General Scott held in great reverence the fame and memory of the Father of his Country, and was desirous that Mount Vernon should be left undisturbed during the trouble arising from the civil war.  A report was sent abroad that the bones of Washington had been removed.  This report was wholly without foundation, but it created a great deal of excitement in both sections of the country.  Through the efforts of the lady regent who resided there, an understanding was arrived at by which it should be regarded by both sides as neutral ground.  The general, however, issued General Orders No. 13, July 31, 1861, from which is quoted:  “Should the operations of the war take the United States troops in that direction, the general in chief does not doubt that each and every man will approach with due reverence and leave uninjured not only the tombs, but also the house, the groves, and walks which were so loved by the best and greatest of men.”  It is true that neither party ever invaded the sacred precincts where repose the remains of the illustrious Washington, but they were found when the war closed to be in as fair a state of preservation as was possible under the circumstances, and of partial suspension of husbandry.  No act of vandalism was attempted.

In the fall of 1861 Brigadier-General Charles P. Stone obtained permission from General Scott to take a brigade and make a demonstration along the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal toward Harper’s Ferry in order to afford an outlet for the fine wheat that had been harvested about Leesburg, Virginia, to the large flouring mills at Georgetown, adjoining Washington.  This led to the battle of Ball’s Bluff, or Leesburg, October 21st, the death of Colonel Edward D. Baker, of the Seventy-first Pennsylvania Infantry, and at the time a senator in Congress from the State of Oregon, and the subsequent arrest and close confinement of the unfortunate commander for several months without charges of any nature having been preferred against him.[D]

[Footnote D:  General Stone (1824-1887) was arrested by order of the Secretary of War and confined in Fort Lafayette, New York Harbor, from February 9 to August, 16, 1862.  The general impression that it was done through the influence of Senator Sumner is denied by his biographer, Mr. Henry L. Pierce. Vide Life of Sumner, vol. iv, pp. 67, 68:  Boston, 1893.  Generals Grant and Sherman both stated to the editor of this series, that it was an exceedingly arbitrary and unjust act.]

On November 9, 1861, General Scott sailed for Europe in the steamer Arago for Havre to join his wife, who was in Paris.  Mr. Thurlow Weed, a thorough loyalist and prominent politician, was a passenger on the same ship.  He and General Scott had been on terms of intimacy for over thirty years.  During the passage over the general gave Mr. Weed the true version of how he came near being made a prisoner in 1814.  After apologizing in advance for the question about to be put and receiving permission to propound it, Mr. Weed said:  “General, did anything remarkable happen to you on the morning of the battle of Chippewa?” The general answered:  “Yes, something did happen to me—­something very remarkable.  I will now for the third time in my life repeat the story: