Manuscript Group 40, Winfield Scott (1786-1866), Army Officer and Presidential candidate Papers, 1823-1849

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Manuscript Group 40, Winfield Scott (1786-1866), Army Officer and Presidential candidate Papers, 1823-1849, 0.5 linear
feet / 1 box

Call Number: MG 40

Summary

• Biographical
  Note

• Provenance
  Note

• Scope
  and Content Note

• Folder
  List

Summary:

Original and copy letters by
or concerning Winfield Scott.  Includes his “Note on the Trial of
Captain Winfield Scott… (November 28, 1839),” and correspondence with
Charles Davies, Andrew Jackson, Charles King, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, William
Erigena Robinson, James Ross, and William A. Whitehead.  Winfield Scott, in
addition to his important role in national politics and military affairs, was
once a resident of Elizabeth and a member of The New Jersey Historical Society.

Gift (in part) of Alice R.
Allan, 1942.

Biographical
Note:

Winfield Scott, the son of Ann Mason and
William Scott, was born in 1786 in Petersburg, Virginia. He entered the United
States Army in 1807 and was commissioned as a captain in 1808.  In 1809,
while a captain in the army, Scott was suspended for a year for “behaving
with contempt or disrespect towards his commanding officer.”  During
the War of 1812, he became a brigadier general and fought along the Niagara
River at the battles of Fort George, Queenston Heights, and Lundy’s
Lane.  After the War of 1812, Scott left the army and, in 1817, married
Maria D. Mayo with whom he had seven children.  He returned to active duty
in 1832 to participate in the Blackhawk War (1831-1832) and later in the
Seminole Wars (1835-1842).  The Whig Party nominated Scott as their
presidential candidate in 1840 and, in 1841, he was appointed General-in-Chief
of the United States Army.  The Whig Party again nominated Scott as their
presidential candidate in 1844 and after losing that election, he  led the
American forces in their attack on Mexico from 1846-1848.  In 1852, the
Whig Party nominated Scott as President of the United States for the last time,
and again, he was defeated, this time by Franklin Pierce.  Winfield Scott
continued to serve his nation in the first year of the Civil War, but resigned
in November 1861.  He died in 1866 at West Point, New York.

Sources:

John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. American
National Biography: Vol. 19 (Oxford University Press: New York, 1999).

http://www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/Arlenes/S/Scott.html

Provenance
Note:

Gift (in part) of Alice R. Allan, 1942.

Scope
and Content Note:

The collection consists of the papers of
Winfield Scott, dating from 1823-1849.  Most of the collection consists of
correspondence between Winfield Scott and Professor Charles Davies in which the
two, mainly Scott, discuss politics.  There is also correspondence with a
number of other notables including: President Andrew Jackson, Honorable James
Monroe, and Honorable James Cooper.  The collection includes Scott’s
letter to The New Jersey Historical Society regarding his payment of dues, a
letter from E. W. Johnston to Charles King, the pay roll for Winfield Scott’s
light artillery company in 1809, and notes on Scott’s trial for “behaving
with contempt or disrespect toward his commanding officer.”  It is not
clear who wrote these notes, although it is likely that Winfield Scott did not
write them.

Folder List:

Processed by James Lewis, May 2001 as part of the “Farm to City”
project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.

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