Faithful Unto DeathA Soldier's Life is a Dog's Life

After Scott's celebrated pardon, life for him and the other Vermont soldiers would become a dreary and uncomfortable existence far worse than the back-breaking farm work they had left behind. The new camp located about 5 miles into the Confederate lines was now known as Camp Griffin.

The fourth, fifth and sixth Vermont Regiments arrived from the North and together with the second and third Regiments now formed what would be called the Vermont Brigade.

The Winter of 1861 ravaged the Vermont soldiers. Inadequate provisions, unsanitary conditions and disease killed many of them long before they would ever see combat. For five months, the brigade led a monotonous life of drilling and inactivity and a miserable life of preparing for the rumored advance towards Richmond. The soldier's life of day-to-day sameness led to the famous dispatches from Washington, "All Quiet On The Potomac".

Finally, in March of 1862, the order came to break camp and begin the march south.

During this time, there is little known of Scott's life. A few of his letters exist. One of them suggests a premonition of his death.

"By the hand of God, I shall some day outride the storms of affliction and land our soul on the other side of Jordan and our weary souls home to rest...." William Scott, Oct 13, 1861

In another letter postmarked from his position near Alexandria which was given the name "Camp Misery", Scott wrote of the conditions there.

"It is very cold and wet. The mud is awfully deep. The night we came from Flint Hill it rained all night. It rained like everything and we never slept a wink all night. A soldier's life is nothing more or less than a dog's life.

....and now I must bid you a long farewell....the girls here in Virginia. There are no girls. I haven't seen but one or two white girls since I have been here, but there are black ones enough."

This letter would be his last. On the following day, he and the Federal troops were transported by boat down the Potomac River into the Chesapeake Bay to Hampton to begin what was later known as the Peninsula Campaign. The way to Richmond led up a narrow pennisula between the York and the James Rivers.