ining money belonging to the men of his command were, that prior
to his departure for New Orleans he had recruited his company in
Virginia, and, being remote from a paymaster or quartermaster, a sum
of four hundred dollars was placed in his hands to be used in
recruiting. Some of his vouchers were technically irregular, and at
the time of his trial about fifty dollars was not covered by formal
vouchers. This was the finding of the Court, but it expressly
acquitted him of all fraudulent intentions. General Wilkinson nursed
his wrath, and after the close of the war published an attack on
General Scott. His own failure in the campaign of 1813, and especially
his defeat at La Cale Mills, compared with Scott's brilliant campaign
on the Niagara frontier in the following spring, may have induced this
attack.

Captain Scott returned to Virginia after the trial, and under the
advice of his friend, the distinguished lawyer and statesman, Benjamin
Watkins Leigh, he devoted himself to the study of military works and
of English attack. During the time mentioned he wrote a letter to
Lewis Edwards, Esq., at Washington City, of which he following is a
copy:

"PETERSBURG, _June, 1811_.

"DEAR SIR: I believe we have very little village news to
give you, nor do I know what would please you in that way. Of
myself--that person who has so large a space in every man's own
imagination, and so small a one in the imagination of every other--I
can say but little; perhaps less would please you more. Since my
return to Virginia my time has been passed in easy transitions from
pleasure, to study, from study to pleasure; in my gayety forgetting
the student, in the student forgetting my gayety.[A] I have
generally been in the office of my friend Mr. Leigh, though not
unmindful of the studies connected with my present profession; but
you will easily conceive my military ardor has suffered abatement.
Indeed, it is my design, as soon as circumstances will permit, to
throw the feather out of my cap and resume it in my hand. Yet,
should war come at last, my enthusiasm will be rekindled, and then
who knows but that I may yet write my history with my sword?

"Yours truly,

"WINFIELD SCOTT."

[Footnote A: "If idle, be not solitary; if solitary, be not idle." An
apothegm of Burton paraphrased by Johnson, "My Motto."]

Scott rejoined the army at Baton Rouge, La., in 1811, and was soon
appointed Judge Advoc