for the next day they advanced, and the Americans retired
to Fort Erie. Scott, who had exposed himself with the reckless
personal courage he always showed when under fire, was dismounted and
badly injured by the rebound of a cannon ball in the early part of the
battle, and about midnight, just before the close of the actual
fighting, received a musket ball in the body which disabled him.

Scott did not recover from his wound in time to take part in the
remaining scenes of the war. After its close he went abroad, visiting
London and Paris, and being very well received, returning in 1816, and
again taking up his duties in the army. He indulged himself in the
luxury of a sharp quarrel with Andrew Jackson, a luxury which any man
could easily obtain by the way, but which was too much for any man not
possessing Scott's abundant capacity to take care of himself in any
conflict. He interested himself greatly in improving the tactics of
the army, and went out to take command in the Black Hawk war, where he
had no opportunity to distinguish himself. At the time of the
nullification outbreak in South Carolina he was appointed to see to
the interests of the United States in Charleston, where he acquitted
himself with equal tact and resolution. He commanded in the Seminole
war, but again had no opportunity to distinguish himself; and in the
winter of 1837-38 was stationed on the northern frontier, where he
succeeded in preventing invasions of Canada by American sympathizers
with the then existing Canadian rebellion. Soon after this he
superintended the removal of the Cherokees from Georgia, doing
everything in his power for the Indians, who, in defiance of the
pledged faith of the United States, were being driven out of that
State.

For the next few years Scott was comparatively inactive. He had a
great taste for politics, and could not forbear meddling with them,
although he was at the time general-in-chief of the army. He was a
very sincere Union man, and was an outspoken Whig, though with a
strong latent leaning to the Know-nothing party; for he distrusted
both foreigners and Catholics. He would not own slaves, and
disbelieved in slavery, but he also utterly disapproved of the actions
of the political abolitionists of the day. He was not only a very
ambitious but a very vain man, and at times his desire for civic
honors led him to try for success on fields where he did not show to
such advantage as on the field of battle.

W