Believe it or not, an overweight general known as “Old Fuss and Feathers” who was pushed aside at the start of the Civil War and who also was in the word’s of one reviewer, “a lousy writer,” whose “memoir disappoints in a number of ways,” is the focus of today’s #stampoftheday.

Winfield Scott, who was a general in the US Army from 1814 to 1861 (which is still a record tenure), is pictured (along with Andrew Jackson) on a 3-cent stamp issued in 1937 as part of a 10-stamp series honoring leading soldiers and sailors. Scott, who was also pictured on a 24-cent stamp issued in 1870 (that is not shown here), was not honored for his flaws. Rather, he was he was considered one of America’s best generals, known for leading the Siege of Veracruz, a joint army-navy operation that was “up to that time the most ambitious amphibious expedition in human history,” according to historian John Eisenhower (who was Dwight D. Eisenhower’s son).

The siege, which began on March 9, 1847, required ferrying about 12,000 soldiers more than 500 miles, successfully landing those forces and then mounting a successful attack on the heavily fortified city, which fell later that month. Somewhat amazingly, officers under Scott’s command who played major roles in that battle included Robert E. Lee and Joseph Johnston, who both resigned from the US Army to become leaders of Confederate forces as well as George McClellan, who went on to command the Union forces.

Like Jackson and Zachary Taylor, Scott tried to parlay his military successes into political success. He unsuccessfully sought the Whig Party’s presidential nomination in 1840, 1844 and 1848 before winning that nod in 1852. But he lost that race and continued to serve in the Army. When the Civil War began, Scott, who was too old and, probably, too obese, to lead troops in battle was the nation’s highest ranking general. (Although he was a native Virginian, unlike Lee and Johnston, he did not resign to fight for the South and he oversaw security for Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration.)

But McClellan, who soon became the second-highest ranking general, forced a showdown with Scott, who was the senior army officer when the war began. On key difference involved Scott’s proposal that the Union focus on gaining control of the Mississippi River and blockading southern ports. The plan – which became known as the Anaconda Plan because its goal was to slowly strangle the South’s economy – was initially rejected as too cumbersome, too slow, and too reliant on large numbers of soldiers. By the fall, McClellan, who had Lincoln’s confidence, made it clear that either he or Scott would have to go and Lincoln, who had lost faith in Scott, chose McClellan and asked Scott to resign.

Scott retired and wrote his memoirs while also following the war. McClellan was forced out and, ultimately, Ulysses S. Grant came to lead the Union forces to victory, in part by following the general strategy Scott had laid out in 1861. (In 1864, Scott sent a copy of his memoir to Grant with an inscription that read: “from the oldest to the greatest general.”)

In fact, many judge Scott to have been an unusually excellent commander. Eisenhower wrote that that Scott “was an astonishing man”; the Duke of Wellington proclaimed Scott “the greatest living general” after his capture of Mexico City; and Robert E. Lee (who Scott had hoped would take command of the Union forces in the Civil War) wrote, “the great cause of our success [in Mexico] was in our leader [Scott].”

However, while “Scott was a great general” he was “a lousy writer, and his memoir disappoints in a number of ways,” wrote Andrew Slap, an historian at East Tennessee State University in a 2016 review of a reissued version of Scott’s memoirs. Indeed the volume’s editors wrote in their introduction “Scott’s arrogance and insufferable elitism gave him a personality that repels rather than attracts.”

Nevertheless, the fact remains that “Winfield Scott was one of America’s greatest generals-a war hero many times over and a man whose struggle to professionalize the United States Army shaped much of the nation’s early history.” wrote Steve Malanga in “The War Hero New York Forgot”, an article published by “City Journal” in 2019. “His achievements were considerable and his tenure long: he served 14 presidents. But he had the misfortune to serve in two conflicts-the War of 1812 and the controversial Mexican-American War-bracketed by the far more significant American Revolution and Civil War.”

He added: :”Scott has wound up “on the shelf” of American history. Today, few discuss the campaign that he fought so expertly in Mexico-part of an unpopular war dismissed by some critics as little more than a United States land grab. A generation of officers whom Scott helped train are now better remembered for the war that they fought against one another than for the battles that they undertook alongside him. Even in [New York], the city that once worshiped him, few signs of Scott’s long residence remain.”

But, at least for today, in this small corner of the world, he is getting the recognition that many seem to think he deserved.

Be well, stay safe, fight for justice, and work for peace.