s were known to the army, and it was expected
that if there was anything done by the President it would be to
sustain the commanding general. At the time the order was issued
relieving General Scott, both Generals Quitman and Shields were in
Washington, but they were not consulted by the President or Secretary
of War. General Quitman wrote from Washington to his aid, Lieutenant
Christopher S. Lovell: "You are long since informed of the course the
War Department has thought fit to pursue in relation to the
difficulties between some of the generals. Though General Shields and
myself were at Washington when the information came, we were not
consulted."

It was believed by a large number of persons both in and out of the
army that considerations of public good had not in themselves caused
the President to relieve General Scott from command of the army. It
was well known that his political opinions were not in harmony with
the Administration, while those of his successor were. There had been
anything but that amenity which should exist between a commissioner
to negotiate a treaty of peace and the commanding general. General
Scott did not think that Mr. Trist treated him with the consideration
his position required--rejecting all overtures on the part of the
general. General Scott ascribes Trist's conduct to sickness, which is
throwing the mantle of charity over a series of slights amounting
almost to insults, which a general less solicitous for the cause he
was engaged in, and less regardful of his country's good, would have
resented in a manner that would have produced a crisis detrimental to
the interests of the Government.

General Scott, commander in chief, being the accuser, and Pillow,
Worth, and Duncan the defendants, the duty devolved upon the President
to appoint the court, which he did, composed of Brigadier-General
Nathan Towson, paymaster general, Brigadier-General Caleb Cushing, and
Brevet Colonel William G. Belknap, with Captain S.C. Ridgely, judge
advocate and recorder.

The court organized and adjourned to the City of Mexico, where it met
March 16, 1848, all the members present, the judge advocate and
recorder. General Pillow was also in attendance. No objection being
made to any member of the court, they were duly sworn. General Scott
then read a paper, from which the following extracts are made:

"Having, in the maintenance of what I deemed necessary discipline,
drawn up charges and specifications agai