On May 3, 1861 aged Lt. General Winfield Scott,
Commanding General of the United States Army, presented President Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet, with his Anaconda Plan to conduct the war against secessionist rebel states.
The plan was widely derided by the press and public, which believed that a quick,
decisive battle with the main Confederate
army in Virginia would win the War of Rebellion. Scott knew better. He anticipated a long and bloody conflict.
Lincoln may have wished for a short, glorious war, but the former Black Hawk War militia Captain had read everything on military strategy and tactics
that he could lay his hands on
in the Library of Congress and
sensed that his Commanding General may be right. Although he did not accept Scott’s proposal in every
detail, questioned his timeline, and felt he had to order a major attack on Richmond to keep public support, from that point on despite the public ridicule
and outcry the President conducted the war broadly on Scott’s plan.
The plan called
for:
1. Blockade ports in
the Atlantic and Gulf to reduce foreign supplies and cotton
and tobacco exports from Confederate
ports.
2. Blockade the Mississippi River to reduce grain and meat shipments from the western
to eastern Confederacy and foreign
supplies through neutral Mexico.
3. Control the Tennessee River
Valley and a march through Georgia
to prevent cooperation among the
eastern Confederate states.
4. Demonstrations against Confederate capital to keep the main Rebel Army pinned down and on the defensive with a campaign by Army troops with Navy
support along the James River.
And that is pretty much exactly how the war was won by the Union.
The Navy successfully blockaded most Confederate ports and captured key ports like Pensacola, Mobile,
and New Orleans.
Western troops, experiencing much
greater success than the ponderous Army
of the Potomac in the East, secured the length of the Mississippi with the capture of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 (coincidently the also the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg)
splitting the Confederacy in two. Another Yankee Army drove down the Tennessee River protecting the loyal border
state of Kentucky,
splitting divided Tennessee, and setting up Sherman’s campaign through the railroad and industrial heart of
the South in northern Alabama and Georgia, including the capture of Atlanta, which cut off the lower South.
Campaigns in Virginia and along the
James, under incompetent leadership
were long, bloody, and inconclusive until the end, but without the logistical support of the rest of the
nation, Lee’s legendary Army of Northern Virginia was doomed. Just about the way Scott
had foreseen.
In 1861 Scott was winding down a 47 year Army career
serving 14 presidents from Jefferson to
Lincoln. He served in the War of 1812,
the Seminole Wars, Black Hawk War, and
Mexican War. He had been
Commanding General of the Army for twenty years, longer than anyone before
or since and was the first
officer since George Washington to
carry the rank of Lt. General. No
other officer in American history served with such distinction at every
rank—militia enlisted man, artillery captain, infantry regimental commander, leader of a victorious army in the field, and
Commanding General. He has been called
the greatest American soldier ever.
.jpg)
Yet he also cut something of a ridiculous figure. His once powerful 6 foot 3 inch frame had ballooned to over 300 pounds. Notoriously
vain, he swathed that mass in outrageously gaudy
uniforms with gigantic epaulets,
extravagant gold braid and decoration, every medal he was ever awarded, topped
off with a great Napoleonic era
plumed hat. Ailing from both gout
and narcolepsy—uncontrollably lapsing into sleep—he knew that he would not
be able to take command of his troops in the field.
Instead, he offered field command to fellow Virginian Col. Robert E. Lee, universally
regarded as the ablest officer in
the service. Unfortunately, unlike Scott, who unhesitatingly placed his loyalty to his nation over that
of his native state, Lee chose
Virginia and the Confederacy.
Scott had to entrust the command
of the rapidly swelling Volunteer
army to the untried hands of Brigadier Gen. Irvin McDowell. Scott despaired of both McDowell and the ill trained, short term enlisted Volunteers. During his whole career he had advocated a highly trained professional army with militias and volunteers called to service thoroughly trained before introduction
to combat.
In 1808, as a young Virginia lawyer and a corporal
in the militia cavalry, he secured an appointment as a Captain of Artillery in the tiny Regular Army. He made
his mark early by crossing his
superior, Commanding General James Wilkinson,
a corrupt scoundrel and innervate plotter. Wilkinson had
him court-martialed for insubordination and suspended
for a year. After Wilkinson was exposed
as Spanish secret agent—just one of his many
intrigues that included plotting
with Aaron Burr to set up an independent inland republic—Scott was
able to resume his duties with his reputation
enhanced.
In the War of 1812, he made his mark as a commander and a hero.
Captured in the Battle of
Queenston Heights in 1812 when the New
York Militia refused to cross into Canada
in support of his Regulars, Scott was paroled
and went to Washington to appeal to
raise regiments of regular troops.
The following year as a full colonel he planned and led the amphibious assault on Ft.
George which required a coordinated
crossing of the Niagara River
and a landing from Lake Ontario, which
was considered the most brilliant American maneuver of the war.
In 1814 as a brevet Brigadier General Scott commanded the American First Brigade in the Niagara
campaign. He had been training and drilling his regulars to a fine edge for months. But unable to secure regulation blue cloth for their uniforms, outfitted them
sharply in gray with tall shako caps. When the British saw them marching in disciplined ranks into battle, a horrified officer exclaimed, “That’s
not the Terrytown militia. Those are by God Regulars!”
Those regulars soundly whipped veteran British troops at in the Battle of Chippewa and then held the battlefield at
fiercely fought Lundy’s Lane, where
Scott and overall American commander
Major General Jacob Brown were both severely injured.
Although the invasion of Canada was stalled, Scott was hailed as a hero for showing that American troops
could beat British professionals in a stand-up battle. The battles were commemorated at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, where
the Corps of Cadets still wears grey
uniforms and shakos. And the Confederate Army, dominated by West Pointers would, ironically adopt a gray uniform.
In the years after the war, Scott
would turn to the routine occupation
of a Regular Army Officers—Indian wars. Scott was assigned command of
1000 Regulars and Volunteers from the east to relieve expiring volunteers
units in the Black Hawk War of
1832. Unfortunately, the men brought the cholera with them, not only rendering
them unfit for service, but unleashing a deadly epidemic in the West. Although Scott never got to the battlefield, he
arrived on the scene to play a critical
role in negotiating Black Hawk’s
surrender and drafting a peace treaty.
Three years later he was commanding
a large column fruitlessly chasing hostiles in the Florida swamps during the Second
Seminole War.
No sooner was that bit of business
concluded than President Andrew Jackson called
on Scott to be the Federal brawn
behind the Force Act, meant to
compel South Carolina to honor the Tariff of Abominations in the face of Nullification threats. Sent with reinforcements
to the garrison at Ft. Sumner at Charleston, South Carolina, Scott had to juggle the bellicose desire of the President to “Hang the traitors,” and Joel
R. Poinsette’s delicate task of rallying
South Carolina Unionists while a new tariff acceptable to the state
was moved through Congress.
He got high marks for both his strong
military resolution and for local
diplomacy. When the city caught
fire, he dispatched troops from
the garrison to help quell the blaze—and
improved relations with the
locals.
With the crisis passed Jackson’s successor President Martin Van Buren turned to Scott to enforce the Cherokee Removal from the Eastern
states. Scott disapproved of the policy but did a soldier’s
duty. He considered it the low
point of his career.
He was able to negotiate the voluntary removal of a large number
under the leadership of Chief John Ross
and managed to round up other bands
with a minimum of
bloodshed. He tried, as
far as possible, to make conditions on the march tolerable,
ordering rides, assistance, and extra
rations for children, the elderly, and infirm. Where his reliable Regulars were in charge, things
went relatively smoothly.
But many bands were escorted by undisciplined volunteers
who abused, harassed, and stole from
their charges without mercy. He meant to personally
accompany the first body of evacuees on the march west from Athens, Georgia but was recalled to Washington for a delicate diplomatic mission upon
reaching Nashville.
Scott was sent to the Maine/Canada border to negotiate a peace in the bloodless Aroostook War which
threatened to erupt into another shooting war with the British.
For his success and service, he was promoted to Major General, the highest
rank active in the Army.
Scott would repeat as a diplomat
when he negotiated a solution to another border crisis with Britain, this one
over St. John Island in the Pacific Northwest in 1859.
But first there was the Mexican War. President James Knox Polk forced the war on Mexico by moving troops into disputed land between the Nueces and Rio Grande
Rivers. This army, made up mostly of
volunteers was under the command of Scott’s service rival Zachary Taylor
scored victories in heavy fighting at Monterey and Buena Vista but
was hundreds of miles north of the capital city, separated by daunting desert.
Scott conceived of a second attack by sea landing at the
port of Veracruz and driving quickly to Mexico City. He executed the first major
amphibious assault in American history when he successfully landed 12,000 Regular
Army, Marines, and well trained
Volunteers and all their artillery
and baggage outside the fortified city.
In coordination with the Naval
Squadron under the command of Commodore
Mathew Perry he laid siege to
the fortified city, which was reduced
by Army artillery and naval gunfire
and surrendered after 12 days.
With the port now open to
keep his supply line clear, Scott began his march west, roughly
following the route of Cortez.
Yellow Fever struck the Americans and Scott was only able to move with
8,500 healthy troops, among them many future
Civil War generals including Lee, U.S.
Grant, George Meade, and Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson.
Mexican President Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna moved from the Mexico
City at the head of 12,000 well armed and trained troops. He entrenched across the road at Cerro Gordo, roughly halfway to the
city. Instead of a frontal assault,
Scott sent artillery into the rugged
mountains and enfiladed the
Mexicans in deadly fire and flanked the dug-in Mexicans, who were routed with heavy casualties.
Several other sharp engagements marked the march to the capital, culminating in the attack on the Mexican Military Academy at the castle
of Chapultepec. When that fell, Scott negotiated a peaceful
entry to the city.
The Duke of Wellington upon studying
Scott’s campaign declared him to be “the greatest living general.” The offensive is still studied
and much of later Army combat doctrine
was drawn from the experience.
The President appointed Scott the Military Governor of Mexico City,
where he drew praise for enforcing bans on looting and molestation of citizens.
He threaded the thorny issue of what
to do with the captured San Patricios—Irish deserters from
the U.S. Army who took up the
Mexican cause. He was appalled when
a court martial sentenced 72 of them to hang.
The former lawyer scoured his law books to find excuses to vacate the sentences of as
many as possible. He objected to the death penalty in 22 of the cases and later pardoned or commuted the sentences of 15 more.
With Scott still on administrative
duty in Mexico City, his rival Taylor arrived back in the States and won the Presidency on the Whig
ticket. Scott was sure he would have been a better
man for the job. Taylor died leaving Millard
Fillmore to complete his term.
When the Democrats in 1852 nominated handsome, dashing Franklin Pierce, one of Scott’s less distinguished subordinate Volunteer
generals in Mexico, the Whig convention stalemated before finally dumping
Fillmore and nominating Scott on the fifty-fourth
ballot.
The party was split on
slavery, particularly the issue of enforcing
the Fugitive Slave Act. The Party platform endorsed enforcement over Scott’s objection
leading to loss of
support of the Whig ticket in New
England, and disillusion with
the candidate among pro-slavery
southerners who jumped en-mass
to the Democrats. Despite his personal
popularity Scott carried only four states. It was also the last hurrah of the shattered
Whigs as a national party.
Scott, his vanity bruised,
none-the-less went back to work as Commanding General.
It is fortunate for Lincoln and
the Union that he stayed as long as he did. But after McDowell’s
raw and ill trained volunteer army was routed
at First Bull Run, Lincoln had to turn to the ambitious
Democrat George McClellan as his field
commander. McClellan, popular with the troops and with the press, was openly insubordinate to the Commanding General and plotted to replace him.
Seeing the writing on the wall and
in ill health, Scott finally retired
in November. McClellan got his job while retaining field command.
McClellan would be just as insubordinate to the President as he was to
Scott and despite assembling a massive,
well trained, and well appointed Army would prove too timid. Lincoln replaced him as Commanding General with
General Henry “Old Brains” Halleck,
a plodding administrator who did not get in the way of the field commanders like Grant and Sherman who
could actually win battles.
Winfield Scott, Old Fuss and
Feathers as he was known by his men, died
at West Point in 1866.
No comments:
Post a Comment