Parentage and birth of Scott--Precocity--Enters William and Mary
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 of
Queenstown--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,
fourteen miles from Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, June 13,
1786. His grandfather, James Scott, was a Scotchman of the Clan
Buccleuch, and a follower of the Pretender to the throne of England,
who, escaping from the defeat at Culloden, made his way to Virginia in
1746, where he settled. William, the son of this James, married Ann
Mason, a native of Dinwiddie County and a neighbor of the Scott
family. Winfield Scott was the issue of this marriage. 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 Winfield,
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.