Winfield Scott

At 79 years old, Winfield Scott physical status not available right now. We will update Winfield Scott's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

In early 1808, President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress to authorize an expansion of the United States Army after the British announced an escalation of their naval blockade of France, thereby threatening American shipping. Scott convinced family friend William Branch Giles to help him obtain a commission in the newly expanded army. In May 1808, shortly before his twenty-second birthday, Scott was commissioned as a captain in the light artillery. Tasked with recruiting a company, he raised his troops from the Petersburg and Richmond areas, and then traveled with his unit to New Orleans to join their regiment. Scott was deeply disturbed by what he viewed as the unprofessionalism of the army, which at the time consisted of just 2,700 officers and men. He later wrote that "the old officers had, very generally, sunk into either sloth, ignorance, or habits of intemperate drinking."

He soon clashed with his commander, General James Wilkinson, over Wilkinson's refusal to follow the orders of Secretary of War William Eustis to remove troops from an unhealthy bivouac site. Wilkinson owned the site, and while the poor location caused several illnesses and deaths among his soldiers, Wilkinson refused to relocate them because he personally profited. In addition, staying near New Orleans enabled Wilkinson to pursue his private business interests and continue the courtship of Celestine Trudeau, whom he later married.

Scott briefly resigned his commission over his dissatisfaction with Wilkinson, but before his resignation had been accepted, he withdrew it and returned to the army. In January 1810, Scott was convicted in a court-martial, partly for making disrespectful comments about Wilkinson's integrity, and partly because of a $50 shortage in the $400 account he had been provided to conduct recruiting duty in Virginia after being commissioned. With respect to the money, the court-martial members concluded that Scott had not been intentionally dishonest, but had failed to keep accurate records. His commission was suspended for one year. After the trial, Scott fought a duel with William Upshaw, an army medical officer and Wilkinson friend whom Scott blamed for initiating the court-martial. Each fired at the other, but both emerged unharmed.

After the duel, Scott returned to Virginia, where he spent the year studying military tactics and strategy, and practicing law in partnership with Benjamin Watkins Leigh. Meanwhile, Wilkinson was removed from command for insubordination, and was succeeded by General Wade Hampton. The rousing reception Scott received from his army peers as he began his suspension led him to believe that most officers approved of his anti-Wilkinson comments, at least tacitly; their high opinion of him, coupled with Leigh's counsel to remain in the army, convinced Scott to resume his military career once his suspension had been served. He rejoined the army in Baton Rouge, where one of his first duties was to serve as judge advocate (prosecutor) in the court-martial of Colonel Thomas Humphrey Cushing.

Tensions between Britain and the United States continued to rise as Britain attacked American shipping, impressed American sailors, and encouraged Native American resistance to American settlement. In July 1812, Congress declared war against Britain. After the declaration of war, Scott was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned as second-in-command of the 2d Artillery, serving under George Izard. While Izard continued to recruit soldiers, Scott led two companies north to join General Stephen Van Rensselaer's militia force, which was preparing for an invasion of Canada. President James Madison made the invasion the central part of his administration's war strategy in 1812, as he sought to capture Montreal and thereby take control of the St. Lawrence River and cut off Upper Canada from Lower Canada. The invasion would begin with an attack on the town of Queenston, which was just across the Niagara River from Lewiston, New York.

In October 1812, Van Rensselaer's force attacked British forces in the Battle of Queenston Heights. Scott led an artillery bombardment that supported an American crossing of the Niagara River, and he took command of American forces at Queenston after Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer was badly wounded. Shortly after Scott took command, a British column under Roger Hale Sheaffe arrived. Sheaffe's numerically superior force compelled an American retreat, ultimately forcing Scott to surrender after reinforcements from the militia failed to materialize. As a prisoner of war, Scott was treated hospitably by the British, although two Mohawk leaders nearly killed him while he was in British custody. As part of a prisoner exchange, Scott was released in late November; upon his return to the United States, he was promoted to colonel and appointed to command the 2d Artillery. He also became the chief of staff to Henry Dearborn, who was the senior general of the army and personally led operations against Canada in the area around Lake Ontario.

Dearborn assigned Scott to lead an attack against Fort George, which commanded a strategic position on the Niagara River. With help from naval commanders Isaac Chauncey and Oliver Hazard Perry, Scott landed American forces behind the fort, forcing its surrender. Scott was widely praised for his conduct in the battle, although he was personally disappointed that the bulk of the British garrison escaped capture. As part of another campaign to capture Montreal, Scott forced the British to withdrawal from Hoople Creek in November 1813. Despite this success, the campaign fell apart after the American defeat at the Battle of Crysler's Farm, and after Wilkinson (who had taken command of the front in August) and Hampton failed to cooperate on a strategy to take Montreal. With the failure of the campaign, President Madison and Secretary of War John Armstrong Jr. relieved Wilkinson and some other senior officers of their battlefield commands. They were replaced with younger officers such as Scott, Izard, and Jacob Brown. In early 1814, Scott was promoted to brigadier general and was assigned to lead a regiment under Brown.

In mid-1814, Scott took part in another invasion of Canada, which began with a crossing of the Niagara River under Brown's command. Scott was instrumental in the American success at the Battle of Chippawa, which took place on July 5, 1814. Though the battle was regarded as inconclusive from the strategic point of view because the British army remained intact, it was seen as an important moral victory. It was "the first real success attained by American troops against British regulars."

Later in July 1814, a scouting expedition led by Scott was ambushed, beginning the Battle of Lundy's Lane. Scott's brigade was decimated after General Gordon Drummond arrived with British reinforcements, and he was placed in the reserve in the second phase of the battle. He was later badly wounded while seeking a place to commit his reserve forces. Scott believed that Brown's decision to refrain from fully committing his strength at the outset of this battle resulted in the destruction of Scott's brigade and a high number of unnecessary deaths. The battle ended inconclusively after General Brown ordered his army to withdraw, effectively bringing an end to the invasion. Scott spent the next months convalescing under the supervision of military doctors and physician Philip Syng Physick.

Scott's performance at the Battle of Chippawa had earned him national recognition. He was promoted to the brevet rank of major general and awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. In October 1814, Scott was appointed commander of American forces in Maryland and northern Virginia, taking command in the aftermath of the Burning of Washington. The War of 1812 came to an effective end in February 1815, after news of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent (which had been signed in December 1814) reached the United States.

In 1815, Scott was admitted to the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati as an honorary member, in recognition of his service in the War of 1812. Scott's Society of the Cincinnati insignia, made by silversmiths Thomas Fletcher and Sidney Gardiner of Philadelphia, was a one-of-a-kind, solid gold eagle measuring nearly three inches in height. It is one of the most unique military society insignias ever produced. There are no known portraits or photographs of Scott wearing the insignia, which is now in the collection of the United States Military Academy Museum.

Mid-career, 1815–1841

With the conclusion of the War of 1812, Scott served on a board charged with demobilizing the army and determining who would continue to serve in the officer corps. Andrew Jackson and Brown were selected as the army's two major generals, while Alexander Macomb, Edmund P. Gaines, Scott, and Eleazer Wheelock Ripley would serve as the army's four brigadier generals. Jackson became commander of the army's Southern Division, Brown became commander of the army's Northern Division, and the brigadier generals were assigned leadership of departments within the divisions. Scott obtained a leave of absence to study warfare in Europe, though to his disappointment, he reached Europe only after Napoleon's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Upon his return to the United States in May 1816, he was assigned to command army forces in parts of the Northeastern United States. He made his headquarters in New York City and became an active part of the city's social life. He earned the nickname "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his insistence on proper military bearing, courtesy, appearance and discipline. In 1835, Scott wrote Infantry Tactics, Or, Rules for the Exercise and Maneuvre of the United States Infantry, a three-volume work that served as the standard drill manual for the United States Army until 1855.

Scott developed a rivalry with Jackson after the latter took offense to a comment Scott had made at a private dinner in New York, though they later reconciled. He also continued a bitter feud with Gaines that centered over which of them had seniority, as both hoped to eventually succeed the ailing Brown. In 1821, Congress reorganized the army, leaving Brown as the sole major general and Scott and Gaines as the lone brigadier generals; Macomb accepted demotion to colonel and appointment as the chief of engineers, while Ripley and Jackson both left the army. After Brown died in 1828, President John Quincy Adams passed over both Scott and Gaines due to their feuding, instead appointing Macomb as the senior general in the army. Scott was outraged at the appointment and asked to be relieved of his commission, but he ultimately backed down.

In 1832, President Andrew Jackson ordered Scott to Illinois to take command of a conflict known as the Black Hawk War. By the time Scott arrived in Illinois, the conflict had come to a close with the army's victory at the Battle of Bad Axe. Scott and Governor John Reynolds concluded the Black Hawk Purchase with Chief Keokuk and other Native American leaders, opening up much of present-day Iowa to settlement by whites. Later in 1832, Jackson placed Scott in charge of army preparations for a potential conflict arising from the Nullification Crisis. Scott traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, the center of the nullification movement, where he strengthened federal forts but also sought to cultivate public opinion away from secession. Ultimately, the crisis came to an end in early 1833 with the passage of the Tariff of 1833.

President Jackson initiated a policy of Indian removal, relocating Native Americans to the west of the Mississippi River. Some Native Americans moved peacefully, but others, including many Seminoles, forcibly resisted. In December 1835, the Second Seminole War broke out after the Dade massacre, in which a group of Seminoles ambushed and massacred a U.S. Army company in Central Florida. President Jackson ordered Scott to personally take command of operations against the Seminole, and Scott arrived in Florida by February 1836. After several months of inconclusive campaigning, he was ordered to the border of Alabama and Georgia to put down a Muscogee uprising known as the Creek War of 1836. American forces under Scott, General Thomas Jesup, and Alabama Governor Clement Comer Clay quickly defeated the Muscogee. Scott's actions in the campaigns against the Seminole and the Muscogee received criticism from some subordinates and civilians, and President Jackson initiated a Court of Inquiry that investigated both Scott and Gaines. The court cleared Scott of misconduct but reprimanded him for the language he used in criticizing Gaines in official communications. The court was critical of Gaines' actions during the campaign, though it did not accuse him of misconduct or incompetence. It also criticized the language he used to defend himself, both publicly and to the court.

Martin Van Buren, a personal friend of Scott's, assumed the presidency in 1837, and Van Buren continued Jackson's policy of Indian removal. In April 1838, Van Buren placed Scott in command of the removal of Cherokee from the Southeastern United States. Some of Scott's associates tried to dissuade Scott from taking command of what they viewed as an immoral mission, but Scott accepted his orders. After almost all of the Cherokee refused to voluntarily relocate, Scott drew up careful plans in an attempt to ensure that his soldiers forcibly, but humanely, relocated the Cherokee. Nonetheless, the Cherokee endured abuse from Scott's soldiers; one account described soldiers driving the Cherokee "like cattle, through rivers, allowing them no time to take off their shoes and stockings. In mid-1838, Scott agreed to Chief John Ross's plan to let the Cherokee lead their own movement west, and he awarded a contract to the Cherokee Council to complete the removal. Scott was strongly criticized by many Southerners, including Jackson, for awarding the contract to Ross rather than continuing the removal under his own auspices Scott accompanied one Cherokee group as an observer, traveling with them from Athens, Tennessee to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was ordered to the Canada–United States border.

In late 1837, the so-called "Patriot War" broke out along the Canadian border as some Americans sought to support the Rebellions of 1837–1838 in Canada. Tensions further escalated due to an incident known as the Caroline affair, in which Canadian forces burned a steamboat that had been used to deliver supplies to rebel forces. President Van Buren dispatched Scott to Western New York to prevent unauthorized border crossings and prevent the outbreak of a war between the United States and the United Kingdom. Still popular in the area due to his service in the War of 1812, Scott issued public appeals, asking Americans to refrain from supporting the Canadian rebels. In late 1838, a new crisis known as the Aroostook War broke out over a dispute regarding the border between Maine and Canada, which had not been conclusively settled in previous treaties between Britain and the United States. Scott was tasked with preventing the conflict from escalating into a war. After winning the support of Governor John Fairfield and other Maine leaders, Scott negotiated a truce with John Harvey, who commanded British forces in the area.

In the mid-1830s, Scott joined the Whig Party, which was established by opponents of President Jackson. Scott's success in preventing war with Canada under Van Buren confirmed his popularity with the broad public, and in early 1839 newspapers began to mention him as a candidate for the presidential nomination at the 1839 Whig National Convention. By the time of the convention in December 1839, party leader Henry Clay and 1836 presidential candidate William Henry Harrison had emerged as the two front-runners, but Scott loomed as a potential compromise candidate if the convention deadlocked. After several ballots, the convention nominated Harrison for president. Harrison went on to defeat Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election, but he died just one month into his term and was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.

Source