"Winfield Scott was one of America's greatest generals—a war hero many times over and a man whose struggle to professionalize the United States Army shaped much of the nation's early history. His achievements were considerable and his tenure long: he served 14 presidents. But he had the misfortune to serve in two conflicts—the War of 1812 and the controversial Mexican-American War—bracketed by the far more significant American Revolution and Civil War. Since his death, Scott has faded into the background of American history.
Even more obscure is Scott's long association with New York City, where he lived and worked for much of his adult life. Though born in Virginia, Scott died an urbanite, marked indelibly by Gotham. He was an immediately recognizable figure on Manhattan's streets, at home in the salons and dining rooms of Knickerbocker New York's finest society and referred to frequently in the diaries and memoirs of the era's prominent citizens. Leading New York Whigs supported Scott's presidential bid. He even directed the United States Army from the city. His time in New York influenced one of the most significant decisions of his life: to remain with the army instead of joining the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil War. His native Virginians burned him in effigy for that choice, and he remains a controversial figure in the South. New Yorkers, by contrast, simply forgot him.
Scott was born in June 1786 at his family's farm near Dinwiddie Courthouse, southwest of Petersburg, Virginia. His grandfather was a Scotsman who had supported Bonnie Prince Charlie in his doomed effort to win the English crown. After the prince's defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Scott's grandfather fled to America, "smuggled on board a ship bound for Virginia," as Scott wrote in his memoirs. There, he prospered as a lawyer and bore a son, William, who served as an officer in the Revolutionary War and became a prominent Petersburg citizen. William married Ann Mason, the daughter of a prosperous local family, and the pair left their son, Winfield, the means to enjoy the life of a well-to-do Virginia landowner…."
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