Today: On October 31, 1861, during the Civil War, Union overall commander General Winfield Scott stepped down and retired from the Army. At over seventy years of age, Scott cited his ailing health as being a liability to the Union war effort. General Scott had been serving in the Army since 1808, when Thomas Jefferson was president, and had retired during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, meaning that he had served under fourteen different presidents. Scott took part in the War of 1812, where he fought many key battles along the Niagara River, and he also battled the Seminoles in Florida in 1836. However, his biggest claim to fame was his service in the Mexican-American War. During the war, Scott led a spectacular campaign through central Mexico and eventually took Mexico City itself. When the Civil War began in 1861, General Scott was the highest ranking officer in the Army and he was consulted by President Lincoln, who asked him to come up with a plan to beat the Confederacy. His plan was known as the “anaconda” plan. It called for the blocking off of southern ports, thereby cutting off supplies to the confederate armies. The plan was highly criticized for being too “sluggish”, but in the end it would be the strategy that would win the Union the war. By October 1861, Scott’s advanced age began to catch up to him. He suffered from gout and was barely able to mount a horse. On October 31, he retired, moving to West Point, New York where he commenced to writing his memoirs and lived out the rest of his days, dying in 1866.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:33:54 +0000
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