Winfield Scott: The General Who Mapped the Union Victory
Winfield Scott (1786-1866) was an American military leader famous for his brilliant tactics in battle, for his insistence on the value of a highly trained, disciplined army, and for being the general who proposed what came to be known as the "Anaconda Plan" to win the American Civil War and preserve the Union. Although Scott's plan was initially rejected and mocked, the essential elements of his proposal were implemented between 1861 and 1865, winning the war.
He was referred to as "Old Fuss and Feathers" because of the value he placed on proper discipline and behavior of those in the military. Following the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Army was largely disbanded and the small standing army of the federal government – as well as local militias – were manned by soldiers who had little or no formal military training. Beginning in May 1814, Scott changed that by establishing his 10-week Camp of Instruction, during which soldiers would drill up to ten hours a day. Scott's efforts led directly to the American victory over the British at the Battle of Chippawa on 5 July 1814 during the War of 1812.
He authored General Regulations for the Army (1821) and Infantry Tactics, Or, Rules for the Exercise and Maneuver of the United States Infantry (1835), standard reading for servicemen up through the 1850s. Scott could, in fact, be credited with creating the force that became the United States Army of the 1840s, and his tactics and concepts informed those of many of the most significant commanders on both sides during the American Civil War.
Early Life & Education
Scott was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, on 13 June 1786, the fifth child of William Scott and Ann Scott (neé Mason). William Scott was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, and his father, James Scott, was a veteran of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 in Scotland, coming to North America soon after. The Scotts were, therefore, a military family.
Winfield Scott grew to the imposing height of six feet and five inches, and as his family was well-off, he was sent to school rather than working as a planter in the fields like his father (who died when Scott was six years old). Scott began studies at the College of William & Mary in 1805, reading the works of John Milton, William Shakespeare, and others, but he was drawn to the campaigns of Julius Caesar and Scipio Africanus. He remained there two years before leaving to study law under the attorney David Robinson, who had been brought to North America by Scott's grandfather as a tutor for his family.
While working for Robinson as a legal clerk, the trial of Aaron Burr for high treason was held at the courthouse in Richmond, and Robinson, as a well-known court reporter, was chosen to record the proceedings; he took Scott and his two other clerks with him. At the trial, Scott met a young reporter covering the event for the New York Gazette, Washington Irving, who would later become one of America's most famous authors.
Burr's trial, at which he was acquitted (although Scott believed he was guilty), solidified in Scott a belief his Christian upbringing and earlier studies had encouraged: that there was an objective standard of right and wrong and one had a moral duty to adhere to the right, the just, the proper. Throughout the rest of his life, Scott was known for his quick temper and intolerance of "wrong behavior" – which would cause him problems more than once.
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⇒ Winfield Scott: The General Who Mapped the Union Victory
