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Complete HarpWeek Biography:
Scott, Winfield (June 13, 1786 – May 29, 1866)
Winfield Scott was one of the major military figures in the United States
from the War of 1812 until his retirement as general–in–chief early in the Civil
War.
He was born on June 13, 1786, on a plantation in Dinwiddie County outside
Petersburg, Virginia, to Ann Mason Scott and William Scott. When young Winfield
was six years old, his father died. The boy attended a Quaker boarding school
for two years before entering a Richmond academy in 1804. He was later admitted
to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, but dropped out in
order to read law. He passed the state bar in 1806. His mother had died the
previous year.
In 1807, the 21–year–old Scott joined the U.S. army, but was soon suspended
by a court martial for one year. Scott had called his commander, General James
Wilkinson, "a liar and a scoundrel" for the general’s part in Aaron Burr’s
conspiracy to create an independent nation in America’s newly acquired Louisiana
Territory. During the War of 1812, Scott served in the Lake Erie region, but
was quickly captured by the British. After his parole in 1813, Scott
established a training camp near Buffalo, New York, and then led his disciplined
troops to victory at the Battle of Chippewa on July 5, 1814. The win was an
important boost to American morale, which Scott extended at the Battle of Lundy
Lane on July 25. Although technically a draw, Lundy Lane proved that American
troops were the equal of the professional British army. Congress presented
Scott with a gold medal and his commanders promoted him to major general. Two
years after the war ended, in 1817, he married Maria Mayo of Richmond; the
couple later had seven children.
In 1832, Scott led American troops during the Black Hawk War and negotiated a
treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians. The next year, President Andrew Jackson
sent him to South Carolina during the Nullification Crisis, as that state was
threatening to secede because of high tariffs. Scott ordered the reinforcement
of federal forts at Charleston, and then proceeded to inspect other Southern
forts, sending a forceful message to potential rebels. His subsequent
assignment to subdue the Seminole and Creek Indians of the Southeast was largely
unsuccessful. When an uprising against British rule in Canada erupted in 1837,
President Martin Van Buren transferred him to upper New York State to preserve
American neutrality and keep the peace. Scott was then sent back to the South
to oversee the Cherokee removals to the West, but soon returned north to help
negotiate a border dispute between Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.
In 1841, Scott was promoted to commanding general of the U. S. Army, a
position he would hold for twenty years. During the Mexican–American War
(1846–1848), Scott’s impressive leadership resulted in the capture of Veracruz
in March 1847. Over the next six months, he won a series of victories,
including Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec (all listed
in the cartoon), before capturing the capital of Mexico City on September 14,
1847. When President James K. Polk recalled diplomat Nicholas Trist to
Washington and ordered Scott to resume hostilities, Scott convinced Trist to
ignore the president and negotiate with Mexico. The resulting Treaty of
Guadalupe Hildago, signed on February 2, 1848, satisfied President Polk and gave
the United States one–third of the Mexican Territory (areas of California,
Arizona, and New Mexico). Scott received the official Thanks of Congress and a
gold medal, and was promoted to lieutenant general.
Scott was popular with his men, but was called “Old Fuss and Feathers”
because of his strict concern with military protocol. The general had been
mentioned as a possible Whig presidential candidate as early as 1840, and he
finally won the nomination in 1852. However, in the general election, he lost
in an electoral landslide to Democrat Franklin Pierce. In 1857, Scott argued
against the use of federal troops to force the Mormons in Utah to comply with
federal law. Two years later, he helped negotiate another border dispute
between the United States and Canada, this time at San Juan Island in the
Pacific Northwest.
As Southern states began seceding from the Union in the winter of 1860–1861,
Scott, a native Virginian, stayed loyal to the Union. He urged the
reinforcement of federal forts in the South, and oversaw security at the
inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln. While most observers on both sides
were predicting a quick and easy victory, Scott accurately warned that the
conflict would take at least three years (it lasted four), necessitating a
federal troop presence in the South for several years thereafter. His proposed
Union military strategy was derided as the Anaconda Plan: blockade Confederate
ports, secure the Mississippi River, and squeeze the Confederacy to death like
an anaconda snake. The strategy was initially rejected, but describes broadly
how the Union finally won the war.
Old and ill, Scott asked to be retired after General George McClellan rudely
disobeyed his orders. Scott was placed on the retired list on November 1,
1861. He wrote his memoirs (published in 1864) while at West Point, where he
died on May 29, 1866.
Source consulted: Richard E. Beringer, “Scott, Winfield,” American
National Biography (online)
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