arentage and birth of Scott-Precocity-EntersWilliam andMary College-
Leaves college and commences the study of law with Judge Robinson-
Attends the trial of Burr at Richmond-Impressment of American seamen
and proclamation of President Jefferson-Joins the Petersburg troop-Leaves
for Charleston-Returns to Petersburg-Appointed captain of artillery-Trial
of General Wilkinson-Scott sends in his resignation, but withdraws it and
returns to Natchez-Is court-martialed-On staff duty at New Orleans-Declaration
of war with Great Britain-General Wade Hampton and the Secretary of
War-Hull's surrender-Storming ofQueenstown-March to Lewiston-Scott's
appeal to the officers and soldiers-Indians fire on a flag of truce-Incident
with a Caledonian priest-Letter in relation to Irish prisoners sent home to
be tried for treason.
Winfield Scott was born at Laurel Branch, the estate of his father, four-
teen miles from Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, June 13, 1786. His
grandfather, James Scott, was a Scotchman of the Clan Buccleuch, and a fol-
lower of the Pretender to the throne of England, who, escaping from the de-
feat at Culloden, made hisway to Virginia in1746, where he settled. William,
the son of this James, married Ann Mason, a native of Dinwiddie County
3 MARCUS J. (MARCUS JOSEPH) WRIGHT
and a neighbor of the Scott family. Winfield Scott was the issue of this mar-
riage. There were an elder brother and two daughters. James Scott died at an
early age, when Winfield was but six years old. William, the father of Win-
field, was a lieutenant and afterward captain in a Virginia company which
served in the Revolutionary army. Eleven years after the father's death the
mother died, leaving Winfield, at seventeen years old, to make his own way
in the world.
At the death of his father, Winfield, being but six years old, was left to the
charge of his mother, towhom hewas devotedly attached. It is awell-warranted
tradition of the county in which the Scott family resided, that the mother of
General Scott was a woman of superior mind and great force of character.
In acknowledging the inspiration from the lessons of that admirable parent
for whatever of success he achieved, he was not unlike Andrew Jackson and
the majority of the great men of the world. He wrote of her in his mature
age as follows: "And if, in my now protracted career, I have achieved any-
thing worthy of being written, anything that my countrymen are likely to
honor in the next century, it is from the lessons of that admirable parent that
I derived the inspiration."
In his seventh year he was ordered on a Sunday morning to get ready for
church. Disobeying the order, he ran off and concealed himself, butwas pur-
sued, captured, and returned to his mother, who at once sent for a switch.
The switch was a limb from a Lombardy poplar, and the precocious little
truant, seeing this, quoted a verse from St. Matthew which was from a les-
son he had but recently read to his mother. The quotation was as follows:
"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into
the fire." The quotation was so apt that the punishment was withheld, but
the offender was not spared a very wholesome lesson.
Gener
baptismal name of Winfield. John Winfield survived his daughter, and dy-
