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Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786 – May 29,
1866) was a United States lieutenant general,
diplomat, and List of U.S. Presidential
candidates|presidential candidate. He served on
active duty as a general longer than any other man
in American history and most historians rate him
the ablest American general of his time.

Scott was born on his family's farm near
Petersburg, Virginia. He attended 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 Army were tumultuous.
His commission as a colonel was suspended for one
year following a court-martial for insubordination
in criticizing his commanding general.  

During the War of 1812, Colonel Scott was captured
during the Battle of Queenston Heights in 1813,
but was released in a prisoner exchange. In March
1814 Scott was brevet (military) | brevetted
brigadier general. In July 1814, Scott commanded
the First Brigade of the American army in the
Niagara campaign, winning the battle of Battle of
Chippewa|Chippewa decisively. He was wounded
during the American defeat at the Battle of
Lundy's Lane, along with the American commander,
Major General Jacob Brown and the British/Canadian
commander, Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond. As
the American army retreated across the Niagara,
Scott commanded the American forces at Fort Erie,
another American victory. Scott's success on the
Niagara, combined with American naval victories at
Lake Champlain and Lake Erie, guaranteed a
stalemate on the northern frontier. 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 Regular Army | Regulars whenever
possible. Gen. Scott was later known as the Grand
Old Man of the Army.

In the administration of President of the United
States | President Andrew Jackson, Scott marshaled
United States forces for use against the state of
South Carolina in the Nullification Crisis. In
1838, following the orders of President Martin Van
Buren, Scott carried out the initial Indian
removal|removal of Cherokee Indians from Georgia
(U.S. state)|Georgia — what later became
known as the Trail of Tears. Scott 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. He held
this position until November 1, 1861, when he
resigned under political pressure from Maj. Gen.
George B. McClellan after the Union army | Union
defeat at Battle of Ball's Bluff|Ball's Bluff.
McClellan replaced him as general-in-chief.

During his time in the military Scott also fought
in the Black Hawk War, the Seminole Wars|Second
Seminole War, and, briefly, the American Civil
War. He also disobeyed the "order" by colorful San
Francisco eccentric Emperor Norton to disband the
U.S. Congress by force during this time.

During the Mexican-American War, Scott commanded
the southern of the two United States armies
(Zachary Taylor commanded the northern army).
Landing at Veracruz (city)|Veracruz, Scott,
assisted by his 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 Battle of Cerro Gordo|Cerro Gordo,
Battle of Contreras-Churubusco|Contreras/Padierna,
Battle of Churubusco|Churubusco, and Molino del
Rey, then assaulted the fort of Battle of
Chapultepec|Chapultepec on September 13, 1847,
after which the city surrendered. When a large
number of men from the controversial Saint
Patrick's Battalion were captured during
Churubusco, Scott gave orders for them to be
hanged en masse in 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.

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". 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 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 nine-year-old chess prodigy
gracefully.

In the U.S. presidential election, 1852|1852
presidential election, Scott was the unsuccessful
United States Whig Party|Whig Party candidate,
losing to United States Democratic Party|Democrat
Franklin Pierce.

Despite his faltering in the election, Scott was
still a wildly popular national hero. And in 1855,
by a special act of Congress, Scott was given a
brevet (military)|brevet promotion to the rank of
lieutenant general, making him the second person
in American history, after George Washington, to
ever hold that rank.

As general-in-chief at the beginning of the
American Civil War, the elderly Scott knew he was
unable to go into battle himself. 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 command of the field
forces defending Washington, D.C., passed to Major
General Irvin McDowell.

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, then moving on Atlanta. This
Anaconda Plan was derided in the press; however,
it was the strategy the Union actually used in its
broad outlines, 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 Sherman's March to the Sea | March to the Sea.

Scott died at West Point just before his eightieth
birthday and is buried there in the National
Cemetery.

Papers belonging to Scott can be found at the
William L. Clements Library at the University of
Michigan.

==Further reading==
*John Eisenhower|Eisenhower, John S.D. Agent of
Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield
Scott.

start box
succession box|title=Commanding General of the
United States Army|before=Alexander Macomb (1782 -
1841)|Alexander Macomb|after=George B.
McClellan|years=1841–1861
succession box | title=United States Whig
Party|Whig Party President of the United
States|Presidential :