General Scott | Page 5

act permitting him to practice. The application failed for want
of time. He then proceeded to Charleston, with a view of office practice
until he could be qualified for the usual practice in the courts; but the
prospect of war being again imminent, he went to Washington, and on
the application and recommendation of Hon. William B. Giles, of
Virginia, President Jefferson promised him a captain's commission in
the event of hostilities. No act of war occurring, he returned in March,
1808, to Petersburg, and resumed the practice of law in that circuit; but
his life as a lawyer came suddenly to a close in the succeeding month

of May, when he received from the President his commission as captain
of artillery. He recruited his company in Petersburg and Richmond, and
embarked from Norfolk to New Orleans, February 4, 1809.
It being thought that on the breaking out of hostilities the British would
at once endeavor to invade Louisiana, a military force was sent to New
Orleans under the command of General James Wilkinson. The
discipline of the army became greatly impaired, and much sickness and
many deaths occurred in this command. General Wilkinson was
ordered to Washington for an investigation into his conduct as
commanding officer, and General Wade Hampton succeeded to the
command. The camp below New Orleans was broken up in June, 1809,
and the troops were transferred to and encamped near Natchez.
General Wilkinson was charged with complicity with Aaron Burr, and
with being in the pay of the Spanish Government, and was tried by
court-martial; and although he was acquitted, there were many persons
who believed him guilty, and among these was Captain Scott, who was
present, as heretofore mentioned, at the trial of Burr, and participated in
the strong feeling which it produced throughout the country.
The apparent lull in the war feeling having produced the impression
that there would be no hostile movements, Captain Scott forwarded his
resignation and sailed for Virginia, intending to re-engage in the
practice of the law. Before his resignation had been accepted he
received information that grave charges would be preferred against him
should he return to the army at Natchez. This determined him to return
at once to his post and meet the charges. Scott had openly given it as
his opinion that General Wilkinson was equally guilty with Colonel
Burr. Soon after his return he was arrested and tried by a court-martial
at Washington, near Natchez, in January, 1810. The first charge was for
"conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman," and the
specification was "in withholding at sundry times men's money placed
in his possession for their payment for the months of September and
October." Another charge was "ungentlemanly and unofficerlike
conduct," the specification being "In saying, between the 1st of
December and the 1st of January, 1809-'10, at a public table in

Washington, Mississippi Territory, that 'he never saw but two
traitors--General Wilkinson and Burr--and that General Wilkinson was
a liar and a scoundrel.'" This charge was based on the sixth article of
war, which says: "Any officer who shall behave himself with contempt
and disrespect toward his commanding officer shall be punished,
according to the nature of the offense, by the judgment of a
court-martial."
Captain Scott's defense to this charge was that General Wilkinson was
not, at the time the words were charged to have been spoken, his
commanding officer, that place being filled by General Wade Hampton.
General Scott, in his Memoirs, says that some of Wilkinson's partisans
had heard him say in an excited conversation that he knew, soon after
Burr's trial, from his friends Mr. Randolph and Mr. Tazewell and others,
members of the grand jury, who found the bill of indictment against
Burr, that nothing but the influence of Mr. Jefferson had saved
Wilkinson from being included in the same indictment, and that he
believed Wilkinson to have been equally a traitor with Burr. He admits
that the expression of that belief was not only imprudent, but no doubt
at that time blamable. But this was not the declaration on which he was
to be tried. This was uttered in New Orleans, the headquarters of
General Wilkinson. The utterance on which he was tried, as will be
seen, was made in Washington, Mississippi Territory, when General
Wade Hampton was his commanding officer.
The finding of the Court on this charge was guilty, and that his conduct
was unofficerlike. The facts in regard to the charge of retaining 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