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SCOTT, WIKFIELD. 



was efficient, conciliating, and useful, as an officer 

 and negotiator. 



In 1840 he was presented as the "Whig candi- 

 date for the presidency, but declined in favor 

 of General Harrison, In 1841, upon the death 

 of General Macomb, General Scott was placed 

 at the head of the array as general-in-chief, 

 with full rank as major-general. Upon the 

 outbreak of the war with Mexico, he was or- 

 dered thither. The battles of Palo Alto, Eesaca 

 de la Palma, and Monterey, having been fought, 

 he took the field in time for the projected cap- 

 ture of Vera Cruz, which he invested, with 

 twelve thousand men, March 12, 1847, com- 

 mencing the bombardment on the 22d. On the 

 26th overtures of surrender were made, and 

 ten days later the army, eight thousand strong, 

 moved on to Mexico; defeated the Mexican 

 army of fifteen thousand, under General Santa 

 Anna, at Cerro Gordo, April 18th; entered 

 Jalapa the day after ; occupied the strong castle 

 and town of La Perote on the 22d, and the city 

 of Puebla, May 15th, having taken ten thousand 

 prisoners of war, ten thousand stand of arms, 

 seven hundred cannon, and thirty thousand 

 shells and shot. Here he was detained for 

 some time, and his army, reduced to four thou- 

 sand five hundred, was reinforced to the num- 

 ber of ten thousand, and moved forward for 

 Mexico. Contreras, San Antonio, and Churu- 

 busco, strong fortifications, were each taken, in 

 turn, at the point of the bayonet. But the 

 castle of Chapultepec, the seat of the military 

 college, still lay before them, and must fall ere 

 the City of Mexico could be taken. Molino del 

 Eey and Casa de Mata, dependencies of Chapul- 

 tepec, were carried by assault on September 

 8th, and, after a determined siege of several 

 days, a breach was finally effected in the strong 

 walls of the military college, and the following 

 night Santa Anna marched out with the small 

 remnant of his army, and the city was at the 

 mercy of Scott. Early on the morning of the 

 14th he entered the City of Mexico, at the head 

 of six thousand men. This virtually ended the 

 war. A contribution was levied on the city of 

 $150,000 for the army, two-thirds of which the 

 general remitted to the United States to found 

 military asylums, and the order which followed 

 the establishment of peace rendered the pres- 

 ence of the American army a blessing to the 

 country. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 

 was signed March 2, 1848, and Mexico was soon 

 after evacuated by the conquering army. Upon 

 his return to this country, General Scott sub- 

 mitted to a trial before a court of inquiry on 

 technical charges. This trial came to nothing, 

 and the honors bestowed upon the successful 

 commander by his country were numerous and 

 enthusiastic, and included a vote of thanks by 

 Congress. In 1848 General Scott was again a 

 candidate for the Whig nomination, and in 1852 

 was nominated, and defeated by General Frank- 

 lin Pierce. In February, 1855, he was brevetted 

 lieutenant-general, to take rank from March 

 29, 1847, in commemoration of his bravery in 



Mexico. In 1859 serious differences arose in 

 regard to the boundary line between the United 

 States and British America, involving a dis- 

 puted military possession, and which he happily 

 adjusted. The late war found him still in 

 command of the army, and every inducement 

 was offered him by the South to join theii 

 cause ; but his loyalty was proof against them, 

 and he threw the weight of his well-earned 

 reputation on the side of the Government. In 

 reply to an offer of a command, through a com- 

 missioner from Virginia, he said : " I have 

 served my country under the flag of the Union 

 for more than fifty years, and, so long as God 

 permits me to live, I will defend that flag with 

 my sword, even if my own native State assails 

 it." During the early part of the civil war, 

 General Scott was much in consultation with 

 government, and did his best to perform his 

 official duties as general-in-chief, but he was 

 now too infirm for so colossal a charge, and on 

 October 31, 1861, he retired from office, retain- 

 ing, by special act of Congress, his pay and 

 allowances. In the succeeding month he sailed 

 for Europe on a tour for his health, but soon 

 returned, in consequence of the danger of war 

 consequent upon the Trent difficulty, intent to 

 prevent it. His departure was not unexpected, 

 as for some time previous the powers of his 

 mind and body had been failing. He was the 

 author of several valuable military works, 

 among which are, " General Regulations for 

 the Army " (1825), " Infantry Tactics," taken 

 from the French (1835), and some other con- 

 tributions in different departments of letters, 

 the most important of which was his " Auto- 

 biography," in two volumes, published in 1864. 

 General Scott was a man of majestic, almost 

 gigantic, and symmetrical physique, and great 

 personal strength and endurance. His manners 

 were courteous and dignified, sometimes even 

 to stiffness. He was a gentleman of the purest 

 honor and most stainless character. As a gen- 

 eral, he was at once prudent and enterprising, 

 never sparing his own person in the field, care- 

 ful of the health and comfort of his men, ready 

 and eager for every duty, and equally thorough, 

 faithful, and successful in field operations, and 

 in those obscurer and less agreeable duties of 

 organization, discipline, and drill, which make 

 in the camp the only soldiers who can be trusted 

 in the field. His career is a good illustration 

 of the fallacy of the loose general notion that 

 a great soldier seeks war and is ex officio a dis- 

 turber of the public peace. He became, in 

 manhood, like most other eminent commanders, 

 strongly averse to bloodshed. His political 

 career was unsuccessful ; but it was rather to 

 his credit than otherwise, that his simple, 

 straightforward, soldierly mental habits ren- 

 dered him an inconvenient instrument of 

 party managers. An accomplished, faithful, 

 brave, prompt, energetic, prudent, and success- 

 ful soldier: an honorable gentleman; a good and 

 patriotic citizen ; a kindly, just, wise, and pacific 

 negotiator, he lived most nobly and usefully, 



