Lt. General Winfield Scott

Isabella Scott lived at the same time that Winfield Scott lived, one generation later. Other persons named Scott are on the Tyler County census of 1850 and the list of elected officials of Tyler County. Those Scotts have not yet been researched by this writer.

Many men of Tyler County served in the Mexican American War and some lost their lives, including William Barclay, son of Walter Barclay b. 1774 Rowan CO NC and Elizabeth McQueen Barclay b. 1790 Madison County, Kentucky.

"The World's Greatest Living Soldier ", this was the opinion of the Duke of Wellington, who had commanded the British army which fought against the French in the Peninsula, and commander of the Allied Army which held the field at Waterloo throughout a memorable day in 1815, until the arrival of the Prussian Army to assault Napoleon's right flank, expressed Wellington's personal and professional opinion of the man who was one of only two men to hold the rank of lieutenant general in the United States Army before the Civil War, the other being George Washington.

Winfield Scott, was described by Eisenhower in his book "So Far From God" as "arguably America's most capable soldier", is also, arguably, America's most forgotten hero, having distinguished himself in America's two most forgotten wars:

the War of 1812, a war fought for the now forgotten reasons of impressment, Navigation Acts and Orders in Council, in which the British burned the White House and were beaten (after the war had officially been ended) by good ole' Andy Jackson at New Orleans.

The Mexican War, described by Ulysses Grant as "the most unjust war waged by a stronger against a weaker nation", and challenged by contemporaries as a "land grab".

In the War of 1812, Scott, the army's youngest brigadier, taking command of U.S. troops at Buffalo, New York, drilled his troops through the spring of 1814, and raised morale, enforced strict camp sanitation measures and reduced the sick rate to under 10% (all but unheard of in those days), equiping troops in the grey uniforms of militia for lack of the properly colored cloth for the uniforms of regulars. Following this preparation, at the Battle of Chippewa (July 5, 1814) he placed himself at the head of the United States 11th Infantry and drove the British from the field.

The British commander, Gen. Riall, fooled by the grey militia uniforms, exclaimed "These, by God, are regulars!" before retreating.

At the Battle of Lundy's Lane, forgotten except by historians and mentioned at the end of James Fenimore Cooper's novel "The Spy - A Tale of the Middle Ground", Scott further distinguished himself.

Scott was yet another Virginian who would find a direction for his talents on the battlefield. Born near Petersburg, Virginia, on June 13, 1786, he studied law for a short time at the College of William and Mary, leaving to study in the law offices of David Robertson, of Petersburg. Admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1806, he practiced law until commissioned a captain of artillery in 1808. Because of his conduct in the battles along the Niagara River in 1814, he was offered, but declined, an appointment as Secretary of War, but was voted a gold medal by Congress and promoted to brevet major general.

During the 1830's, Scott was involved in many of the army's actions to remove Native Americans from their traditional lands. He is credited with having averted a civil war during the nullification crisis of 1832 through his tact and vigor when he commanded federal troops in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and, in the Whig Party convention of 1839, he received 57 votes in the first balloting for the Party's presidential nomination.

Although his political career did not gel, on June 25, 1841, he became General in Chief of the United States Army.

When the events of 1845 and 1846 had led to war with Mexico, after Taylor's invasion of northern Mexico and his initial successes in that theater, it was realized that the war probably could not be won there, and that a further military effort in the heart of Mexico would be necessary.

This took the form of the landing, in 1847, of Scott's army at Veracruz and its march to the City of Mexico. Scott was equally competent in his capacity for military planning in dealing with both war on land and war at sea. Scott designed and executed the amphibious assault on Vera Cruz and later, at the outbreak of the Civil War, accurately foretold the Union blockade of the South, a measure that was fully implemented by the Union, despite the ridicule that was heaped on Scott's "Anaconda Plan". Scott was a master of the concepts of both naval power and land warfare, able to think in terms of the effective integration of both to achieve a military objective.

Scott's march from Vera Cruz to Mexico City was followed with the greatest interest by military professionals. It was thought that Scott was taking a big risk and was probably going to be defeated. In each engagement, however, Scott's army was victorious and after the final assault on the last defense of Mexico City, the Castle of Chapultepec, in which the garrison, includimg the Niños Héroes, resisted with great valor, on the 14th of September, 1847, General Winfield Scott, at the head of his army, accepted the surrender of the City of Mexico.

In the following months, as the period of occupation stretched out without any agreement that might end the war, Scott showed that he had considerable talents as a diplomat. At one point, residents of the city proposed to Scott that he declare himself President of Mexico and establish an effective government. At last, having come to appreciate President Polk's envoy and working closely with him, Scott was able to begin disengaging from what was, after all, a very exposed and precarious position for a foreign army in Mexico.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo stripped Mexico of more than one half of its territory and, together with the recent agreement with Great Britain on the Oregon Territory, served notice to the world of the intentions of the United States toward the entire continent. In bringing such a large block of fresh territory into the United States, the nation increased the pressure of the question of whether this new territory would be slave or free.

By the outbreak of the Civil War, Scott's age and health were no longer adequate for him to defend himself against the attacks of the less able but more ambitious who rushed to force their services on President Abraham Lincoln.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the war with Mexico, the two U.S. armies that fought in Mexico were the beneficiaries of the training that many of their officers had received at the United States Military Academy, at West Point, New York, on the Hudson River, at the place that was the most critically important fortified point held by the Continental Army during the American War of Independence.

The officers who served in Mexico made up the roll of honor of a war that was to come upon them all too soon, possibly made inevitable by this war, and whose battles would push these in Mexico out of the memory of America.

Winfield Scott was a candidate for the presidency of the United States, but lost to Abraham Lincoln. By the Civil War, he was considered too old to beat out the younger Grant and Lee for significant positions of high leadership in that war.