party over the line, and their sympathy became active. Navy Island, in the Niagara River and within the British line, was occupied by some hundreds of Americans, who kept up communication with the American side by the small steamer Caroline; and this steamer, while at the wharf on the American side, was cut loose at night by a British force, fired, and sent over the Falls. Great excitement spread through the whole country with the news. General Scott was ordered to the point January fourth, 1838. Through the remainder of the winter he was occupied in the organization of a regular and volunteer force; but at the same time he exercised everywhere a great influence for peace, and mainly through his noble exertions in this direction the war-cloud passed by.

Again he was ordered to the Canada line in the next year. Hostile movements were then on foot in the Maine boundary dispute. Congress had appropriated ten millions of dollars, and authorized the President to call and accept volunteers. British troops were in motion toward the disputed territory; the Maine militia was ready to move, and correspondence between the two governments had come to an end. Yet Scott, from his first appearance, became a mediator. He was met in a similar spirit on the other side by Sir John Harvey, of the British army, with whom he had had not dissimilar relations in the campaign of 1814; and the correspondence begun between the two veterans brought about a peaceful solution of the whole difficulty.

In June, 1841, upon the death of Major-General Macomb, General Scott became Commander-in-Chief of the entire army of the United States.

War with Mexico having resulted upon the annexation of Texas, General Scott was ordered to that country in November, 1846, and reached the Río Grande in January, 1847. The battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, had then been fought, and the town of Monterey taken.

General Santa Anna was at San Luis Potosi, with twenty thousand men. Taylor was at Monterey with eighteen thousand, and Scott had with him only a small portion of the force with which it had been arranged that he should act against Vera Cruz. Government, busied only with the attempt to supersede him by the appointment of a civilian to the post of Lieutenant-General, virtually abandoned Scott to his fate. Santa Anna knew that Vera Cruz was to be attempted, and how he would act was doubtful. Scott, in this juncture, drew from Taylor's force enough regular infantry to swell his own force to twelve thousand. With this number he moved forward and invested Vera Cruz March twelfth; on the twenty-second the bombardment was begun. Arrangements were made to carry the city by storm on the twenty-sixth, but on that day overtures of surrender were made by the Governor, and were completed on the twenty-seventh. Ten days later the army, eight thousand strong, took the road to the City of Mexico,

defeated the Mexican army, fifteen thousand strong, under General Santa Anna, at Cerro Gordo, April eighteenth, entered Jalapa the day after, occupied the strong castle and town of La Perote, April twenty-second, and the city of Puebla, May fifteenth. Only thirty-four days had elapsed from the investment of Vera Cruz, and there were already taken ten thousand prisoners of war, ten thousand stand of arms, seven hundred cannon, and thirty thousand shells and shot.

When he reached Puebla, Scott had left, capable of the march on the City of Mexico, but four thousand five hundred men; but at Puebla he was detained by negotiations for peace, which proved futile. Meantime reënforcements arrived, and the army, increased by these to the number of ten thousand, again moved forward August seventh.

Every practicable road to the city of Mexico, within the valley in which that city lay, was now held by parts of the Mexican army, and fortified with great skill. Contreras, San Antonio, and Churubusco, with ten batteries in all, must of necessity be carried, as they could not be turned, nor with safety left behind. General Valencia held Contreras with seven thousand troops, and twenty-two pieces of artillery, and Santa Anna had twelve thousand men in the woods behind. it. After an indecisive action of three hours, August nineteenth, the United States troops stood to their arms all night in roads flooded by heavy rain that fell incessantly, and at daylight on the twentieth carried the place by storm. So rapidly was the latter attack made, that the division ordered to mask it by a diversion had not time to arrive; and the actual fight lasted only seventeen minutes.

By the capture of Contreras, Churubusco was taken in flank, and San Antonio in the rear. The troops were immediately moved forward to attack the latter place, when the enemy evacuated it. Churubusco only remained; its defences were a tete-de-pont on the main causeway, and a convent strongly fortified. After a fierce struggle, both these defences were taken, the tete-de-pont at the point of the bayonet. Upon this day the Mexican loss alone exceeded, by three thousand, the whole American army.

To the military possession of the City of Mexico, it was yet necessary that the castle of Chapultepec should fall. Molino del Rey and Casa de Mata, dependencies of Chapultepec, were carried by assault September eighth; heavy siege-guns were placed in battery September twelfth, and by the thirteenth had made a practicable breach in the walls of the Military College, which was stormed the same day. From Chapultepec, Mexico City is within range, yet it still resisted, and two divisions of the army skirmished all day at the city gates; but the same night Santa Anna marched out with the small remnant of his army, and the City of Mexico lay at the mercy of Major-General Winfield Scott.

About daylight of the fourteenth, the city council waited upon the General

to demand terms of capitulation for the church, the citizens, and the municipal authorities; to this the General replied, that the city was already in his possession, and that the army should be subject to no terms not self-imposed, or such as were not demanded by its own honor, and the dignity of the United States.

Winfield Scott, with his small and heroic army, had accomplished the object of the war; peace was concluded February second, 1848, and very shortly after he received from Washington the order, dated previously to the conclusion of peace, by which he was suspended from command, and a court of inquiry was ordered upon charges preferred against him by brevet Major-General Worth. This court consisted of brevet Brigadier-General N. Towson, Paymaster-General, BrigadierGeneral Caleb Cushing, and Colonel E. G. W. Butler; thus a paymaster-general, a brigadier of volunteers, and a colonel of dragoons, were ordered to examine the conduct of the veteran commander upon the charge of a subordinate.

General Worth's charges were, that Scott "had refused to say whether he was the person referred to in a certain army order, and refused to forward charges against him to the War Department." Secretary Marcy virtually admitted that the conduct of the Government needed defence in this matter, by making an argument in its support. But the whole country was astonished, and the people did not sympathize with the cold indifference of formality. Scott relinquished the command, and appeared before the court, which sat, first in Mexico, and subsequently in Washington; but meantime the war terminated, the transactions of the Court were allowed to fall out of view, no decision was ever given, and General Winfield Scott resumed his position at Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the army.

In June, 1852, Winfield Scott was nominated a candidate for the office of President of the United States, by the Whig National Convention, at Baltimore. By a great portion of the people, this nomination was received with sincere joy; but it was reserved for the hero to receive his first great defeat at the hands of his countrymen.

Government, in 1859, with the desire to confer some additional mark of honor, bestowed upon the gallant veteran the brevet rank of Lieutenant-General; and to make it the more clearly a personal distinction, and not a mere addition to army grades, the brevet was purposely so framed that it should not survive him.

When the Southern rebellion began in 1860, General Scott adhered earnestly and uncompromisingly to the Constitution and Government of the United States, with whose history his life was identified, and for whose honor he had ever so consistently labored. With what pain he saw those dear to him for many years fall away from their allegiance, may be conceived; but he, a son too of that Virginia that has given so many soldiers to the country, felt that he was not so much a Southerner as a citizen of the United States. From the commencement he saw

that the true course was to meet the trouble firmly, and his suggestions, made while James Buchanan was still President, were such as, if followed, would have crushed rebellion in its very birth. But they were all unheeded. Twenty-eight years before, and in the same city of Charleston, Winfield Scott had been present at the rehearsal of this drama of secession - yet all the experience then gained, was not only not permitted to be of service to the country, but the old soldier was even compelled to abandon to its fate, a brave garrison in an insufficiently provided fort. Despite, however, the inactivity forced upon him by weakness or crime, General Scott secured to the Government the possession of Washington City, which it was openly asserted could not be saved, and also secured the safe inauguration of President Lincoln.

General Scott's experience, and great knowledge of the American people, were of infinite value in the organization of the army destined to act against the rebels. To an early movement of that army he gave a reluctant consent, and disaster followed the departure from his advice. Many differed with him, honestly no doubt, as to the method most likely to crush the rebellion; yet every American must bitterly regret that neither his honorable and great services, nor his age, could, upon that point, preserve the veteran from the gross vituperation of an intemperate and ribald press.

Finally, feeling himself no longer equal to the proper discharge of the important duties of his position; and that the best service he could render his country would be to make room for a younger man, Lieutenant-General Scott retired from the army, November first, 1861. No act of history is marked by more of simple dignity and truth, than this withdrawal of the man who felt that in the decay of age his faculties were no longer equal to the requirements of his country. Upon his conclusion to retire, General Scott wrote thus to the Secretary of War:

"HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,

WASHINGTON, October 31st, 1861.

"TO THE HON. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War:

"SIR: For more than three years I have been unable from a hurt to mount a horse, or to walk more than a few paces at a time, and that with much pain. Other and new infirmities, dropsy and vertigo, admonish me that repose of mind and body, with the appliances of surgery and medicine, are necessary to add a little more to a life already protracted much beyond the usual span of man. It is under such circumstances, made doubly painful by the unnatural and unjust rebellion now raging in the Southern States, of our so lately prosperous and happy Union, that I am compelled to request that my name shall be placed on the list of army officers retired from active service. As this request is founded on an absolute right, granted by a recent act of Congress, I am entirely at liberty to say

it is with deep regret that I withdraw myself in these momentous times, from the orders of a President who has treated me with much distinguished kindness and courtesy, whom I know, upon much personal intercourse, to be patriotic without sectional partialities or prejudices; to be highly conscientious in the performance of every duty, and of unrivalled activity and perseverance; and to you, Mr. Secretary, whom I now officially address for the last time, I beg to acknowledge my many obligations for the uniform high consideration I have received at your hands, and have the honor to remain, sir, with high respect,

"Your obedient servant,

In response the Secretary of War wrote as follows:

"WINFIELD SCOTT."

"WAR DEPARTMENT,

WASHINGTON, November 1st. "GENERAL: It was my duty to lay before the President your letter of yesterday, asking to be relieved, under the recent act of Congress. In separating from you, I cannot refrain from expressing my deep regret that your health, shattered by long service and repeated wounds, received in your country's defence, should render it necessary for you to retire from your high position at this momentous period of our history. Although you are not to remain in active service, I yet hope that while I continue in charge of the department over which I now preside, I shall at times be permitted to avail myself of the benefits of your wise counsels and sage experience. It has been my good fortune to enjoy a personal acquaintance with you for over thirty years, and the pleasant relations of that long time have been greatly strengthened by your cordial and entire coöperation in all the great questions which have occupied the department and convulsed the country for the last six months. In parting from you, I can only express the hope that a merciful Providence, that has protected you amidst so many trials, will improve your health, and continue your life long after the people of the country shall have been restored to their former happiness and prosperity.

"I am, General, very sincerely, your friend and servant,

SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War.

"Lieut.-General WINFIELD SCOTT, Present."

General Scott's request, it was decided in a special Cabinet council, held November first, could not be declined in view of his age and infirmities; and in the afternoon of the same day, the President, attended by all the members of the Cabinet, waited upon General Scott, at his residence, and there read to him the following order: