How Winfield Scott Changed the U.S. Army

Standing at an imposing six-and-a-half feet tall and being the son of a Revolutionary War officer, Winfield Scott was bound to seek a career in the military. As the tensions between the United States and Great Britain grew in 1807, Scott found himself enlisting in his local Virginian militia cavalry troop where he would first see action. After aiding in the capturing of a boat of British sailors off the coast, Scott became drawn to a life in the military. The following year in 1808, after petitioning President Thomas Jefferson for a commission in the army, Scott was given the position of captain in the elite Regiment of Light Artillery, fulfilling his longing for military service. However, as Scott would bear witness to as he served in the garrison of New Orleans under the command of General James Wilkinson, a Spanish spy with little care for the welfare of his soldiers, the army was in a state of turmoil under incompetent, inexperienced, and outdated leadership. Repulsed by the state of the army and its leaders, the abrasive Scott promptly denounced Wilkinson as a “traitor, liar, and a scoundrel” which would ultimately lead to his court martialing and temporary suspension from duty. The time that Scott spent relieved of his duty would prove invaluable for him as he studied various European military manuals that he hoped to use in the future to modernize and instill discipline on the dilapidated and ill-led army.