SCOTT, WINFIELD (1786-1866), American general, was born near Petersburg (Va.) on June 13, 1786. In 1805 he entered the College of William and Mary where he studied law. In 1807 he removed to Charleston (S.C.), but as war with England seemed imminent he soon left for Washington and offered his services. In 1808 he was commissioned as a captain of artillery, recruited a company in Richmond and Petersburg, and was ordered to New Orleans. In July 1812, as a lieutenant-colonel of artillery, he was sent to the Niagara frontier and fought at Queenston, where he was taken prisoner. He was exchanged in Jan., 1813, became colonel in the following March, was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in March 1814, and in July received the brevet of major-general. In the battles of Chippewa (July 5, 1814) and Lundy's Lane (July 25) he took a conspicuous part, and was twice wounded in the Lundy's Lane engagement. For his services he was presented with a gold medal by Congress and with a sword by the State of Virginia.
Among the difficult tasks that he was called upon to perform between 1815 and 1861, for the last 20 years of which period he was the commanding general of the United States Army, were : an expedition to the Middle West in 1832, where, after the end of the Black Hawk War, he negotiated treaties of peace with the Sauk, Fox, Winnebago, Sioux, and Menominee Indians; a journey to Charleston to watch the progress of the nullification move ment, and to strengthen the garrisons of the forts in the harbour; an expedition in 1836 against the Seminole Indians in Florida; the supervision of the removal in 1838 of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee to the res ervation set apart for them by treaty west of the Mississippi river; a visit to the Niagara river in 1838 to put an end to the acts by Canadian insurgents in violation of American neutrality; a similar mission to Maine in 1839 to restore tranquillity between the citizens of Maine and New Brunswick, who were disputing the possession of land along the Aroostook river; and a journey to the north-west in 1859 to adjust a dispute between American and British officers concerning the joint occupation of San Juan island in Puget sound.
His greatest achievement was the brilliant Mexican campaign of 1847. As the senior officer of the army, he was placed in com mand of the invading expedition, and after capturing Vera Cruz (March 29, 1847), and winning victories at Cerro Gordo (April 18), Contreras-Churubusco (Aug. 19-25), Molino del Rey (Sept. 8), and Chapultepec (Sept. 13), he crowned his campaign by the capture, on Sept. 14, of the Mexican capital. In March 1848 he received a vote of thanks from Congress, which ordered a gold medal to be struck in commemoration of his services. His nomi nation for the presidency by the Whigs had been suggested in 1839 and in 1848, and in 1852 he received it ; but the Whigs, divided on the slavery question, gave only half-hearted support to their com promise platform ; and Scott made several unfortunate extempo raneous addresses. He received the electoral votes of only Ken tucky, Virginia, Massachusetts and Vermont. This defeat, how ever, detracted nothing from his popularity, and in 1852 the brevet rank of lieutenant-general was created specially for him. At the outbreak of the Civil War, though a Virginian, he remained at the head of the United States armies and directed operations from Washington until Nov. 1861. He then visited Europe for a short time, and after returning wrote his Memoirs, published in He died at West Point (N.Y.) on May 29, 1866.
See Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Scott, LL.D. (1864) ; Raphael Semmes, The Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico (Cincinnati, 3rd ed., 1852) ; Edward D. Mansfield, Life and Military Services of General Scott (1862) ; and Marcus J. Wright, General Scott (1894), in the "Great Commanders" series.