Winfield Scott lithograph

[Mike Serpa]

Credit: brown.edu

 

[John Hartwell]

I've been reading Gen. Erasmus Keyes' 50 years Observations of Men and Events (1885). Keyes was for many years, starting in 1832, Scott's Aide de Camp, and he has a great deal of interesting personal recollections of the old man who was his hero -- though he was quite frank about Scott's shortcomings as well. He also knew, prewar, many of the Civil War's "big names" on both sides, and his 'observations' are often enlightening.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

After reading John S. D. Eisenhower's bio of Scott, I find it sad that how he seems to be remembered at times is as a distressed-looking fat old man. The descriptions of him leading assaults up cliffs in the War of 1812 are wholly forgotten.