WINFIELD SCOTT
This quotation is particularly interesting because it belies the image of America as a society where almost everyone was familiar with guns and firearms—that we had a gun culture. In reality most Americans from Colonial times on, could not afford guns and many that could afford them preferred other weapons for defense due to the lack of reliability of firearms. Guns were always a status symbol however. This quotation shows that most American soldiers did not know how to properly care for guns even in fundamental ways and could not be trusted to care for them much less repair them—a far cry from the image of the American rifleman alone in the first with his trusty weapon with which he was familiar and skilled.
Winfield Scott was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early stages of the American Civil War and conflicts with Native Americans. Scott was the Whig Party's presidential nominee in the 1852 election, but was defeated by Democrat Franklin Pierce. He was known as Old Fuss and Feathers for his insistence on proper military etiquette, as well as the Grand Old Man of the Army for his many years of service.
