Editing Winfield Scott (section)

==Retirement, consultations, writings, and death==
[[File:Winfield Scott by Fredricks, 1862.jpg|thumb|200px|Scott in 1862]]
Scott grew very heavy in his last years of service and could not mount a horse or walk more than a few paces without stopping to rest.{{sfn|Silkenat|page=20}} He was often in ill health, and suffered from [[gout]], [[Edema|dropsy]], [[rheumatism]], and [[vertigo]].{{sfn|Silkenat|page=20}} After retiring, he traveled to Europe with his daughter, Cornelia, and her husband, H. L. Scott. In [[Paris]], he worked with [[Thurlow Weed]] to aid American consul [[John Bigelow]] in defusing the [[Trent Affair|''Trent'' Affair]], a diplomatic incident with Britain.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=400–401}} On his return from Europe in December 1861, he lived alone in New York City and at [[West Point, New York]], where he wrote his memoirs and closely followed the ongoing civil war.

On June 23&ndash;24, 1862, President Lincoln made an unannounced visit to [[United States Military Academy|West Point]], where he spent five hours consulting with Scott regarding the handling of the Civil War and the staffing of the [[United States Department of War|War Department]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=102390793/ |title=The President at West Point |date=26 June 1862 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523163528/https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=102390793/|archive-date=23 May 2022|url-status=live |location=New York |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com |quote=the President and Gen. Scott spent several hours in discussing the state of military affairs, the doings and misdoings of certain Generals, the desirability of continuing the existing Departmental divisions, the necessity of further enlistments, the prospect of the armies of the Potomac and of the Virginia valleys . . . .}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=102386846/ |title=The President at West Point |date=25 June 1862 |newspaper=Brooklyn Evening Star |access-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523165456/https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=102386846/ |archive-date=23 May 2022|url-status=live |agency=Copy from N.Y. Express |location=New York |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com |quote=they were in earnest conversation for five hours}}</ref> After McClellan's defeat in the [[Seven Days Battles]], Lincoln accepted Scott's advice and appointed General Halleck as the army's senior general. In 1864, Scott sent a copy of his newly published memoirs to [[Ulysses S. Grant]], who had succeeded Halleck as the lead Union general. The copy that Scott sent was inscribed "from the oldest to the greatest general."{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=402–404}} Following a strategy similar to Scott's Anaconda Plan, Grant led the Union to victory, and [[Robert E. Lee|Lee]]'s [[Army of Northern Virginia]] [[Conclusion of the American Civil War|surrendered]] in April 1865.<ref name="malanga" />

On October 4, 1865, Scott was elected as a Companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the [[Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States]] and was assigned insignia number 27.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nicholson |first=John P., Recorder |date=1882 |title=Register of the Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C3cVAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA7 |location=Philadelphia, PA |publisher=Collins, Printer |page=7 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> He is one of the few individuals who belonged to the three most senior military societies of the United States – the Society of the Cincinnati, the Aztec Club of 1847 and the Loyal Legion.

Scott died at West Point on the morning of May 29, 1866, at age 79.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=United States Senate |author-link=39th United States Congress |date=30 May 1866 |title=Death of General Scott |url=https://www.congress.gov/congressional-globe/congress-39-session-1-part-4.pdf |journal=[[Congressional Globe]] |pages=2890}}</ref>{{sfn|Southwick|1998|p=220}} President [[Andrew Johnson]] ordered flags flown at half-staff to honor Scott. His funeral was attended by many of the leading Union generals, including Grant, [[George G. Meade]], [[George H. Thomas]], and [[John Schofield]]. He is buried at the [[West Point Cemetery]].{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=404–405}}