Editing Winfield Scott (section)

===Indian Removal===
[[Image:Trails of Tears en.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Routes of Southern removals]]
{{Further|Trail of Tears}}

President Jackson launched a policy of [[Indian removal]], forcing Native Americans to move west of the [[Mississippi River]]. Some Native Americans moved peacefully, but others resisted, including many [[Seminole]]s. In December 1835, the [[Second Seminole War]] broke out after the [[Dade massacre]], in which a group of Seminoles ambushed and massacred a U.S. Army company in [[Central Florida]].{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=146–147}} President Jackson ordered Scott to take command of operations against the Seminoles personally, and the officer arrived in Florida by February 1836.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=150–152}} After several months of inconclusive campaigning, Scott was ordered to the border of [[Alabama]] and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] to put down a [[Muscogee]] uprising known as the [[Creek War of 1836]].{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=159–161}} American forces under Scott, General [[Thomas Jesup]], and Alabama Governor [[Clement Comer Clay]] quickly defeated the Muscogee.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=164–165}} Some subordinates and civilians criticized Scott's actions in the campaigns against the Seminole and the Muscogee, and President Jackson convened a Court of Inquiry that investigated Scott and Gaines.<ref name="proceedings">{{cite book |last=U.S. Army Adjutant General |date=1836 |title=Proceedings of the Military Court of Inquiry, in the Case of Major General Scott and Major General Gaines |series=24th Congress, 2d Session; 224 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t9n29zm4v&view=1up&seq=5 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Department of War |pages=732–734 |via=[[HathiTrust]]}}</ref> The court cleared Scott of misconduct; still, it reprimanded him for his language criticizing Gaines in official communications.<ref name="proceedings"/> The court was critical of Gaines' actions during the campaign, though it did not accuse him of misconduct or incompetence.<ref name="proceedings"/> It also criticized the language he used to defend himself publicly and to the court.<ref name="proceedings"/>{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=172–174}}

[[Martin Van Buren]], a personal friend of Scott's, assumed the presidency in 1837, and Van Buren continued Jackson's Indian removal policy.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=176, 185}} In April 1838, Van Buren placed Scott in command of the removal of [[Cherokee]] people from the Southeastern United States. Some of Scott's associates tried to dissuade Scott from what they viewed as an immoral mission, but Scott accepted his orders.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=184–185}} After almost all of the Cherokee refused to relocate voluntarily, Scott made careful plans to ensure that his soldiers forcibly but humanely relocated the Cherokee. Nonetheless, the Cherokee endured abuse from Scott's soldiers; one account described soldiers driving the Cherokee "like cattle, through rivers, allowing them no time to take off their shoes and stockings.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=187, 190–191}} In mid-1838, Scott agreed to Chief [[John Ross (Cherokee chief)|John Ross]]'s plan to let the Cherokee lead a movement west, and he awarded a contract to the Cherokee Council to complete the removal. Scott was strongly criticized by many Southerners, including Jackson, for awarding the contract to Ross rather than continuing the removal under his own auspices.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=192–193}} Scott accompanied one Cherokee group as an observer, traveling with them from [[Athens, Tennessee]], to [[Nashville, Tennessee]], where he was ordered to the [[Canada–United States border]].{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|pp=193–194}}