Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography, Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, the Federal Publishing Company’s The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal States 1861-65—Records of the Regiments in the Union Army—Cyclopedia of Battles—Memoirs of Commanders and Soldiers, Vol. VIII, Biographical, and Scribner’s Campaigns of the Civil War.

Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography - SEE BELOW

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography - SEE BELOW

Federal Publishing Company’s The Union Army

Scribner’s Campaigns of the Civil War, Supplementary Vol. - Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States, by Frederick Phisterer

Civil War Library website

Winfield Scott - Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography

SCOTT, WINFIELD (June 13, 1786-May 29, 1866), soldier, pacificator, and presidential nominee, was born on the family estate, "Laurel Branch," fourteen miles from Petersburg, Va. His grandfather, James Scott of the clan Buccleuch, having supported the Pretender, escaped to the colonies after the battle of Culloden in 1746. His father, William Scott, a successful farmer who had been a captain in the American Revolution, died when Winfield was in his sixth year, leaving four children, two boys, James and Winfield, and two girls. His mother, Ann Mason, was the daughter of Daniel Mason and the grand-daughter of John Winfield, one of the wealthiest men in the colony (Memoirs, I, 3). To her inspiration her son later attributed the continued successes of his long career. Unfortunately she died when he was seventeen. He was already six feet two and of bulky proportions. Two years later he stood six feet five, weighed about 230 pounds, and was physically the strongest man in the neighborhood. He did good scholastic work under the able instruction of James Hargrave and James Ogilvie. It was doubtless fortunate for him that because of legal hindrances he did not inherit the fortune of his grandfather but had to content himself with his modest patrimony. In 1805 he entered the College of William and Mary, but, because of his age and the contention between the student atheists and faculty churchmen, did not remain long. The same year he voluntarily left the institution to study law in the office of David Robinson in Petersburg.

In 1807 he witnessed in Richmond the trial of Aaron Burr. Though impressed by John Marshall, he regretted the outcome (Ibid., I, 16). Following the outrage committed by the Leopard on the Chesapeake, and immediately after Jefferson's proclamation, he enlisted in the Petersburg troop of cavalry, galloping off with it on July 3. A few weeks later as a lance corporal he was instrumental in capturing a small boat containing two British officers and six men. Later in the year he went to Charleston, S. C., where he hoped to be more quickly admitted to the bar. At the prospect of hostilities, he personally approached President Jefferson in Washington and was tentatively promised a captaincy, but found himself, in March 1808, in Petersburg on the same law circuit as before. On May 3, the coveted commission of captain of light or flying artillery arrived. Straightway he recruited a company in Petersburg and Richmond and was ordered to Norfolk to be embarked for New Orleans, where he arrived Apr. 1, 1809. The narrowness, unprogressiveness, and inefficiency of many of the army officers of that time decided him to return to the law. But on his way home, when he learned that charges had been preferred against him, he immediately quashed his resignation and went back to face them. It seems that he had stated candidly to another officer that Gen. James Wilkinson [q.v.], his department commander, had been as great a traitor as Burr in the testimony given at the trial. Gossip had carried the news to Wilkinson, who set Scott before a court for ungentlemanly conduct and trumped up specifications of fraud. The court suspended Scott from the army for a year because of unofficer like conduct in making adverse statements against a superior, exonerated him from all suspicion of dishonesty, and recommended a nine-month remittance of the sentence (Mansfield, post, p. 28). However, the full year was approved, and Scott began in 1810 his enforced absence at home. Becoming "domesticated" with Benjamin Watkins Leigh [q.v.], he improved his liberal education by conversation and reading and his professional education by the study of foreign military works. In the fall of 18u, he set out to join his command with a party of five, traveling by wagons, learning the customs of the Creeks and Choctaws en route, and cutting the first roads through to Baton Rouge. During the winter of 1811-12 he served on Brig.-Gen. Wade Hampton's staff in New Orleans. In the intervals of his peacetime duties he continued to pursue the law, but in February 1812, when he learned that Congress had provided for the addition of 25,000 to the army in prospect of war with Great Britain, he left for Washington with Hampton, to be apprised there that he had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was immediately ordered to Philadelphia to recruit a regiment, but in September he obtained permission to proceed to Niagara.

He reported to Brig.-Gen. Alexander Smyth at Buffalo Oct. 4, 1812, and came first under fire Oct. 8, at a naval engagement in which some of his troops participated. At the battle of Queenstown Scott begged to accompany the detachment that crossed into Canada, but did not do so on account of his superior rank. However, after Van Rensselaer was wounded, he crossed and was consequently with the heroic group which an overwhelming number of volunteers on the American shore refused to assist. While an unarmed prisoner he was se t upon by two stalwart Indians brandishing knives and tomahawks, but was saved by his presence of mind and massive strength, and the timely entrance of a British officer. On Nov. 20, he was paroled and taken to Boston ; and in March he was sent to Philadelphia as an adjutant-general with the rank of colonel. Detailed for duty on the northern front, he planned and executed, as Dearborn's adjutant-general, the successful attack on Fort George, where he was wounded when one of the British magazines exploded. In the fall he was placed in command of Fort George, which had carelessly been left defenseless before an aggressive enemy. By supreme efforts, working sometimes twenty out of twenty -four hours, he restored it to strength. Leaving there Oct. 13, he joined Wilkinson's army on the St. Lawrence, commanding a battalion of infantry in Brown's advance guard, defeating the British, and capturing prisoners at the engagement on Uphold's (given by him as Hooppole) Creek. Through the uninterrupted succession of ignominious land defeats of the war, Scott chafed. Almost alone he realized that an exacting apprenticeship of training and knowledge was essential for the prevention of useless sacrifice and the attainment ·of victory, all th e more necessary since soldierly schooling had been held in contempt since the Revolution. President Madison and Secretary Monroe, impressed by his apparent efficiency, sent him to Albany to supervise the preparations for another offensive on the Niagara, promising him a brigadier's commission. However, since affairs temporarily sub sided in that quarter, Scott found himself in Albany supervising munitions at the arsenal.

On Mar. 9, 1814, he was made a regular brigadier- general. On Mar. 24 he went to Buffalo, where he played the chief part in training the only American troops who gave a wholly good account of themselves on land during the War of 1812. In the stifling h eat of July 4 and 5, it was his brigade that drove the enemy in a running fight for sixteen mil es to the Chippewa. Without the aid of Brown, Porter, and Ripley, his 1100 men defeated Riall, who had 1700. It was also his brigade that bore the brunt of the fighting on July 25 at Lundy's Lane, probably ;is stubbornly and bravely fought a contest as took place on American so il. He had two horses killed under him and was so severely wounded late in the battle that he had to be carried from the field. In this period of military ineffectiveness, it is not difficult to understand how Scott became overnight the idol of the country and a hero abroad. Honors were heaped upon him. He was at once brevetted a major-general. On his journey east and south, invalided, he was stopped by ovations in every town. Congress voted him a medal, as did Virginia, though neither was actually presented until 1825. Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins personally presented him in 1816, with a sword awarded by New York State. He was elected an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

Since his wounds prevented him from joining Jackson in New Orleans, Scott made his headquarters in Baltimore, where he became head of a board of inquiry on General Winder in the fiasco of Bladensburg and of another board to write the first standard set of American drill regulations, Rules and Regulations for the Field Exercise and Manoeuvres of Infantry (1815). In the reduction of the army after peace was declared, when Congress caused the discharge of five officers out of every six, Scott, through the absence or tardiness of his seniors, became virtually the head of a board to make the selections. The difficult task was carried out with sympathy and efficiency. On July 9, 1815, he sailed to Europe, where he met many distinguished personages and studied French military methods. Returning home in 1816, he took up his headquarters in New York City. On Mar. 11, 1817, he married Maria D. Mayo, daughter of John Mayo of Richmond, Va.

During the routine work of a department commander in peace, Scott's vitality vented itself in constructive writing. His "Scheme for Restricting the Use of Ardent Spirits in the United States" (Philadelphia National Gazette, Dec. 14, 17, 19, 20, 1821), a plea for light wines and beer to the exclusion of hard liquors, preceded and, according to Scott, led to the formation of the first temperance societies in the country (Memoirs, I, 205; Mansfield, post, pp. 182-84, 189). In 1818 he began an elaborate set of Military Institutes, which were duly provided for by Congress. He served as the president of boards of tactics in 1815, 1821, 1824, and 1826. In order to gain more knowledge of this subject he traveled again in Europe during 1829. In 1834-35, he alone revised and enlarged the Infantry-Tactics (3 vols., 1835) for the army; this work remained the sole standard down to the Civil War, though widely plagiarized before and during that conflict.

In 1828 Scott, who was the logical successor to Jacob Brown as commanding general of the army, was passed over in favor of Alexander Macomb [q.v.]. Scott tendered his resignation, which was not accepted, and then protested in vain against being placed under the command of a former junior. For some time there was lack of harmony between the two generals. His chance for active duty came when he set out on July 8, 1832, with about 950 troops to end the Black Hawk War, but on Lake Huron his command was struck by Asiatic cholera. Against the warnings of the doctors he . untiringly went among the afflicted. At this time he issued his famous order that any man found intoxicated must dig a grave of his own size and contemplate it with the understanding that he would soon fill it if he persisted in wanton drinking (Ganoe, post, pp. 171-72). Because of the cholera, he could not bring up his troops in time for the battle of the Bad Axe. Scarcely recovered from what was felt to be a taint of the plague, he arrived at West Point to find a summons from the Secretary of War. In Washington he was personally commissioned by President Jackson to watch the Nullifiers in South Carolina. Proceeding thence, by his tact, his sagacity in withholding the appearance of military threat, and his kindly dealings with the leaders, he did much to preserve peace in a time of crisis. He was again personally commissioned in 1835 by Jackson to prosecute the war against the Seminoles and Creeks in Florida and the adjacent states. Deprived of everything needful for a campaign, he was unable to make headway beyond the making of vigorous preparations. Jackson had apparently not recovered from the animosity engendered in 1817, when Scott had criticized an order of his as mutinous and had in turn been called a "hectoring bully" (J. S. Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, II, 1927, pp. 291-92, 325, 338-39, 344; James Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, 1860, II, 371-82). Impatient of Scott's delay, Jackson relieved him later during the Creek campaign, superseded him by Jesup, and placed him before a court of inquiry for not prosecuting the war with vigor. The court not only exonerated him, but praised his "energy, steadiness and ability" ( Proceedings of the Military Court of Inquiry in the Case of Major General Scott ... , 1837, being Senate Document No. 224, 24 Cong., 2 Sess.). When he returned to the command of the Eastern Division in New York, he was tendered a public dinner and his conduct was applauded.

A great task of pacification came to Scott when, on Jan. 5, 1838, he was commissioned to restore tranquillity on the Canadian border (Army and Navy Chronicle, Jan. 18, 1838) . The entire military force of the country was then engaged in the South and West. Appearing alone at various points along the northern and adverse to the Commander-in-Chief. William Jenkins Worth and Col. James Duncan did much the same thing. When Scott called the officers to account, he was met with defiance and insubordination. He at length preferred charges which he sent to the President, but Polk without further inquiry released the three offenders from arrest, restored one of them to his highest brevet rank, superseded Scott by Butler, and placed the victorious commander before a hand-picked court of inquiry. Justin H. Smith observes that Scott "was a large man, had done a large work and merited large treatment. But there was nothing large about the administration. The confines of mediocrity hemmed it in" (Ibid., II, 188). On Mar. 21, 1848, the court convened in Mexico, but soon adjourned to meet May 29 in Frederick, Md. On Apr. 22, Scott took leave of an army that on the whole loved and trusted him. Robert E. Lee, an engineer on his staff, stated that after performing a task of supreme magnitude he "was turned out as an old horse to die" (Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, 1894, p. 46). Avoiding public honors, Scott stealthily made his way to Elizabeth, N. J., but he was unable to escape the clamor altogether. New York City tendered him a reception and an unprecedented ovation. Congress voted him its second thanks and another gold medal. The charges against him were withdrawn. A resolution to tender him the pay, rank, and emoluments of a lieutenant-general was introduced in Congress, but through political opposition it did not pass until 1855, when he became the first since Washington to hold that office.

In 1852 the Whigs gave him the nomination for the presidency. The campaign was essentially without issues but was marked by exceptionally scurrilous attacks on Scott by newspapers and stump-speakers. Clay and Webster died during the campaign. Other Whig leaders badly advised Scott, whose straight-forwardness was an easy target for the Democrats. He was overwhelmingly defeated by Franklin Pierce [q.v.]. It was the last of his entries into the lists for the presidency, although as late as 1860 he retained some hope of being sent to the White House ( Coleman, Crittenden, post, II, 184-85). After the inauguration of Pierce, on account of differences of opinion on policy with the Secretary of War, Scott again removed his headquarters to New York City. In 1857 he opposed the war against the Mormons as unnecessary and undertaken for profit, but he was overruled. In 1859 he was again called upon to perform the functions of pacificator. Though seventy-three years of age and crippled from a recent fall, he set out Sept. 20 for the extreme Northwest, where controversy over the possession of San Juan Island in Puget Sound had again brought the relations between Great Britain and the United States to the breaking point. After he had mingled with both sides and conducted a judicious correspondence, serious complications were averted.

In October 1860, foreseeing the eventual Civil War, he pleaded with the President to reenforce the southern forts and armories against seizure, but to Buchanan and John B. Floyd his was a voice crying in the wilderness. On Oct. 31, and Dec. 12 he renewed his urgings, but with no 'better success. In January 1861, he brought back the headquarters of the army to Washington, where at his advanced age he actively oversaw the recruiting and training of the defenders of the capital. He personally commanded Lincoln's bodyguard at the inauguration and put the city in a state of defense. Being a Virginian, he was doggedly besought to join the South, but in spite of natural leanings he stuck to his beliefs and remained with the Union. To Lincoln he accorded all aid in his power. Though he did not approve of George B. McClellan as first choice for command of the Army of the Potomac, he supported him even when the younger man's methods were at least discourteous. Had much of his general plan for the conduct of the Federal forces been heeded, the war would have been curtailed; but since he was too old to mount a horse, he was thought to be too old to give advice. On Oct. 31, 1861, he requested retirement on account of infirmities. The next day Lincoln and the whole cabinet left their offices in a body, repaired to Scott's home, and there the President read an affecting eulogy to the old man. Scott was retired with full pay and allowances the same day. In his first message to Congress Lincoln wrote of Scott: "During his long life the nation has not been unmindful of his merit; yet, in calling to mind how faithfully, ably, and brilliantly he has served his country, from a time far back in our history when few of the now living had been born, and thenceforward continually, I cannot but think we are still his debtors" ( Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln. Complete Works, 1894, vol. II, 104). On his journey to New York, Scott was accompanied by the secretaries of war and the treasury. On Nov. 9, 1861, he went abroad, but in Paris upon hearing of the Trent affair he immediately returned to America, should his counsel be needed. At West Point he received the Prince of Wales and in 1865 presented to General Grant, one of his subalterns in the Mexican War, a gift with the inscription, "from the oldest to the greatest general" (Wright, post, p. 322) . When his end was near he was conveyed from New York City to West Point where he died within fifteen days of his eightieth birthday. He was buried in the national cemetery there, some of the most illustrious men of the country attending the funeral. His wife, who died in Rome in 1862, is buried beside him. Of his seven children, two sons and two daughters died early, to his great grief; three married daughters survived him.

Scott had been the associate of every president from Jefferson to Lincoln and the emissary in critical undertakings of most of them. In hill public career of nearly half a century he had been a main factor in ending two wars, saving the country from several others, and acquiring a large portion of its territory. Supreme political preferment was doubtless denied him because of conditions and his idiosyncrasies. Called "Fuss and Feathers" because of his punctiliousness in dress and decorum, he often gave the impression of irritability. He possessed a whimsical egotism, was inclined to flourishes of rhetoric, often unfortunate, and was too outspoken in his beliefs for his own advancement. On the other hand, the openness of his generous character led him into acts incomprehensible to calculating natures. He was a scholar, but knew when to discard rules, so that the letter of directions did not shackle him. His initiative and self-reliance never deserted him. He made use of his many talents unsparingly, and the only one of his hazardous undertakings he failed to carry out beyond the most sanguine expectations was that of his own ambition to reach the ?residency.

[Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, LL.D. Written by Himself (2 vols., 1864), rhetorical but still valuable; E. D. Mansfield, Life and Services of General Winfield Scott ( 1852), the best of the campaign biographies; M. J. Wright, General Scott ( 1894) ; A. M. B. Coleman, The Life of John J . Crittenden (2 vols., 1 871) , containing letter s of Scott; Dunbar Rowland, ed.,  Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist, vol s. II, III (1923), containing Scott-Davis correspondence ; James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times (3 vols., 1816); M. M. Quaife, ed., The Diary of James K. Polk (4 vols., 1910) ; G. T. Curtis, Life of James Buchanan (2 vols., 1883); Harrison Ellery, ed., The Memoirs of Gen. Joseph Gardner Swift (1890); W. A. Croffut, ed., Fifty Years in Camp and Field. Diary of Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, U. S. A. (1909) ; correspondence, papers, and documents in Old Files Section, Adjutant- General's Dept., Washington, D. C.; E. A. Cruikshank, The Documentary Hist. of the Campaign 11pon the Niagara Frontier (9 vols., 1896-1908); C. J. Ingersoll, H ist. Sketch of the Second War between the U.S . ... and Great Britain, vols. I , II (1845-49); 2 ser., vols. I , II ( 1852) ; B. L. Lossing, The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of r8r2 (1868); J . H. Smith, The War with Mexico (2 vols., 1919); L. D. Ingersoll, A Hist. of th e War Dept. of the U.S. (1 879); Emory Upton, The Military Policy of the U. S . (1904); W. A. Ganoe, The Hist. of the U.S. Army (1924); obituary in N. Y . Tribune , May 30-June 2, 1866; suggestions from Maj. C. W. Elliott, who is preparing a biography of Scott.]

W.A.G.

Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volume IV, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Winfield Scott - Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography

SCOTT, Winfield, soldier, born in Dinwiddie County, near Petersburg, Virginia, 13 June, 1786; died at West Point, New York, 29 May, 1866. He was educated at William and Mary College, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1806, and in 1808 entered the army as a captain of light artillery. While stationed at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1809, he was court-martialed for remarks on the conduct of his superior officer, General Wilkinson, and was suspended for one year, which he devoted to the study of military tactics. In July, 1812, he was made lieutenant-colonel and ordered to the Canada frontier. Arriving at Lewiston while the affair of Queenstown Heights was in progress, he crossed the river, and the field was won under his direction; but it was afterward lost and he and his command were taken prisoners from the refusal of the troops at Lewiston to cross to their assistance. In January, 1813, he was exchanged and joined the army under General Dearborn as adjutant-general with the rank of colonel. In the attack on Fort George, 27 May, he was severely hurt by the explosion of a powder-magazine. In the autumn he commanded the advance in Wilkinson's descent of the St. Lawrence—an operation directed against Montreal, but which was abandoned. In March, 1814, he was made a brigadier-general, and established a camp of instruction at Buffalo. On 3 July, Scott's and Ripley's brigades, with Hindman's Artillery, crossed the Niagara River and took Fort Erie and a part of its garrison. On the 5th was fought the battle of Chippewa, resulting in the defeat of the enemy, and on 25 July that of Lundy's Lane, or Bridgewater, near Niagara Falls, in which Scott had two horses killed under him and was twice severely wounded. His wound of the left shoulder was critical, his recovery painful and slow, and his arm was left partially disabled.

At the close of the war Scott was offered and declined a seat in the cabinet as Secretary of War, and was promoted to be major-general, with the thanks of Congress and a gold medal for his services. He assisted in the reduction of the army to a peace establishment, and then visited Europe in a military and diplomatic capacity. He returned to the United States in 1816, and in 1817 married Miss Mayo, of Richmond, Virginia. A part of his time he now devoted to the elaboration of a manual of firearms and military tactics. In 1832 he set out from Fort Dearborn (now Chicago, Illinois.) with a detachment to take part in the hostilities against the Sacs and Foxes, but the capture of Black Hawk ended the war before Scott's arrival on the field. In the same year he commanded the Federal forces in Charleston Harbor during the nullification troubles, and his tact, discretion, and decision did much to prevent the threatened civil war. In 1835 he went to Florida to engage in the war with the Seminoles, and afterward to the Creek country. He was recalled in 1837 and subjected to inquiry for the failure of his campaigns, the court finding in his favor. In 1838 he was efficient in promoting the peaceful removal of the Cherokees from Georgia to their present reservation beyond the Mississippi. The threatened collision with Great Britain, growing out of the disputed boundary-line between Maine and New Brunswick, was averted in 1839, mainly through the pacific efforts of Scott, and the question was finally settled by the Webster Ashburton Treaty of 1842.

By the death of General Macomb in 1841 Scott became Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States. In 1847 he was assigned to the chief command of the army in Mexico. Drawing a portion of Taylors troops operating from the Rio Grande, and assembling his force at Lobos Island, on 9 March he landed 12,000 men and invested Vera Cruz. The mortar battery, opened on the siege-guns two days later, and on the 26th the city and the castle of San Juan d' Ulloa capitulated, after nearly 7,000 missiles had been fired. The garrison of 5,000 men grounded arms outside of the city on the 29th. On 8 April, Scott began his march toward Jalapa, and on the 17th reached the Mexican Army under Santa-Anna, which occupied the strong mountain-pass of Cerro Gordo, in a defile formed by the Rio del Plan. On the following morning at sunrise the Americans, 8.500 strong, attacked the Mexican army of more than 12,000, and at 2 p. m. had driven the enemy from every point of his line, capturing 5 generals, 8,000 men, 4,500 stand of arms, and 43 cannon, and killing and wounding more than 1,000, with a loss of less than 500. Paroling his prisoners and destroying most of the stores, Scott advanced on the next day to Jalapa, which he captured on 19 April. Perote was occupied on the 22d, and Puebla on 15 May. Here the army remained, drilling and waiting for re-enforcements till 7 August General Scott had vainly asked that the new troops should be disciplined and instructed in the United States before joining the army in Mexico, and the failure to do this gave Santa-Anna an opportunity to create a new army and fortify the capital. Scott began on 7 August to advance toward the city of Mexico by the National road, and, while diverting the attention of the enemy by a feint on the strong fortress of El Penon on the northwest, made a detour to San Augustin on the south. He then attacked and carried successively Contreras and Churubusco, and could have taken the capital, but an armistice till 7 September was agreed upon to allow the peace commissioner, Nicholas P. Trist, an opportunity to negotiate. At its close, operations were resumed on the southwest of the city, defended by 14,000 Mexicans occupying Molino del Rey, and General Worth's loss was in storming Molino del Rey before the attack on the wooded and strongly fortified eminence of Chapultepec. On 8 September, General Worth with 3,500 men attacked Molino del Rey, capturing much materiel and more than 800 prisoners, but losing one fourth of his command, including fifty-eight officers. On the 13th Chapultepec was stormed and carried, and on the morning of the 14th Scott's army marched into the city and occupied the national palace. There was some street-fighting and firing upon the troops from the buildings, but this was soon suppressed, order was established, and a contribution levied on the city of $150,000, two thirds of which General Scott remitted to the United States to found military asylums. Taxes were laid for the support of the army, and a civil organization under the protection of the troops was created. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, negotiated by Mr. Trist and other commissioners, Judge Clifford, afterward of the supreme court, of the number, was signed on 2 February, 1848, and soon after Mexico was evacuated by the U. S. troops.

A court of inquiry into the conduct of the war only redounded to the fame of Scott. In 1852 he was the candidate of the Whig Party for the presidency, and received the electoral votes of Vermont, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Tennessee, all the other states voting for the Democratic candidate, General Pierce. In 1859 General Scott as commissioner successfully settled the difficulty arising from the disputed boundary-line of the United States and British America through the Straits of Fuca.

Age and infirmity prevented him from taking an active part in the Civil War, and on 31 October, 1861, he retired from service, retaining his rank, pay, and allowances. Soon afterward he made a brief visit to Europe, and he passed most of the remainder of his days at West Point, remarking when he arrived there for the last time: "I have come here to die." Two weeks he lingered, and then fell for a short time into a stupor, from which he aroused, retaining entire possession of his mental faculties and recognizing his family and attendants to the last. A few minutes after eleven on the morning of 29 May he passed away so calmly that the exact moment of his death was not known. As Frederick the Great's last completely conscious utterance was in reference to his favorite English greyhound, Scott's was in regard to his magnificent horse, the same noble animal that followed in his funeral procession a few days later. Turning to his servant, the old veteran's last words were: "James, take good care of the horse." In accordance with his expressed wish, he was buried at West Point on 1 June, and his remains were accompanied to the grave by many of the most illustrious men of the land, including General Grant and Admiral Farragut.

General Scott was a man of true courage, personally, morally, and religiously brave. He was in manner, association, and feeling, courtly and chivalrous. He was always equal to the danger—great on great occasions, his unswerving loyalty and patriotism were ever conspicuous and of the loftiest character. All who appreciated his military genius regretted, when the war of the rebellion began, that Scott was not as he had been at the period of his Mexican victories. He had not the popularity of several of his successors among the soldiers. He was too stately and too exacting in his discipline—that power which Carnot calls " the glory of the soldier and the strength of armies." It was to these characteristics that Scott owed his title of “Fuss and Feathers,” the only nickname ever applied to him.  Physically he was “framed in the prodigality of nature.” Not even Washington possessed so majestic a presence. As Suwarrow was the smallest and physically the most insignificant looking, so was Scott the most imposing of all the illustrious soldiers of the 19th century, possibly of all the centuries. The steel engraving represents him at upward of threescore and ten. The vignette is from a painting by Ingham, taken at the age of thirty-seven. A portrait by Weir, showing Scott as he was at the close of the Mexican War, is in the U.S. Military Academy. The statue by Henry K. Brown stands in Scott circle, Washington. General Scott was the author of a pamphlet against the use of intoxicating, liquors (Philadelphia, 1821); “General Regulations for the Army” (1825); “Letter to the Secretary of War” (New York, 1827); “Infantry Tactics,” translated from the French (3 vols., 1835): “Letter on the Slavery Question” (1843); “Abstract of Infantry Tactics” (Philadelphia, 1861): “Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Scott, written by Himself” (2 vols., New York, 1864). Biographies of him have been published by Edward Deering Mansfield (New '' 1846); Joel Tyler Headley (1852); and Orville James Victor (1861). See also “Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico,” by Lieut. Raphael Semmes (Cincinnati, 1852).—His son-in-law. Henry Lee, soldier, born in New Berne, North Carolina, 3 October, 1814; died in New York City, 6 January, 1886, was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1833, and entered the 4th U.S. Infantry as 2d lieutenant. After three years' service in the Gulf States he took part in the war against the Seminoles, and in 1837–8 was engaged in removing Cherokees to the west, after which, until 1840, he served with his regiment as adjutant. In 1842 he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott, whose daughter, Cornelia, he had married, and accompanied him to Mexico in the capacity of chief of staff. He attained the rank of captain on 16 February, 1847, and for his gallantry in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battles of Cerro Gordo and Churubusco, and the capture of the city of Mexico, received the brevets of major and lieutenant-colonel. After the war he was acting judge-advocate of the eastern division in 1848–50, and senior aide-decamp to General Scott from 1850 till 1861. He had been made lieutenant-colonel on the staff on 7 March, 1855, was promoted colonel on 14 May, 1861, and was inspector-general in command of the forces in New York City until 30 October, 1861, when he was retired. Colonel Scott took no part in the Civil War, but was accused of disloyalty to the National cause in having communicated important military information to the enemy before Washington while on a visit to his father-in-law, General Scott. He tendered his resignation on 31 October, 1862, but it was not accepted until four years later. He was the author of “A Military Dictionary” (New York, 1861). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 440-442.


Source: Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V.