Winfield Scott: The General Who Captured Mexico City

Winfield Scott (1786–1866) was a US Army general who served for 53 years, from the War of 1812 through the American Civil War. Born near Petersburg, Virginia, he studied at the College of William and Mary and was commissioned a captain in 1808. During the War of 1812, he was captured at Queenston Heights but later won the Battle of Chippewa, earning national fame. In peacetime, he enforced Indian Removal under Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, overseeing the Cherokee removal in 1838. Appointed general-in-chief in 1841, his greatest achievement was capturing Mexico City in September 1847 during the Mexican-American War, after landing at Veracruz and winning key battles at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Chapultepec. He ran for president as a Whig in 1852 but lost to Franklin Pierce. In the Civil War, he devised the Anaconda Plan to blockade the South and control the Mississippi, but was replaced by George B. McClellan in 1861. He died on May 29, 1866.