Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/295

 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.