The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 160

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

the War of 1812, he had risen to the rank of major and had
served on the staff of young Brigadier General Winfield Scott,
with whom he formed an intimate friendship which lasted for
nearly thirty-five years but which was finally broken by a ran-
corous quarrel during the Mexican War. Worth was badly
wounded in the War of 1812 at the battle of Lundy's Lane. After
convalescing for a year, he was assigned to the Second Infantry
and served at various New York posts and on recruiting duty
until 1820o. In 1818 he married Margaret Stafford of Albany.4
In March, 1820o, he was appointed commandant of cadets at
the Military Academy, West Point, a position which was only
subordinate to that of Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer, who is
called the "father of West Point." Worth remained there until
1828 and is generally credited with the inauguration of the high
standards of military bearing and precision in drill which have
since existed at the Military Academy."
After this tour of duty he took a small part in suppressing the
Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831, served in the
newly-formed Ordnance Department, and acted as Winfield
Scott's inspector general on the expedition against Black Hawk
in Illinois in 1832, during which campaign he was stricken by
cholera. He then served on the Canadian border to preserve
American neutrality during the Patriots' War and was Scott's
chief of staff in the Cherokee removals from Georgia in 1838.6
In 1840, Worth took command of the United States forces in
Florida against the Seminole Indians. This guerrilla-like war had
been festering for nearly five years, and ten generals, including
Winfield Scott, Edmund Pendleton Gaines, and Alexander Ma-
comb, the commanding general, had been unable to win a de-
cisive victory. Colonel Worth, by his initiative and resourceful-
ness, crushed the Seminole resistance and was awarded the hon-
orary rank of brevet brigadier general. In September, 1845, he
was ordered to join General Zachary Taylor's command at Cor-
pus Christi.7
4Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States
Army (Washington, 1903), 1o61.
slbid.; Latrobe, Reminiscences, 14.
eHeitman, Historical Register, io61; Winfield Scott, Memoirs of Lieut.-General
Scott, LL.D. (New York, 1864), I, 218; Old Records Section, War Department,
National Archives, Washington, D. C.
7John T. Sprague, The Florida War (New York, 1848), passim.

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