Hugh Lenox Scott, 1853–1934: Reluctant Warrior by Armand S. La Potin

Abstract

Reviewed by: Hugh Lenox Scott, 1853–1934: Reluctant Warrior by Armand S. La Potin James Bailey Blackshear Hugh Lenox Scott, 1853–1934: Reluctant Warrior. By Armand S. La Potin. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2021. Pp. 228. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.) In this biography, historian Armand S. La Potin details the life of a consummate military man of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hugh Lenox Scott was born in Kentucky in the middle of the nineteenth century. His father, an educator and minister, died when he was eight. His mother then moved the family to New Jersey, where his grandfather, principal of the Princeton Theological Seminary, helped to shape Scott’s early years. La Potin points out that Scott’s growing up within this literate and well-connected family paid many dividends. Using numerous family letters, military correspondence, and government records, La Potin chronicles Scott’s rise from West Point cadet to military governor of the Sulu Archipelago during the U.S. occupation of the Philippines. The author also details Scott’s time in 1870s Dakota Territory, his interactions with Fort Sill Comanches, and his experiences as an officer during the Spanish-American War. The last half of the book looks at his military service during the twentieth century. Under Woodrow Wilson, Scott served as both acting secretary of war and army chief of staff. In the process of covering this soldier’s career, La Potin details Scott’s role in every major event in which the U.S. military was involved between 1877 and 1918. At the same time, as the subtitle indicates, this is less a history of tactics and battles than of one man’s earnest attempt at diplomacy and relationship-building. In clear narrative style, La Potin begins by following Scott away from West Point to the northern Great Plains. His posting to the Seventh Cavalry occurred soon after Custer’s defeat at the Little Big Horn. Under Colonel Nelson Miles, he was involved in the campaigns to reign in the remaining Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho who refused to live on reservations. Here, La Potin puts in place the theme that runs throughout the work: no matter what period or event, Scott was always interested in avoiding conflict and promoting peace among the peoples he was sent subjugate. At the same time, the author is quick to point out the contradictory challenges involved in such an undertaking. Another thread throughout is how Scott’s powerful East Coast connections helped to facilitate his rise within the army hierarchy. This, combined with his own ability to connect with his peers as well as the different cultures with which he came into contact helps illustrate his rise from frontier diplomat to military administrator. One of Scott’s longest postings was to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. There, the defeated Comanche and Kiowa held many of the same grievances and presented the same challenges that he had had to work through with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Nez Percé from his earlier posts. While in Indian [End Page 133] Territory, he dealt with the implementation of the Dawes Act, corrupt government agents, greedy merchants, Chiricahua Apache resettlement, and the Oklahoma Land Run. Land issues and Scott’s interactions with Quanah Parker are detailed here, as are his constant battles with local and national politicians, federal bureaucrats, and War Department supervisors. Later chapters on the Spanish American War highlight Scott’s time as Leonard Wood’s chief of staff and adjutant general. His relationship with the irascible Wood is expertly detailed, as is his subsequent role as the military governor of the Sulu Archipelago. Here, among a majority Muslim population, his skills as a negotiator are put to task. La Potin does not shy from the obvious. Scott’s attempts to ingratiate himself within a variety of subjugated societies reveals that his empathetic nature and efforts to do good were shot through with a paternalism that impacted every decision he made, whether interacting with the Sioux or the Moros. Such insight is found throughout this book. While reading this biography I could not help but liken Hugh Lennox Scott to the fictional Forrest Gump. From Red Cloud to Teddy Roosevelt, Quanah...