The grind of war continues this week 150 years ago in the Civil War as a contingent of 3,000 Confederate fighters overrun a 1,000-man Union force at Front Royal in northern Virginia in a battle fought May 23, 1862.A hero of the Mexican War of 1846-48, Winfield Scott departs at the end of October 1861 as general-in-chief of the U.S. Army.
He had served more than half a century under 14 presidents, but age and infirmity force him to make way for a young and up-and-coming rival, George B. McClellan.
In his 70s when the Civil War opened, Scott weighed more than 300 pounds and could no longer ride a horse. Federal forces did not fare well at the war’s outset and that took a political toll on Scott.
But many people credit his Anaconda Plan for blockading Southern seaports and inland rivers as a key to the eventual Union victory in 1865.
News dispatches report on Oct. 28, 1861, that Scott is bowing out for health reasons. “The scarred and worn out veteran Gen. Scott will voluntarily retire from his rank and duties … solely on account of his physical infirmities,” the New York Tribune reports.
The same dispatch notes voices in Congress are calling on his successor, McClellan, to immediately rout the Confederates in battle: “The popular demand of their constituents is that Gen. McClellan, or some one else, shall right off whip the Rebels on the south side of the Potomac … as near Bull Run as is possible, and from thence roll the tide of war steadily Southward.”
Far from a major battle, there is barely even skirmishing. The Associated Press reports on Oct. 25, 1861, that federal scouts crossed the Potomac River near Edwards Ferry but “not a sign of a man or horse was heard, except the splash of the oars of a boat some distance up the river.”
Nonetheless, rebel pickets are occasionally engaged, and a rebel battery is shelled, although “the enemy did not reply” with any large guns.
