SCOTT
SCOTT
Scott, however, obtained a remission of the sen-
tence at the end of three months, and was com-
plimented by a public dinner. On the declaration
of war with Great Britain, June 18, 1812, he was
promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the
2d artillery, and ordered to the Niagara frontier ;
and at Queenstown Heights, Oct. 13, 1812, he
was taken prisoner and exchanged after a few
months. He was promoted brigadier-general,
March 9, 1814 ; established a camp of instruction
at Buffalo, and on July 3, 1814, transferred his
brigade to British soil and on July 5, directed
the battle of Chippewa, winning a signal victory,
as he did at Lundy's Lane, July 35, where he
had two horses shot under him, was badly wound-
ed and finally gained the field, capturing General
Riall and several other officers, and inflicting a
loss of 878 men to the British, his own loss nearly
equalling it. These were the only two American
victories on Canada soil ; and gained for him the
rank of major-general. General Scott was re-
moved to Buffalo, N.Y., where his wounds were
dressed, and on his partial recovery he was trans-
ferred to Pliiladelphiabyslow stages. He visited
Europe in 1815, after declining the cabinet posi-
tion of secretary of war, made vacant in President
Madison's cabinet and held temporarily by James
Monroe, secretary of state. On his return to the
United States he was given command of the At-
lantic seaboard, with headquarters in New York,
and he made his home at Elizabeth, N.J., where he
resided, 181G-36. He was married in March, 1817,
to Maria, daughter of Jolin Mayo of Richmond, Va.
He took part in the Seminole war in Florida, and
in tlie expedition against the Creek Indians,
1836-37. Criticisms of his conduct of the cam-
jjaign caused him to l)e recalled in 1837, but a
court of inquiry found no cause for his recall,
and in 1838 he effected the peaceful transfer
of the Clierokees to the Indian territory. He was
also mainly responsible for tlie Webster- Ashbur-
ton treaty of 1842. On the death of Gen. Alex-
ander Macomb, June 25, 1841, he became general-
in-chief in command of the United States army,
with headquarters at Washington, D.C. On the
declaration of war with Mexico in 1846, he planned
the campaign and accompanied the army to Vera
Cruz, where he landed his force of 12,000 men
under cover of the naval fleet of Commodore Con-
ner. After a siege of twenty days, March 9-29,
1847, he captured the castle of San Juan de Ulloa,
and 5,000 of the Mexican army. On April 17-18,
he fought the successful battle of Cerro Gordo ;
that of Contreras, August 19-20 ; Churubusco,
August 20 ; Molino del Rey, September 8 ; Chapul-
tepec, September 13 ; and the assault and capture
of the City of Mexico, Sept. 13-14, 1847, which
ended the war. General Scott had been looked
upon as an available candidate of the Whig party
for President as early as 1839, when the national
convention met at Harrisburg, Pa., Dec. 4, and
again in 1844. In 1852 he received the nom-
ination from the Whig national convention con-
vened at Baltimore, June 16. In the election
that followed, the Scott and Graham electors
received 1,380,576 popular votes to 1,601.474 for
Pierce and King, and 156,147 for Hale and Julian,
and when the electoral college met in 1853 he
received the 42 electoral votes of Vermont,
Massachusetts, Tennessee and Kentucky ; Pierce
receiving those of all the other states and num-
bering 254. In 1859 he was commissioner on the
part of the United States in the settlement of the
northwestern boundary question, and he success-
fully accomplished the purposes of his govern-
ment. He was in command of the U.S. army
during the early part of the civil war, and suc-
ceeded in placing the national capital in a con-
dition of defence and directed the early move-
ments of the troops until succeeded, Nov. 1, 1861,
as general-in-chief, by George B. McClellan, and
he was placed on the retired list, with the brevet
rank of lieutenant-general, being seventy-five
years of age. He visited Europe in 1861-62, and
on his return in 1862 made his home at West
Point, N.Y. He received the honorary degree of
A.M. from the College of New Jersey in 1814,
and that of LL.D. from Columbia college in 1850.
and from Harvard in 1861, and was elected an
honorary member of the Massachusetts Historical
society. In November, 1814, congress ordered a
gold medal struck in his honor, and an equestrian
statue to his honor executed by Henry K. Brown
was erected on Scott Circle, Washington, D.C.
He was physically a man of stately proportions,
possibly the most imposing of the illustrious
soldiers of his time, if not of all modern times.
In the selection of names for a place in the Hall of
Fame for Great Americans, New York university.
October, 1900, his name in Class A, Soldiers and
Sailors, received 16 votes, standing tenth in the
class of 20 names. His published works include :
a pamphlet against the use of intoxicating liquors
(1821); General Regulations for the Army (1825);
Letters to the Secretary of War (1827); Infantry
Tactics (3 vols., 1835, 1847 and 1854): Letters on
the Slavery Question (1843) : Abstract of Lifantry
Tactics (1861); Memoirs of Lieut .-General Scott,
written by Himself (2 vols.. 1864). He died at
West Point, N.Y., May 29, 1866.
