an officer and a gentleman,” and the specification was “in withholding at sundry times men’s money placed in his possession for their payment for the months of September and October.”  Another charge was “ungentlemanly and unofficerlike conduct,” the specification being “In saying, between the 1st of December and the 1st of January, 1809-’10, at a public table in Washington, Mississippi Territory, that ’he never saw but two traitors—­General Wilkinson and Burr—­and that General Wilkinson was a liar and a scoundrel.’” This charge was based on the sixth article of war, which says:  “Any officer who shall behave himself with contempt and disrespect toward his commanding officer shall be punished, according to the nature of the offense, by the judgment of a court-martial.”

Captain Scott’s defense to this charge was that General Wilkinson was not, at the time the words were charged to have been spoken, his commanding officer, that place being filled by General Wade Hampton.  General Scott, in his Memoirs, says that some of Wilkinson’s partisans had heard him say in an excited conversation that he knew, soon after Burr’s trial, from his friends Mr. Randolph and Mr. Tazewell and others, members of the grand jury, who found the bill of indictment against Burr, that nothing but the influence of Mr. Jefferson had saved Wilkinson from being included in the same indictment, and that he believed Wilkinson to have been equally a traitor with Burr.  He admits that the expression of that belief was not only imprudent, but no doubt at that time blamable.  But this was not the declaration on which he was to be tried.  This was uttered in New Orleans, the headquarters of General Wilkinson.  The utterance on which he was tried, as will be seen, was made in Washington, Mississippi Territory, when General Wade Hampton was his commanding officer.

The finding of the Court on this charge was guilty, and that his conduct was unofficerlike.  The facts in regard to the charge of retaining money belonging to the men of his command were, that prior to his departure for New Orleans he had recruited his company in Virginia, and, being remote from a paymaster or quartermaster, a sum of four hundred dollars was placed in his hands to be used in recruiting.  Some of his vouchers were technically irregular, and at the time of his trial about fifty dollars was not covered by formal vouchers.  This was the finding of the Court, but it expressly acquitted him of all fraudulent intentions.  General Wilkinson nursed his wrath, and after the close of the war published an attack on General Scott.  His own failure in the campaign of 1813, and especially his defeat at La Cale Mills, compared with Scott’s brilliant campaign on the Niagara frontier in the following spring, may have induced this attack.

Captain Scott returned to Virginia after the trial, and under the advice of his friend, the distinguished lawyer and statesman, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, he devoted himself to the study of military works and of English attack.  During the time mentioned he wrote a letter to Lewis Edwards, Esq., at Washington City, of which he following is a copy: