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Major General Morgan Lewis A political crony and having done some staff work for Horatio Gates during the Revolution, Madison appointed Morgan Lewis as Quartermaster General in April 1812. Untrained and unprepared, it wasn't long before Lewis' inability to function caused the Secretary of War to reduce his area of responsibility to just the Northern Department. Although in Lewis's defense the system of supply that this time was so defective that few would have been able to cause much improvement in the short term. Even Lewis, knowing he was unable to complete his assigned tasks successfully, lobbied and got a field command. On March 2, 1813 he was given command of the Army of the Centre. It was Lewis' order that recalled Winfield Scott after the successful landing at Ft. George and allowed the British to escape unharmed. He lead the unsuccessful action at Forty Mile Creek. His leadership was so slight that he was passed over for command of the armies when Dearborn stepped down. Transferred to the Army of the North, he performed no better in late 1813. He was finally detached and sent to New York in the spring of 1814. New York, generally unthreatened by the British, became a dumping ground for officers that showed no ability, but had not yet produced a reason to be ejected from the army. A scapegoat certainly, he also genuinely failed to preform with any kind of determination.
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