General winfield scott civil war

Maria DeHart Mayo

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• "Old Fuss and Feathers"
• "The Grand Old Man of the Army"

• 1807 (Militia)
• 1808–1861 (U.S. Army)
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War of 1812, Nullification, Trail of Tears

Winfield Scott was born June 13, 1786, at Laurel Branch, his father’s farm in Dinwiddie County. He was one of four children, and although his father died when he was young, his mother provided for his education. Orphaned at age seventeen, he was well equipped by then to set out on his own. Scott initially pursued law as a career, studying at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg before apprenticing to a lawyer in nearby Petersburg. In 1807 in Richmond, Scott witnessed the former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr stand trial and be acquitted for treason.

In 1808, Scott was commissioned a captain of light artillery, but, hardly a year into his new career, he publicly criticized a superior officer. He was court-martialed and, in January 1810, suspended from all pay and service for a year. In spite of this blemish on his record, he was eventually promoted to lieutenant colonel and posted to the New York frontier just as the War of 1812 was beginning. On October 13, 1812, he won recognition for his leadership at the Battle of Q

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Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, the “Grand Old Man of the Army,” has the distinction of serving as a general longer than any other man in American history. He is remembered as a brilliant tactician, responsible for the “Anaconda Plan” that allowed the Union forces to reclaim the South during the Civil War, and the author of the Rules and Regulations for the Field Exercise and Maneuvers of Infantry, the primary tactical guidebook in use from 1815 through the Civil War. He is also remembered as a flamboyant man and quick to argue, prompting the less savory nickname: “Old Fuss and Feathers.”

Scott started his military career in 1807, taking a break from studying law to enlist in the Virginia militia as a cavalry corporal in response to the Chesapeake-Leopard affair. Scott’s short temper and propensity for harsh criticism landed him a suspension not long after enlisting, however this allowed him to continue his legal studies. The next year, Scott’s long army career began with his commission as a captain, although his short temper and its consequences were not behind him. In