Чарльз Скотт: Кентукки Губернаторының Тарихы

Governor of Kentucky from 1808 to 1812

Charles Scott (April 1739 – October 22, 1813) was an American military officer and politician who served as the governor of Kentucky from 1808 to 1812. Orphaned in his teens, Scott enlisted in the Virginia Regiment in October 1755 and served as a scout and escort during the French and Indian War. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a captain. After the war, he married and engaged in agricultural pursuits on land left to him by his father, but he returned to active military service in 1775 as the American Revolution began to grow in intensity. In August 1776, he was promoted to colonel and given command of the 5th Virginia Regiment. The 5th Virginia joined George Washington in New Jersey later that year, serving with him for the duration of the Philadelphia campaign. Scott commanded Washington's light infantry, and by late 1778 was also serving as his chief of intelligence. Furloughed at the end of the Philadelphia campaign, Scott returned to active service in March 1779 and was ordered to South Carolina to assist General Benjamin Lincoln in the southern theater. He arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, just as Henry Clinton had begun his siege of the city. Scott was taken as a prisoner of war when Charleston surrendered. Paroled in March 1781 and exchanged for Lord Rawdon in July 1782, Scott managed to complete a few recruiting assignments before the war ended. After the war, Scott visited the western frontier in 1785 and began to make preparations for a permanent relocation. He resettled near present day Versailles, Kentucky, in 1787. Confronted by the dangers of Indian raids, Scott raised a company of volunteers in 1790 and joined Josiah Harmar for an expedition against the Indians. After Harmar's Defeat, President Washington ordered Arthur St. Clair to prepare for an invasion of Indian lands in the Northwest Territory. In the meantime, Scott, by now holding the rank of brigadier general in the Virginia militia, was ordered to conduct a series of preliminary raids. In July 1791, he led the most notable and successful of these raids against the village of Ouiatenon. St. Clair's main invasion, conducted later that year, was a failure. Shortly after the separation of Kentucky from Virginia in 1792, the Kentucky General Assembly commissioned Scott as a major general and gave him command of the 2nd Division of the Kentucky militia. Scott's division cooperated with "Mad" Anthony Wayne's Legion of the United States for the rest of the Northwest Indian War, including their decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Having previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates and as a presidential elector, the aging Scott now ran for governor. His 1808 campaign was skillfully managed by his step son in law, Jesse Bledsoe, and he won a convincing victory over John Allen and Green Clay. A fall on the icy steps of the governor's mansion early in his term confined Scott to crutches for the rest of his life, and left him heavily reliant on Bledsoe, whom he appointed Secretary of State. Although he frequently clashed with the state legislature over domestic matters, the primary concern of his administration was the increasing tension between the United States and Great Britain that eventually led to the War of 1812. Scott's decision to appoint William Henry Harrison as brevet major general in the Kentucky militia, although probably in violation of the state constitution as Harrison was not a resident of the state, was nonetheless praised by the state's citizens. After his term expired, Scott returned to his Canewood estate. His health declined rapidly, and he died on October 22, 1813. Scott County, Kentucky, and Scott County, Indiana, are named in his honor, as is the city of Scottsville, Kentucky.

Charles Scott was born in 1739, probably in April, in the part of Goochland County, Virginia, that is now Powhatan County. His father, Samuel Scott, was a farmer and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. His mother, whose name is not known, died most likely around 1745. Scott had an older brother, John, and three younger siblings, Edward, Joseph, and Martha. In late July 1755, a local court was preparing to place him with a guardian, but in October, before the court acted, Scott enlisted in the Virginia Regiment. By June 1756, he had been promoted to sergeant. In April 1757, David Bell was relieved of his command as part of a general downsizing of Washington's regiment, and Scott was assigned to Captain Robert McKenzie at Fort Pearsall. In November, Scott was part of the Forbes Expedition that captured the fort. During this time, Virginia's forces were taken from George Washington and put under the control of Colonel William Byrd. Sometime prior to 1762, Scott's older brother, John, died, leaving Scott to inherit his father's land near the James River and Muddy Creek. In July 1766, he was named one of two captains in the local militia. Over the next several years, Scott and his wife had four boys and four or five girls. In July, the Virginia Convention created two regiments of Virginia troops, one under Patrick Henry and the other under William Woodford. As those leaders departed for Williamsburg, the Conventions acknowledged Scott as temporary commander in chief of the volunteers already assembled there. Days later, this force played a significant role in the December 9, 1775, Battle of Great Bridge by killing British Captain Charles Fordyce, thereby halting the British advance on the crossing. Following the battle, colonial forces were able to occupy the city of Norfolk, Virginia, and Lord Dunmore eventually departed from Virginia. On February 13, 1776, the 2nd Virginia became a part of the Continental Army; Scott retained his rank of lieutenant colonel during the transition. After spending the winter with part of the 2nd Virginia in Suffolk, Scott was chosen by the Second Continental Congress as colonel of the 5th Virginia Regiment on August 12, 1776; he replaced Colonel William Peachy, who had resigned. The 5th Virginia was stationed in the cities of Hampton and Portsmouth through the end of September. During the subsequent Battle of the Assunpink Creek on January 2, 1777, the 5th Virginia helped slow the advance of a combined force of British light infantry and Hessian mercenaries toward Trenton. Major George Johnston, a member of the 5th Virginia, opined that Scott had "acquired immortal honor" from his performance at Assunpink Creek. Following these battles, Washington's main force prepared to spend the winter at Morristown, New Jersey, while Scott's regiment was based at nearby Chatham. From this base, he led light infantry raids against British foraging parties. He led another notable raid against a large British force of about 2,000 at the February 8 Battle of Quibbletown.

In March 1777, Scott returned to his Virginia farm, taking his first furlough in more than a year. In recognition of his service with Washington, Congress commissioned him a brigadier general on April 2, 1777. At Washington's request, he returned to Trenton on May 10, 1777. Washington spent much of mid 1777 trying to anticipate and counter the moves of British General William Howe, and the lull in the fighting allowed Scott time to file a protest with Congress regarding how his seniority and rank had been calculated. After eight months of deliberation, Congress concurred with Scott's protest, placing him ahead of fellow brigadier general George Weedon in seniority. At the September 11 Battle of Brandywine, the 4th Virginia Brigade stubbornly resisted the advance of General Charles Cornwallis, but was ultimately forced to retreat. Scott persistently advocated for an attack on Howe's position at Germantown, and although he was initially in the minority among Washington's generals, he ultimately prevailed upon Washington to conduct the attack. On October 4, 1777, the 4th Virginia attacked the British in the Battle of Germantown. Because of their circuitous route to the battle, the field was already covered by heavy smoke from muskets and a fire set by the British in a dry buckwheat field when they arrived; they and the other colonial forces were lost in the smoke and retreated. Scott and four other generals initially favored an attack on Philadelphia in December, but after hearing Washington's assessment of the enemy's defenses there, they abandoned the idea. After a series of skirmishes with Howe's men near Whitemarsh, Washington's army camped for the winter at Valley Forge. Washington granted him a furlough in mid March 1778, and he returned to Valley Forge on May 20, 1778. When Washington and his men abandoned Valley Forge in mid June 1778, Scott was ordered to take 1,500 light infantrymen and harass the British forces as they marched across New Jersey. On June 26, the Marquis de Lafayette joined Scott with an additional 1,000 men, in anticipation of a major offensive the next day. Lee shared no battle plan with his generals, later claiming he had insufficient intelligence to form one. On the morning of June 28, Lee launched the attack, beginning the Battle of Monmouth. Tradition holds that, in the aftermath of the battle, Scott witnessed Washington excoriating Lee in a profanity laden tirade, but biographer Harry M. Ward considered it unlikely that Scott was present at the meeting. Lee was later court martialed for the retreat and suspended from command. Following the Battle of Monmouth, the British retreated to New York City. He also served as Washington's chief of intelligence, conducting constant scouting missions from the Americans' new base at White Plains, New York.

A March 1779 letter from Washington to Scott, still on furlough in Virginia, ordered him to recruit volunteers in Virginia and join Washington at Middlebrook on May 1. Men and supplies proved difficult to obtain, delaying Scott's return; during the delay, Washington ordered the recruits to South Carolina to join Benjamin Lincoln, who was in command of the militia forces there. Reports of significant British troop movements toward Georgia had convinced Washington that the enemy was preparing an invasion from the south. Scott's orders changed again; the Virginia House of Delegates ordered him to immediately prepare defenses against Collier and Mathew's raids. The legislators presented him with a horse, a firearm, and 500 pounds sterling for his quick response to the threat. Finally, in October 1779, he forwarded troops sent to him from Washington's Northern Army on to Lincoln in South Carolina, fulfilling his quota. He retained only Abraham Buford's regiment with him in Virginia. Virginia authorities, fearing that the British force to the south under General Henry Clinton would turn north to Virginia, detained Scott and Woodford until it was clear that Clinton's object was Lincoln's position at Charleston, South Carolina. With the death of William Woodford on November 13, 1780, he became primarily responsible for the welfare of the Virginia troops at Haddrell's Point. He requested his parole on account of ill health on January 30, 1781, and in late March, Charles Cornwallis granted the request. In July 1782, Scott was exchanged for Lord Rawdon, ending his parole. Greene wrote that he did not have a command for Scott, and requested that he remain with Muhlenberg in Virginia. When the preliminary articles of peace between the United States and Great Britain were signed in March 1783, recruiting stopped altogether. Scott first visited Kentucky in mid 1785. Traveling with Peyton Short, one of Wilkinson's business partners, he came to Limestone (present day Maysville, Kentucky) via the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers. In 1787, Scott settled near the city of Versailles, Kentucky. Scott constructed a two story log cabin, a stockade, and a tobacco inspection warehouse. Although a small party of settlers pursued the Shawnees back across the river, they were not able to overtake them. In volume three of Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West, he stated that Scott "delighted in war" against the Indians after the death of his son. Scott focused on the development of his homestead as a way to deal with the grief of losing his son. Among those who purchased lots were James Wilkinson, Abraham Buford, Judge George Muter, and future Congressman and Kentucky Governor Christopher Greenup. Although he did not participate in any of the ten statehood conventions that sought to separate Kentucky from Virginia, he supported the idea in principle. When Woodford County was formed from the part of Fayette County that included Scott's fledgling settlement, Scott declined appointment as the new county's lieutenant. He consented to be a candidate to represent the county in the Virginia House of Delegates. In April 1790, Scott raised a contingent of volunteers from Bourbon and Fayette counties to join Josiah Harmar in a raid against the Western Confederacy along the Scioto River in what would become the U. S. state of Ohio. The combined force of regulars and militia departed from Limestone on April 18, 1790, crossing the Ohio River and marching to the upper Scioto. Fresh footprints, including those of a well known Shawnee warrior – nicknamed Reel Foot because of his two club feet – led away from the camp site. Harmar had hoped that Scott, Isaac Shelby, or Benjamin Logan would join the campaign and lead the Kentucky militia, but all three declined. He was once again appointed to the committee on privileges and election. His primary responsibility was overseeing a line of 18 outposts along the Ohio River. In January 1791, President Washington accepted U. S. Senator John Brown's suggestion to appoint a Kentucky Board of War, composed of Brown, Scott, Isaac Shelby, Harry Innes, and Benjamin Logan. The committee was empowered to call out local militia to act in conjunction with federal troops against the Indians. They recommended assembling an army of volunteers to locate and destroy Indian settlements north of the Ohio River. Most Kentuckians were displeased with Washington's choice of Arthur St. Clair, by then suffering from gout and unable to mount his own horse unassisted, as overall commander of the invasion. Both Isaac Shelby and Benjamin Logan had hoped to lead the campaign, and neither would accept a lesser position. Shelby nevertheless supported the campaign, while Logan actively opposed it. The militiamen crossed the Ohio toward a clutch of Miami, Kickapoo, Wea, and Potawatomi settlements near the location of present day Lafayette, Indiana. For eight days, they crossed rugged terrain and were bedraggled by frequent rainstorms. Aided by cover fire from a Kickapoo village on the other side of the river, they were able to escape before Scott's men could attack. Low on supplies, Scott and his men ended their campaign. On the return trip, two men drowned in the White River; these were the only deaths among Scott's men. Five others were wounded but survived.

Scott's Wabash Campaign was well received both in Kentucky and by the Washington administration. Scott questioned the wisdom of removing the outposts and convinced his fellow members of the Board of War to retain one at Big Bone Lick and one guarding an ironworks at the mouth of the Kentucky River. Unknown to the volunteers, they narrowly missed being ambushed by the Indians in the area. Like Harmar, he was also unpopular in Kentucky, and Scott had to conduct a draft to raise the militiamen needed for St. Clair's expedition. He and most other officers in Kentucky claimed they were too ill to lead the men; most actually feared losing the respect of Kentuckians through their association with St. Clair. When it became apparent that no Indian invasion was imminent, Scott's men returned home. As a result of St. Clair's campaign, tribes that had previously been neutral in the conflict – including the Delawares and Wyandots – allied with the Miami and Shawnee against the frontiersmen. Congress approved the proposal in March 1792, and Scott learned from a friend in Philadelphia that he was being considered as commander of the Legion. On June 25, Scott was given command of the militia's 2nd Division, which was charged with operating north of the Kentucky River; Logan's 1st Division operated south of the river. The new state legislature had also appointed a five man committee to select a city to be the new state capital. Scott applied to have Petersburg, still a fledgling settlement, designated as the capital. He was chosen as a presidential elector in 1793. He now requested that Scott's and Logan's men join his main force. Logan flatly refused to cooperate with a federal officer, but Scott eventually agreed, and Wayne commissioned him an officer in the federal army on July 1, 1793. When he joined Wayne at Fort Jefferson on October 21, 1793, he had only been able to raise 1,000 men. On November 4, Wayne ordered Scott's militiamen to destroy a nearby Delaware village. Still resentful and distrustful of federal officers and aware that Wayne would not launch a major offensive so close to winter, the men were not enthusiastic about the mission, which many of them considered trivial. That night, 501 of them deserted their camp, though Wayne noted in his report that he believed Scott and his officers had done all they could do to prevent the desertions. Wayne noticed that, despite their obstinance, the Kentucky volunteers appeared to be good soldiers. The Indians' victory over St. Clair had become a part of their lore and inspired them to continue the fight against the western settlers; Wayne's construction of a fort on this site was a blow to the Indian psyche, and his re burial of some 600 skulls that the Indians had dug up and scattered across the area was popular with Kentuckians, since many of their own were among the dead. Scott, on leave in Philadelphia at the time, wrote to Secretary of War Henry Knox to defend Wayne's reputation, breaching his friendship with Wilkinson. He and Thomas Barbee led this force in support of Wayne's 1,000 regular troops. Here, Wayne ordered the construction of Fort Defiance, which took approximately a week. About 8:45a. m. on August 20, Major William Price's brigade of volunteers engaged the Indian force near Fort Miami, beginning the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Major William Campbell, the British commander of Fort Miami, refused to open the fort to his Indian allies, and Wayne's force won a decisive victory. Due to a lack of pack horses in Wayne's force, the mounted volunteers were also employed transporting supplies between forts throughout September 1794. They eventually grew weary of garrison duty and complained that the use of their personal horses to transport goods had injured the animals. In a commendation of Wayne issued on December 4, 1794, the U. S. House of Representatives specifically thanked Scott and his men for their service at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The Treaty of Greenville formally ended the war in mid 1795. He continued to serve, nominally, as major general of the 2nd militia division of the state militia until 1799. Celebrations of Scott's military heroism were held all over Kentucky, sparking his interest in a political career. Garrard, a central Kentucky native, insisted that the fort should be built at Frankfort. In late 1799 or early 1800, his last son, Charles Jr., also died. Daughter Mary had married and left the farm prior to Scott's return from military service, and youngest daughter Nancy left the farm near the turn of the 19th century, although she never married. After the death of his wife on October 6, 1804, he moved in with his daughter and son in law, John and Mary Postlethwait, in Lexington. Although Greenup granted the requested authorization, Scott remarried on July 25, 1807, and never assembled the militia unit. By mid 1806, state senator Thomas Posey and Lexington lawyer Thomas Todd had already declared their candidacies. John Allen had by then declared his candidacy and Green Clay's announcement followed Scott's by about a month. Allen and Clay, both lawyers by profession, were hurt by a general distrust of lawyers by the Kentucky electorate. Further, Allen had served as general counsel for Aaron Burr, and several anonymous letters to the state's newspapers accused him of being privy to Burr's alleged scheme to create an independent state in the southwest. To counter Scott's hero image, Clay supporters pointed to his service with George Rogers Clark in a 1782 expedition against the Shawnee, but the impact of this line of campaigning was minimal. As the most senior Revolutionary War officer in Kentucky, Scott became the recognized leader of the state's veterans' lobby. On election day, he garnered 22,050 votes, compared to 8,430 votes for Allen and 5,516 votes for Clay. Bledsoe delivered Scott's first address to the legislature on December 13, 1808. Later that winter, Scott was injured when he slipped on the icy steps of the governor's mansion; the injury left him confined to crutches for the rest of his life and rendered him even more dependent on Bledsoe to perform many of his official functions. His physical condition continued to worsen throughout his term as governor. In domestic matters, Scott advocated increased salaries for public officials, economic development measures, and heavy punishments for persistent criminals. Scott frequently clashed with the legislature, including once when the Senate refused to confirm the appointment of Dr. Walter Brashear as lieutenant colonel commandant of the state militia's second regiment. The governor refused to nominate anyone else for the position, saying that Brashear was the best person for it, and he assumed the senators would not want to be sent a worse nomination. Measures creating Harrison County and allowing squatters to purchase occupied land on more favorable terms were both vetoed because Scott felt that they had been passed too hastily to allow proper debate. On one occasion, an unnamed individual believed his reputation had been injured by something Scott had said and challenged him to a duel. He ignored the challenge, after which the challenger threatened to expose him as a coward. For most of Scott's tenure as governor, tensions between the U. S. and Great Britain escalated. Sentiment in favor of a U. S. declaration of war against the British was particularly strong in Kentucky. Most Kentuckians resented the replacement of the Embargo Act of 1807 with the weaker Non Intercourse Act of 1809 and Macon's Bill Number 2. He reminded the General Assembly that France had also violated the United States' maritime rights and urged equal treatment of the two countries for their offenses. Harrison had not applied to Scott for permission to recruit in the state, and many Kentuckians – from Scott's political enemy, Humphrey Marshall, to his trusted advisor, Jesse Bledsoe – perceived this as a slight to the governor. Ignoring Bledsoe's indignation, Scott refused to make an issue of the faux pas and instead became one of the staunchest supporters of Harrison's rising career. In anticipation of a federal call for volunteers, Scott published messages in the state's newspapers in February and April 1812 whipping up support for the impending war effort. By the end of July, the state's quota of 5,500 volunteers had been met. On August 14, 1812, Scott greeted two regiments of soldiers at the governor's mansion just prior to their muster at Georgetown. He hobbled among the soldiers with his crutch, then turned and hammered it against the mansion's steps and was heard to mutter "If it hadn't been for you, I could have gone with the boys myself." On August 25, 1812, Scott's last day in office, he appointed Harrison brevet major general over the Kentucky militia. The appointment was made on advice from incoming Governor Isaac Shelby and Henry Clay.

Following his term as governor, Scott retired to his Canewood estate with his wife and youngest step daughter, Mary Cecil Gist. Two of his stepdaughters had married during his term as governor. Eliza Violet Gist married Francis Preston Blair on July 21, 1812, just prior to the expiration of Scott's term as governor. He died on October 22, 1813, and was buried on the grounds of Canewood.