one opening into the other. In the rear room General Scott
slept. One night after the general had retired a member of his staff
wanted some water. The evening was warm and the hour late, being past
midnight. The officer rose to go in his shirt sleeves. He was
cautioned against the experiment as a dangerous one, for if Scott
caught him in his quarters with his coat off he would punish him. The
officer said he would risk it--that the general was asleep, and he
would make no noise. He opened the door softly and went on tiptoe to
the water pitcher. He had no time to drink before he heard the tinkle
of the bell, and the sentinel outside the door entered. 'Take this man
to the guardhouse,' was the brief order, and the coatless captain
spent the night on a hard plank under guard."[E] He did not conceal
his opinions of men or measures, and hence he very often gave
offense. It should be borne in mind that the public men of the age
when General Scott came on the stage, both military and civil, were as
a rule dignified, formal, and to some extent dogmatic. They held
themselves with great dignity, and their magnetism was the result of
their commanding abilities and high character, and they did not rely
for popularity upon the methods of modern times.

[Footnote E: Wilson's Sketches of Illustrious Soldiers: New York,
1874.]

General Grant, in mentioning General Scott's Mexican campaign, says:
"Both the strategy and tactics displayed by General Scott in the
various engagements of August 20, 1847, were faultless, as I look upon
them now after the lapse of so many years." And further: "General
Scott enjoys the rare distinction of having held high and successful
command in two wars, which were a full generation apart. In 1847 he
commanded, in Mexico, the sons of those officers who aided in his
brilliantly successful campaign against the British on the borders of
Canada in 1814." Daniel Webster, in a speech delivered in the United
States Senate February 20, 1848, said: "I understand, sir, that, there
is a report from General Scott, a man who has performed the most
brilliant campaign on recent military record, a man who has warred
against the enemy, warred against the climate, warred against a
thousand unpropitious circumstances, and has carried the flag of his
country to the capital of the enemy--honorably, proudly, humanely--to
his own permanent honor and the great military credit of his country.
And where is he? At Pueblo--at Pu