Winfield Scott
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Winfield Scott | |
|---|---|
| June 13, 1786 – May 29, 1866 (aged 79) | |
 General Winfield Scott |
|
| Nickname | Old Fuss and Feathers, Grand Old Man of the Army |
| Place of birth | Dinwiddie County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Place of death | West Point, New York, U.S. |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Years of service | 1808 – 1861 |
| Rank | Brevet Lieutenant General |
| Commands held | United States Army |
| Battles/wars | War of 1812 Mexican-American War Black Hawk War Seminole Wars American Civil War |
| Other work | Lawyer Military governor of Mexico City Whig candidate for President of the United States, 1852 |
Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786 – May 29, 1866) was a United States Army general, diplomat, and presidential candidate. Known as "Old Fuss and Feathers" and the "Grand Old Man of the Army", he served on active duty as a general longer than any other man in American history and most historians rate him the ablest American commander of his time. Over the course of his fifty-year career, he commanded forces in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War, and, briefly, the American Civil War, conceiving the Union strategy known as the Anaconda Plan that would be used to defeat the Confederacy.
A national hero after the Mexican-American War, he served as military governor of Mexico City. Such was his stature that, in 1852, the United States Whig Party passed over its own incumbent President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, to nominate Scott in the United States presidential election. Scott lost to Democrat Franklin Pierce in the general election, but remained a popular national figure, receiving a brevet promotion in 1856 to the rank of lieutenant general, becoming the first American since George Washington to hold that rank.
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[edit] Early life
Scott was born on his family's farm in Dinwiddie County, near Petersburg, Virginia.[1] He was educated at the College of William & Mary and was a lawyer and a Virginia militia cavalry corporal before being directly commissioned as captain in the artillery in 1808. Scott's early years in the U.S. Army were tumultuous. His commission as a colonel was suspended for one year following a court-martial for insubordination in criticizing his commanding general, the pusillanimous and corrupt James Wilkinson.
[edit] War of 1812
During the War of 1812 Scott was captured during the Battle of Queenston Heights in 1812, but was released in a prisoner exchange. Upon release, he returned to Washington to pressure the Senate to take punitive action against British prisoners of war in retaliation for the British executing thirteen American POWs of Irish extraction captured at Queenston Heights (the British considered them British subjects and traitors). The Senate wrote the bill after Scott's urging but President James Madison refused to enforce it, believing that the summary execution of prisoners of war to be unworthy of civilized nations. In March 1814, Scott was brevetted brigadier general. In July 1814, Scott commanded the First Brigade of the American army in the Niagara campaign, winning the battle of Chippewa decisively. He was wounded during the bloody Battle of Lundy's Lane, along with the American commander, Major General Jacob Brown, and the British/Canadian commander, Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond. Scott's wounds from Lundy's Lane were so severe that he did not serve on active duty for the remainder of the war.
Scott earned the nickname of "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his insistence of military appearance and discipline in the U.S. Army, which consisted mostly of volunteers. In his own campaigns, General Scott preferred to use a core of U.S. Army regulars whenever possible. Scott perennially concerned himself with the welfare of his men, prompting an early quarrel with General Wilkinson over an unhealthy bivouac, which turned out to be on land Wilkinson owned. During an early outbreak of cholera at a post under his command, Scott himself was the only officer who stayed to nurse the stricken enlisted men.
[edit] Nullification and the Trail of Tears
In the administration of President Andrew Jackson, Scott marshaled United States forces for use against the state of South Carolina in the Nullification Crisis. His tactful diplomacy and the use of his garrison in suppressing a major fire in Charleston did much to defuse the crisis.
In 1832 Scott replaced John Wool as commander of Federal troops in the Cherokee Nation. Andrew Jackson disagreed with the United States Supreme Court views on the Cherokee right to self-rule. In 1835 Jackson convinced a minority group of Cherokee to sign the Treaty of New Echota. In 1838, following the orders of Jackson, Scott assumed command of the "Army of the Cherokee Nation", headquartered at Fort Cass and Fort Butler. President Martin Van Buren, who had been Jackson's Secretary of State, and then Vice President, thereafter directed Scott to forcibly move all those Cherokee who had not yet moved west in compliance with the treaty. This was done even though the treaty actually allowed those who wished to remain in the east to do so.[2]
Scott arrived at New Echota, Cherokee Nation on April 6, 1838, and immediately divided the Nation into three military districts. Within two weeks he had every Cherokee in North Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama who could not escape to be captured or killed. The Cherokee were rounded up and held in rat-infested stockades with little food. Private John G. Burnett later wrote, "Future generations will read and condemn the act and I do hope posterity will remember that private soldiers like myself, and like the four Cherokees who were forced by General Scott to shoot an Indian Chief and his children, had to execute the orders of our superiors. We had no choice in the matter."[3][4]
Over 4,000 Cherokee men, women, and children died in this confinement before ever beginning the trip west. As the first groups that were herded west huge numbers died in the heat, the Cherokees pleaded with Scott to postpone the removal until after summer, which he did. Scott left Athens, Georgia, on October 1, 1838, and traveled with the removed peoples as far as Nashville, where he was ordered to return to Washington. The Cherokee removal later became known as the Trail of Tears.[5]
He also helped defuse tensions between officials of the state of Maine and the British Canada province of New Brunswick in the undeclared and bloodless Aroostook War in March 1839.
As a result of his success, Scott was appointed major general (then the highest rank in the United States Army) and general-in-chief in 1841, serving until 1861.
During his time in the military, Scott also fought in the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War, and, briefly, the American Civil War.
[edit] Scott as tactician
After the War of 1812, Scott translated several Napoleonic manuals into English. Upon direction of the War Department, Scott published Abstract of Infantry Tactics, Including Exercises and Manueuvres of Light-Infantry and Riflemen, for the Use of the Militia of the United States in 1830, for the use of the American militia.
In 1840, Scott wrote Infantry Tactics, Or, Rules for the Exercise and Maneuvre of the United States Infantry. This three-volume work was the standard drill manual for the U.S. Army until William J. Hardee's Tactics were published in 1855.
General Scott was very interested in the professional development of the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy.[6]
[edit] Mexican-American War
During the Mexican-American War, Scott commanded the southern of the two United States armies (Zachary Taylor commanded the northern army). Landing at Veracruz, Scott, assisted by his breveted colonel of engineers, Robert E. Lee, and perhaps inspired by William H. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, followed the approximate route taken by Hernán Cortés in 1519 and assaulted Mexico City. Scott's opponent in this campaign was Mexican president and general Antonio López de Santa Anna. Despite high heat, rains, and difficult terrain, Scott won the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras/Padierna, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey, then assaulted the fort of Chapultepec on September 13, 1847, after which the city surrendered. When a large number of men from the Mexican Saint Patrick's Battalion were captured during Churubusco, Scott gave orders for them to be hanged en masse during the battle of Chapultepec, specifying that the moment of execution should occur just after the U.S. flag was raised atop the Mexican citadel. This was a smudge on Scott's record, as the incident broke numerous Articles of War.
As military commander of Mexico City, he was held in high esteem by Mexican civil and American authorities alike. However, Scott's vanity, as well as his corpulence, led to a catch phrase that was to haunt him for the remainder of his political life. Complaining about the division of command between himself and General Taylor, in a letter written to Secretary of War William Marcy, Scott stated he had just risen from "at about 6 PM as I sat down to take a hasty plate of soup" [7]. The Polk administration, wishing to sabotage Scott's reputation, promptly published the letter, and the phrase appeared in political cartoons and folk songs for the rest of his life. Another letter from Scott to Marcy noted Scott's desire of not wishing to "have a fire in his rear (from Washington) while he met a fire in front of the Mexicans."[7]
Another example of Scott's vanity was his reaction to losing at chess to a young New Orleans lad named Paul Morphy in 1846. Scott did not take his defeat by the eight-year-old chess prodigy gracefully.
[edit] Politics
- See also: U.S. presidential election, 1852
In the 1852 presidential election, the Whig Party declined to nominate its incumbent president, Millard Fillmore, who had succeeded to the presidency on the death of Mexican-American War hero General Zachary Taylor. Seeking to repeat their electoral success, the Whigs pushed Fillmore aside and nominated Scott, who faced Democrat Franklin Pierce. Scott's anti-slavery reputation undermined his support in the South, while the Party's pro-slavery platform depressed turnout in the North, and Scott's opponent was a Mexican-American War veteran as well. Pierce was elected in an overwhelming win, leaving Scott with the electoral votes of only four states.
Despite his faltering in the election, Scott was still a wildly popular national hero. In 1855, by a special act of Congress, Scott was given a brevet promotion to the rank of lieutenant general, making him only the second person in U.S. military history, after George Washington, ever to hold that rank.
In 1859, Scott traveled to the Pacific Northwest to settle a dispute with the British over San Juan Island, which had escalated to the so-called Pig War. The old general established a good rapport with the British, and was able to bring about a peaceful resolution.
[edit] Civil War
- See also: Anaconda Plan
As Union general-in-chief at the beginning of the American Civil War, the elderly Scott knew he was unable to go into battle himself. He was too large to mount or ride his horse. He offered the command of the Federal army to Colonel Robert E. Lee. However, when Virginia left the Union in April 1861, Lee resigned and the command of the Federal field forces defending Washington, D.C. passed to Brigadier General Irvin McDowell. Although he was born and raised in Virginia, Scott remained loyal to the nation that he had served for most of his life and refused to resign his commission upon his home state's secession.
Scott did not believe that a quick victory was possible for Federal forces. He devised a long-term plan to defeat the Confederacy by occupying key terrain, such as the Mississippi River and key ports on the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, and then moving on Atlanta. This Anaconda Plan was derided in the press; however, in its broad outlines, it was the strategy the Union actually used, particularly in the Western Theater and in the successful naval blockade of Confederate ports. In 1864, it was continued by General Ulysses S. Grant and executed by General William Tecumseh Sherman in his Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea.
Scott was unable to implement his war plan because he was physically incapable of travel to the front lines. As a result he felt unable to reprimand his new commander in the field, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan for his increasingly insubordinate behavior. This, combined with political pressure from McClellan's supporters in the House and Senate, resulted in Scott's resignation on November 1, 1861. McClellan then succeeded him as general-in-chief.
General Scott lived to see the Union victory in the Civil War. He died at West Point, New York, and is buried in West Point Cemetery.
[edit] Legacy
Scott served under every president from Jefferson to Lincoln, a total of fourteen administrations, and was an active-duty general for thirteen of them (47 years). Papers belonging to Scott can be found at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.[8]
Scott County in the state of Iowa is named in Winfield Scott's honor, as he was the presiding officer at the signing of the peace treaty ending the Black Hawk War; Scott County, Minnesota, and Scott County, Tennessee, and Winfield, Tennessee, were also named for him. Fort Scott, Kansas, a former Army outpost, was also named for him, and the towns of Scott Depot and Winfield in West Virginia. Scott Township in Mahaska County, Iowa, was formerly called Jackson before residents formally petitioned to change the township's name in light of their strong support of Scott in the 1852 presidential campaign.[9] In addition, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, Buena Vista County, Iowa, and the town of Churubusco, Indiana, were named for battles where Scott led his troops to victory. Lake Winfield Scott, near Suches, is one of Georgia's highest elevation lakes. In 1882, the fort now known as Fort Point at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Presidio was given the name “Fort Winfield Scott” by US Army Headquarters. That fort officially retained the name until 1886, when the fort was downgraded to a sub-post of the Presidio of San Francisco. The name was then used once again for the new coast artillery post established in 1912 in the Presidio.[10] A paddle steamer named the Winfield Scott launched in 1850. The General Winfield Scott House, his home in New York City during 1853-1855, was named National Historic Landmark in 1973. The saying "Great Scott!" may have originated from a soldier under Winfield Scott.[11]
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Eicher, p. 475.
- ^ Garrison, Tim Alan, The Legal Ideology of Removal: The Southern Judiciary and the Sovereignty of Native American Nations (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002)
- ^ Trail of Tears, Cherokee North Carolina website.
- ^ Cherokee Nation official website John Burnett's Story of the Trail of Tears
- ^ A Brief History of the Trail of Tears, Cherokee Nation website.
- ^ Waugh, John, The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers, Ballantine Books, 1999, ISBN 0-345-43403-X.
- ^ a b Sargent, Nathan. Public Men and Events from the Commencement of Mr. Monroe's Administration. 1875, J.B. Lippincott & Co., p. 297.
- ^ William L. Clements Library.
- ^ History of Scott Township
- ^ Fort Winfield Scott, NPS website.
- ^ World Wide Words website
[edit] Further reading
- Eisenhower, John S.D., Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott, University of Oklahoma Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8061-3128-4.
- Elliott, Charles Winslow, Winfield Scott: The Soldier and the Man, 1937.
- Johnson, Timothy D., "Winfield Scott: The Quest for Military Glory, University Press of Kansas, 1998, ISBN 0-7006-0914-8.
- Peskin, Allan, Winfield Scott and the Profession of Arms, 2003.
[edit] External links
- General Scott and the Trail of Tears
- Letter to the Cherokee from Major General Scott
- Origin of the phrase Great Scott!.
- Biography of General Winfield Scott
- Winfield Scott riverboat
- Winfield Scott letters
- Wright, Marcus J., General Scott, a biography at Project Gutenberg
- Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, LL.D. by Winfield Scott at archive.org Vol.1 and Vol. 2
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Alexander Macomb |
Commanding General of the United States Army 1841–1861 |
Succeeded by George B. McClellan |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Zachary Taylor |
Whig Party presidential nominee 1852 (lost) |
Succeeded by Millard Fillmore |
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