The President was evidently laboring under a misapprehension in regard to the condition of affairs at the headquarters of the army.  Everything was quiet, industry prevailed, and constant watchfulness for the comfort of the men of his command was being observed by the general in chief.  The public interests under his charge received his constant care.  No feuds were known to the army, and it was expected that if there was anything done by the President it would be to sustain the commanding general.  At the time the order was issued relieving General Scott, both Generals Quitman and Shields were in Washington, but they were not consulted by the President or Secretary of War.  General Quitman wrote from Washington to his aid, Lieutenant Christopher S. Lovell:  “You are long since informed of the course the War Department has thought fit to pursue in relation to the difficulties between some of the generals.  Though General Shields and myself were at Washington when the information came, we were not consulted.”

It was believed by a large number of persons both in and out of the army that considerations of public good had not in themselves caused the President to relieve General Scott from command of the army.  It was well known that his political opinions were not in harmony with the Administration, while those of his successor were.  There had been anything but that amenity which should exist between a commissioner to negotiate a treaty of peace and the commanding general.  General Scott did not think that Mr. Trist treated him with the consideration his position required—­rejecting all overtures on the part of the general.  General Scott ascribes Trist’s conduct to sickness, which is throwing the mantle of charity over a series of slights amounting almost to insults, which a general less solicitous for the cause he was engaged in, and less regardful of his country’s good, would have resented in a manner that would have produced a crisis detrimental to the interests of the Government.

General Scott, commander in chief, being the accuser, and Pillow, Worth, and Duncan the defendants, the duty devolved upon the President to appoint the court, which he did, composed of Brigadier-General Nathan Towson, paymaster general, Brigadier-General Caleb Cushing, and Brevet Colonel William G. Belknap, with Captain S.C.  Ridgely, judge advocate and recorder.

The court organized and adjourned to the City of Mexico, where it met March 16, 1848, all the members present, the judge advocate and recorder.  General Pillow was also in attendance.  No objection being made to any member of the court, they were duly sworn.  General Scott then read a paper, from which the following extracts are made: