Winfield Scotts Relationships with the Various Presidents

1. Discuss and analyze in depth Winfield Scotts relationships with the various Presidents which he served under from James Monroe through Lincoln, the critical role he played in US history and challenges he faced while in serving his country. Popularly known as Old Fuss and Feathers for his notorious vanity, egoism and love of military pomp and ceremony, General Winfield Scott was one of the ablest soldiers in the United States between George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant, although he is far less well-remembered at written about than either one. He was not a graduate of West Pint but a lawyer in Virginia who was directly commissioned as a captain in 1808 and served from 1814 until his death in 1866 as a general. By the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, when he supported the Union side and devised a strategy to defeat the South, he was general-in-chief. Like other famous generals of his generation, including Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, he also sought the presidency, but his 1852 campaign was a disaster. As a supporter of the Federalist and later the Whig Parties, he was politically out of favor with almost all the presidents he served, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jac kson and James K. Polk. He opposed their expansionist policies as well, as did most members of his party, and was privately critical of most of the wars he fought. Jefferson and Madison planned to annex Canada in the War of 1812, although their