dence upon the enemy's capital. I shall, nevertheless, advance ; but
whether beyond Puebla, will depend on intervening information and reflec-
tion. The general panic given to the enemy at Cerro Gordo still remain-
ing, I think it probable that we shall go to Mexico, or, if the enemy reco-
ver from that, we must renew the consternation by another blow."'
Thus, like Cortez, finding myself isolated and abandoned, and again
like him, always afraid that the next ship or messenger might recall or
farther cripple me, I resolved no longer to depend on Vera Cruz or home,
Inii in render my little army " a self-sustaining machine" — as I informed
every body, including the head of the War Department — and advance to
Puebla.
It was in reference to the foregoing serious causes of complaint, and
others to be found in my reports al large — particularly in respect to money
for the disbursing staff officers, clothing, and Mr. Trist, commissioner —
that I concluded my report from Puebla, June 4, in these words :
•• Considering the many cruel disappointments and mortification I have
been made to feel since I left Washington, and the total want of support
or Bympathy on the part of the War Department, which I have so long
experienced, I beg to be recalled from this army the moment it may be
safe for any person to embark al Vera Cruz: which,] suppose, will be
early in November. Probably all field operations will be over long before
that time."
Bui my next report (July 25th) from Puebla has, no doubt, in the
end, been deemed more unpardonable by the department. In that paper,
after speaking of the " happy change in my relations, both official and pri-
vate, with .Mr. Trist," I continued :
APPENDIX. 483
" Since about the 26th ultimo [June], our intercourse has been fre-
quent and cordial, and I found him [Mr. T.] able, discreet, courteous, and
amiable. At home it so chanced that we had had but the slightest possible
acquaintance with each other. Hence, more or less of reciprocal preju-
dice, and of the existence of his feelings towards me, I knew (by private
letters), before we met, that at least a part of the cabinet had a full intima-
tion.
" Still, the pronounced misunderstanding between Mr. Trist and my-
self could not have occurred, but for other circumstances: 1. 1 lis bring
obliged to send forward your letter of April 14th, instead of delivering it
in person, with the explanatory papers which he desired to communicate.
2. His bad health in May and June, which, I am happy to say, has now
become good ; and 3. The extreme mystification into which your letter —
and particularly an interlineation — unavoidably threw me.
" So far as I am concerned, I am perfectly willing that all I have here-
tofore written to the department about Mr. Trist should be suppressed.
I make this declaration as due to my present esteem for that gentleman ;
but ask no favor, and desire none, at the hands of the department. Jus-
tice to myself, however tardy, I shall take care to have done. * * *
" I do not acknowledge the justice of either of your rebukes contained
in the letter of May 31, [in relation to Mr. Trist and the prisoners at Cerro
Gordo,] and that I do not here triumphantly vindicate myself, is not from
the want of will, means, or ability, but time.
" The first letter (dated February 22) received from you at Vera Cruz,
contained a censure, and I am now rebuked for the unavoidable— nay.
wise, if it had not been unavoidable— release on parole of the prisoners
taken at Cerro Gordo ; even before one word of commendation from gov-
ernment has reached this army on account of its gallant conduct in the
capture of those prisoners. [No such commendation has yet been re-
ceived, February, 1848.] So, in regular progression, I may— should tin-
same army gallantly bear me into the city of Mexico, in the next six or
seven weeks, which is probable, if we are not arrested by a peace or a
truce — look to be dismissed from the service of my country ! You will
perceive that 1 am aware (as I have long been) of the dangers which hang
over me at home; but I, too, am a citizen of the United States, and well
know the obligations imposed, under all circumstances, by an enlightened
patriotism.
" In respect to money, I beg again to report that the chief commi^ary
(Captain Grayson) of this army has not received a dollar from the United
States since we landed at Vera Cruz, March 9. He now owes more than
$200,000, and is obliged to purchase, on credit, at great disadvantages.
The chief quartermaster (Captain Irwin) has received perhaps $60,000,
and labors under like incumbrances. Both have sold drafts to mm:. 1 '
484 APPENDIX.
amounts, and borrowed largely of the pay department, which has received
about half the money estimated for. Consequently the troops have some
four months' pay due them. Our poverty, or the neglect of the disbursing
departments at home, has been made known, to our shame, in the papers
of tlic capital here, through a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Hunt, that
was found on the person of the special messenger from Washington.
11 The army is also suffering greatly from the want of necessary cloth-
ing, including blankets and great-coats. The new troops, (those who
have last arrived.) as destitute as the others, were first told that they
would find abundant supplies at New-Orleans ; next, at Vera Cruz, and
finally here ; whereas, we now have, perhaps, a thousand hands engaged
in making shoes and (out of bad materials and at high cost) pantaloons.
These articles, about 3,000 pairs of each, are absolutely necessary to cover
the nakedness of the troops.
" February 28th, off Lobos, I wrote to Brigadier General Brooke, to
direct the quartermaster at New-Orleans to send me large supplies of
clothing. March 16 and 23, General Brooke replied that the quartermas-
ter at New-Orleans, had ' neither clothing nor shoes,' and that he was
' fearful that unless they have been sent out to you direct, you will be
much disappointed. 5
" Some small quantity of clothing, perhaps one-fifth of our wants,
came to Vera Cruz, from some quarter, and followed us to Jalapa and this
place."
I must here specially remark, that this report, No. 30, though for-
warded the night of its date (July 25), seems to have been miscarried.
Perceiving, about November 27, that it was not acknowledged by the de-
partment, I caused a duplicate to be made, signed it and sent it off by the
same conveyance with my dispatch No. 36, and the charges against Bre-
vel Major General Worth, Major General Pillow, and Brevet Lieutenant
Colonel Duncan, together with the appeal against me, of the former. All
these papers arc acknowledged by the department in the same letter, Janu-
ary 13, that recalls me.
It was that budget of papers that caused the blow of power, so long
suspended, to fall on a devoted head. The three arrested officers, and he
who had endeavored to enforce a necessary discipline against them, arc all
to be placed together before the same court. The innocent and the guilty,
the accuser and the accused, the judge and his prisoners, are dealt with
alike. Most impartial justice ! But there is a discrimination with a ven-
geance ! While the parties are on trial — if the appealer is to be tried at
all. which seems doubtful — two are restored to their corps — one of them
with his brevet rank, and I am deprived of my command. There can be but
one step more in the same direction ; throw the rules and articles of war
into the fire, and leave all ranks in the army free to engage in denuncia-
APPENDIX. -IS")
tions, and a general scramble for precedence, authority, and executive fa-
vor. The pronunciamento, on the part of my factious juniors, is most
triumphant.
My recall — under the circumstances a severe punishment before trial,
but to be followed by a trial here that may run into the autumn, and on
matters I am but partially permitted to know by the department and my
accusers — is very ingeniously placed on two grounds: 1. My own re-
quest, meaning that of June 4, (quoted above, and there was no other lie-
fore the department,) which had been previously (July 12) acknowledged
and rebukingly declined. 2. The arrest of Brevet Major General Worth,
for writing to the department, " under the pretext and form of an appeal,"
an open letter, to be sent through me, in which I was grossly and falsely
accused of " malice" and " conduct unbecoming an officer and gentle-
man," in the matter of the general order, No. 349, on the subject of puff-
ing letters for the newspapers at home.
On that second point, the letter from the department of January 13 is
more than ingenious ; it is elaborate, subtle, and profound; a professional
dissertation, with the rare merit of teaching principles, until now wholly
unknown to military codes and treatises, and of course to all mere soldiers,
however great their experience in the field.
I have not, in this place, time to do more than hint at the fatal conse-
quences of the novel doctrine in question. According to the department,
any factious junior may, at his pleasure, in the midst of the enemy, using
" the pretext and form of an appeal" against his commander, insult and
outrage him to the grossest extent, though he be the general-in-chief, and
charged with the conduct of the most critical operations, and that com-
mander may not arrest the incipient mutineer until he shall have first laid
down his own authority, and submitted himself to a trial, or wait, at least,
until a distant period of leisure for a judicial examination of the appeal !
And this is precisely the case under consideration. The department, in
its eagerness to condemn me, could not take time to learn of the ex-
perienced that the general-in-chief who once submits to an outrage
from a junior, must lay his account to suffer the like from all the vicious
under him ; at least, down to a rank that may be supposed without influ-
ence in high quarters beyond the army. But this would not be the whole
mischief to the public service. Even the great mass of the spirited, in-
telligent, and well affected, among his brothers in arms, would soon re-
duce such commander to utter imbecility, by holding him in just scorn and
contempt for his recreancy to himself and country. And are discipline
and efficiency of no value in the field 1
But it was not my request of June 4, nor report No. 30 (of July 25),
so largely quoted from above, nor yet the appeal of one pronunciado,
that has at length brought down upon me this visitation, so clearly pre-
486 APPENDIX.
dieted. That appeal, no doubt, had its merits, considering it came from
an erratic brother — a deserter from the other extreme — who, having just
made his peace with the true faith, was bound to signalize apostasy by ac-
ceptable denunciations of one for whom, up to Vera Cruz, he had pro-
fessed (and not without cause) the highest obligations. (It was there he
learned from me that I was doomed at Washington, and straightway the
apostate began to seek, through a quarrel, the means of turning that
knowledge to his own benefit.) No, there was (recently) still another
element associated in the work, kept, as far as practicable, out of the letter
of recall ; an influence proceeding from the other arrested general, who is
quite willing that it should be generally understood (and who shall gainsay
his significant acquiescence ?) that all rewards and punishments in this
army were, from the first, to follow his recommendations. This the mere
powerful of the pronunciados against No. 349 well knew, at the time, as
I soon knew that he was justly obnoxious not only to the animadversions
of that order, but to other censures of yet a much graver character.
In respect to this general, the letter of recall observes, parenthetically,
but with an acumen worthy of more than " a hasty" notice, that some of
my specifications of his misconduct " are hardly consistent with your [my]
official reports and commendations."
Seemingly this is a most just rebuke. But, waiting for the trials, I
will here briefly state, that unfortunately I followed that general's own
reports, written and oral; that my confidence lent him in advance, had
been but very slightly shaken as early as the first week in October ; that
up to that time, from our entrance into this city, I had been at the desk,
shut out from personal intercourse with my brother officers, and that it was
not till alter that confinement that facts, conduct, and motives, began to
pour in upon me.
A word as to the 5th article of war. I can truly say that in this and
other communications, I have not designed the slightest disrespect to the
Commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. No
doubt he, like myself and all others, may fall into mistakes as to particular
men ; and I cannot, having myself been behind the curtain, admit the legal
fiction that all acts of a secretary are the acts of the President. Yet, in
my defensive statements, I have offered no wanton discourtesy to the head
of the War Department, although that functionary is not in the enumera-
tion of the above-mentioned article.
Closing my correspondence with the department until after the ap-
proaching trial,
I have the honor to remain, respectfully, your most obedient servant,
WINFIELD SCOTT.
lion. Secretab.1 of War.
APPENDIX. 487
!
THE SECRETARY OF WAR TO GENERAL SCOTT.
War Department,
Washington, April 21, 1848.
Sir : It would not be respectful to you to pass unnoticed your extraor-
dinary letter of the 24th of February, nor just to myself to permit it to
remain unanswered on the files of this department.
To attempt to dispel the delusions which you seem to have long perti-
naciously cherished, and to correct the errors into which you have fallen,
devolves upon me a duty which I must not decline ; but in performing it I
mean to be as cautious as you profess to have been, to abstain from any
" wanton discourtesy," and I hope to be alike successful. Your prudent
respect for the " 5th article of war," has induced you to hold me ostensi-
bly responsible for many things which, you are aware, are not fairly
chargeable to me. The device you have adopted to assail the President,
by aiming your blows at the Secretary of War, does more credit to your
ingenuity as an accuser, than to your character as a soldier. A premedi-
tated contrivance to avoid responsibility does not indicate an intention not
to do wrong.
The general aspect of your letter discloses an evident design to create
a belief that you were drawn forth from your quiet position in a bureau of
this department, and assigned to the command of our armies in Mexico,
for the purpose of being sacrificed ; and that, to accomplish this end,
" neglects, disappointments, injuries, and rebukes" were " inflicted" on
you, and the necessary means of prosecuting the war with success with-
held ; or, in other words, that the Government, after preferring you to any
other of the gallant generals within the range of its choice, had labored to
frustrate its own plans, to bring defeat upon its own armies, and involve it-
self in ruin and disgrace, for an object so unimportant in its bearing upon
public affairs. A charge so entirely preposterous, so utterly repugnant to
all the probabilities of human conduct, calls for no refutation.
For other purposes than to combat this fondly cherished chimera, it is
proper that I should notice some of your specific allegations.
It is true that, after you were designated for the chief command of our
armies, the President was desirous that your departure should not be un-
necessarily delayed, but you were not restricted, as you allege, to "only
four days," to make the necessary preparations at Washington. You
were not ordered away until you had reported that these preparations were
so far completed that your presence here was no longer required. Then,
instead of going directly to Mexico, you were permitted, at your own re-
quest, to take a circuitous route through New-York, and there to remain
a few days. You staid at New-York nearly an entire week ; and not until
488 APPENDIX.
the 19th of December (twenty-six days after leaving Washington), did
you reach New-Orleans, where you would have arrived in seven days, if
you had been required to take the direct route. This solicited indulgence,
by which your arrival at New-Orleans was delayed nearly three weeks,
is incompatible with your allegation that you were allowed "only lour
day- at Washington, where twenty might have been most advantageously
employed." This complaint has relation to facts within your own knowl-
edge ; error, therefore, is hardly reconcileable with any solicitude to be ac-
curate. As this is your opening charge against the War Department, and
may be regarded as indicative of those which follow, I shall make the refu-
tation of it still more complete, for the purpose of showing with what
recklessness you have performed the functions of an accuser, and how
little reliance, in the present state of your feelings, can be placed on your
memory. You are the witness by whom your allegation is to be dis-
proved. On the day of your departure from Washington, you left with
me a paper in your own handwriting, dated November 23d, 1846, with the
following heading : " Notes, suggesting topics to be embraced in the Se-
cretary's instructions to General S., drawn up (in haste) at the request of
the former." From that paper 1 extract the following paragraph :
"I [the Secretary of War] am pleased to learn from you [General
Scott] that you have, in a very few days, already, through the general
staff o{' the army here, laid a sufficient basis for the purposes with which
you are charged, and that you now think ilbest to proceed at once to the
southwestern order to organize the largest number of troops that can be
obtained in time for that most important expedition" — the expedition ayainst
Vera Cruz. Here is your own most explicit admission that you repre-
sented to the Secretary of War, before leaving Washington, that ar-
rangements were 60 far completed, that you thought it best to proceed at
once to the army in Mexico, and yet you make it your opening charge
against the department, that you were forced away to Mexico before you
had time for necessary preparations.
1 present the next charge in your own language : " I handed to you a
written request that one of three of our accomplished captains, therein
named, might be appointed assistant adjutant general, with the rank of
Major, for duty with me in the field, and there wasa vacancy, at the time,
My request has never been attended to; and thus I have had no
officer of the adjutant general's department with me in the campaign,
nother instance be cited of denying to a general-in-chief, in the field,
at the head of a !ar<_ r o army, or even a small one, the selection of his chief
of the stall'— that is, the chief in the department of orders and correspond-
ent
Were the case precisely as you have stated it to be, you have given
I io much prominence, as a matter of complaintj to the President's refusal
APPENDIX. 489
to be controlled in the exercise of the appointing power by your wishes.
Had there been a vacancy, such as you mention, for one of the " accom-
plished captains" you named, no one knows better than you do thai your
request could not have been acceded to, without departing from the uniform
rule of selection for staff' appointments — without violating the rights of se-
veral officers to regular promotion, and offering an indignity to all those who
held the position of assistant adjutants general with the rank of captain.
The rule of regular promotion in the staff is as inflexible, and has been
as uniformly observed, as that in the line. It must appear surprising that
you, who were so deeply " shocked and distressed" at the suggestion of
appointing, by authority of Congress, a " citizen lieutenant general," or
vesting the President with power to devolve the command of the army on
a major general, without regard to priority in the date of his commission,
should, in your first request after being assigned to command, ask the Pre-
sident to disregard the rights of, at least, four officers, as meritorious as the
" three accomplished captains" named by you. The President's views on
this subject undoubtedly differ from yours. His regard for the rights of
officers is not graduated by their rank. Those of captains and major ge-
nerals have equal value in his estimation, and an equal claim to his respect
and protection. I cannot admit that it is a just ground of censure and re-
buke against the " head of the War Department," that the President did
not see fit, in order to gratify your feelings of favoritism, to disregard the
claims, and violate the rights, of all the assistant adjutants general of the
rank of captain then in commission.
But, so far as it is made a ground of complaint and reproof, this is not
the worst aspect of the case. You are entirely mistaken in the assertion
that there was then a vacancy in the adjutant general's staff', with the rank
of major, to which either of the captains recommended by you could have
been properly appointed. There was no such vacancy. To show the
correctness of this statement, and to demonstrate your error, I appeal to
the army register and the records of the adjutant general's office. Your
mistake as to an obvious fact, lying within the range of matters with
which you are presumed to be familiar, has excited less surprise than the
declaration that, by the non-compliance with your request, you " have had
no officer of the adjutant general's department with me [you] in the cam-
paign." Every officer of that department, at least eight, were, as you well
knew, subject to your command. When you arrived in Mexico, there
were with the army at least five assistant adjutants general, all at your
service. That you chose to employ none of them at your head-quarters,
and detached from other appropriate duties an officer to act as an assistant
adjutant general, may well be regarded as a slight to the whole of that
staff then with you in Mexico, and a cause of complaint ; but certainly not
a complaint to emanate from you against the War Department. Willing
490 APPENDIX.
as I am to presume, though unable to conceive, that circumstances justi-
fied you in passing over all the assistant adjutants general then with the
army, and in selecting an officer of the line to perform the duties of adju-
tant general at your head-quarters, I was much surprised to learn from you
that, when General Worth sent to you one of these "accomplished cap-
tains," the first on your list, under the belief that you desired his services
as an acting assistant adjutant general, you declined to employ him in that
capacity ; and I am still more surprised to perceive that you have made it
a distinct ground of charge in your arraignment of the War Department,
that you were not permitted to have him as an assistant adjutant general at
your head-quarters. Had you selected him instead of another, as you
might have done, you would have been bereft of all pretext for complaint.
Though there was no vacancy in the adjutant general's staff of the grade
of major, for which only you recommended the " accomplished captains,"
and to which only they were properly eligible, there was a vacancy in it
of the rank of captain. For this position you recommended an officer in
( reneral Wool's staff, then on the Chihuahua expedition. This officer was
[uently appointed assistant adjutant general, with the rank of captain,
as you desired, and has ever since been at the head-quarters of that general.
Thus it will be perceived that your request, so far as it was proper and
reasonable, was actually complied with.
The next specification in the catalogue of charges preferrred against
me is, that a court-martial was not instituted by the President for the trial
or General .Marshall and Captain Montgomery on your charges against
them. The offences imputed to them were certainly not of an aggravated
character. The one, as was alleged, had been incautious in relation to a
dispatch, under circumstances that might admit of its coming to the
know ledge of the enemy ; and the other had not carried a dispatch with as
much expedition as you thought he might have done. As one was a ge-
neral officer, a court to try him must, have been composed of officers of
high rank. Before the order for assembling it could have reached Mexico,
it was foreseen that your command would be at Vera Cruz, and probably