CHARACTERS

Major General Winfield Scott

The Army promoted Captain Winfield Scott to lieutenant colonel in July 1812. Lieutenant Colonel Scott served primarily on the Niagara campaign front in the War of 1812. He took command of an American landing party during the Battle of Queenston Heights (Ontario, Canada) on 13 October 1812. Most New York militia members refused to cross into Canada in support of the invasion, and the British compelled New York militia commander Brigadier General William Wadsworth and Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott to surrender.

The British held Scott as a prisoner of war. The British considered Irish-American prisoners of war British subjects and traitors and executed 13 such Americans captured at Queenstown Heights. The British paroled and released Scott in a prisoner exchange. Upon release, Scott returned to Washington to pressure the Senate to take punitive action against British prisoners of war in retaliation for the British executions of Irish-American soldiers. The Senate wrote a bill after this urging, but President James Madison believed the summary execution of prisoners of war unworthy of civilized nations and so refused to enforce the act.

The Army promoted Scott to colonel in March 1813. Scott planned and led the capture of Fort George, Ontario, Canada, beside the Niagara River. The operation used landings across the Niagara and on the Lake Ontario coast and forced the British to abandon Fort George. Colonel Scott suffered wounds at this battle which is considered among the best planned and executed operations of the United States Army during the War of 1812.

The Army brevetted Colonel Winfield Scott as brigadier general in March 1814.

Brigadier General Scott earned the nickname of "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his insistence on military appearance and discipline in the United States Army, which consisted mostly of volunteers. In his own campaigns, General Scott preferred to use a core of United States Army regulars whenever possible. Scott perennially concerned himself with the welfare of his men, prompting an early quarrel with General James Wilkinson over an unhealthy bivouac on land Wilkinson owned. During an early outbreak of cholera at a post under his command, Scott, alone among officers, stayed to nurse the stricken enlisted men.

Scott commanded the 1st Brigade, proving largely instrumental in decisive American successes at the Battle of Chippawa in July 1814.

Despite his instrumental role in the bloody Battle of Lundy's Lane, Brigadier General Winfield Scott suffered serious wounds. American commander, Major General Jacob Brown, and British-Canadian Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond also suffered wounds in this battle.

For his valor at Lundy's Lane, Scott was brevetted as major general in July 1814. However, the severity of his wounds prevented his return to active duty for the remainder of the war.