Great Scott!

Burnished Rows of Steel, Chapter 1 part iii (dated 27 December 1861):

“Thank you, Seward. You have done very well in trying times,” the president said. “Any word from our friends in Europe?”

“The last report I received is that Gen. Scott and Mr. Weed have been well-received in Paris; the general’s reminiscences about his service in Mexico have been very well received,” Seward responded, levelly. “They were to depart for Potsdam imminently; in addition, Brigadier General Harney has joined the delegation and was to leave for Petersburg the same day"

TFSmith, 7 August 2014:

that fact that Winfield Scott just "happens" to have been sent to Paris historically in the winter of 1861-62 is a little too convenient...

TFSmith,  21 June 2014:

I find the fact that no one less than Winfield Scott ended up in Paris in the winter of 1861-62 (along with Archbishop Hughes, McIlvain, etc.) particularly interesting - it may have simply been for his health, but given the general situation, somehow I doubt it...

TFSmith, 25 May 2014:

As far as France goes, Quebec is one of those issues that I find rarely gets covered in the "NIII would support the British in the event of an Anglo-American War" concept; perhaps, but the question is what would he ask for in return?

We know, obviously, it would be for a free hand in Mexico; one wonders what else might have been discussed in this period - the fact that Winfield Scott was (historically) in Paris in the winter of 1861-62 has always struck me as one of those coincidences that seems a little too helpful to have simply been coincidence.

TFSmith, 17 February 2014:

'Didn't know he was in Paris'
Yep - interesting, isn't it?

Officially, simply to join Mrs. Scott, who had been in Europe for several months because of her health.

The general embarked Nov. 9, with his daughter and son in law; same ship that Thurlow Weed (who was sent to serve as Lincoln's plenipotentiary in Europe)...they got to LeHavre in late November, and then set up shop in Paris, where the general consulted with Weed and John Bigelow, the US consul, and (among other things) sent a series of letters affirming Franco-American and Anglo-American friendship to various worthies and newspapers...

Entirely coincidental, I'm sure.

Makes one wonder what else was going on, doesn't it?

TFSmith, 16 February 2014:

interestingly enough, Paris was exactly where Scott was in the winter of 1861-62 (historically); makes one wonder what he had to say to "L'Impereur"...

I would never be so cynical as to suggest Lincoln et al suggested anything to the French, but the timing is really interesing, isn't it?

In Agent of Destiny, JSD Eisenhower mentions the general's work in smoothing over the (historical) Trent Affair, but he doesn't mention anything else Scott may have had to say in Paris that winter...

J.S.D Eisenhower, Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott (1997), pp.401-2:

But Scott did not foresee that the issue would blow over. Fearing the British might close the sea lanes to American shipping, he sailed for home on the return voyage of the Arago, leaving Cornelia and her husband in Paris to be near Maria. The general arrived back in New York on December 26 1861, only about six weeks or so having departed... Soon after his return from Europe, he called on his friends in Washington to inquire discreetly whether his services might be needed there in any capacity. They were not. He therefore settled down in New York City.

At least some of TFSmith's misunderstanding seems to be based on his shoddy research. Scott did not send 'a series of letters': he signed a single letter at the instigation of the US consul in Paris, who drafted the letter for him, and who subsequently 'had the letter... immediately translated and copies despatched to the principal morning and evening papers in Paris, and copies in English to the London papers'. If Scott was sent to meet Napoleon, he had no opportunity to do so: Napoleon III was at the Chateau de Compiegne, 50 miles outside Paris, where he would remain for the duration of Scott's brief stay in France.

Yet TFSmith also flagrantly distorts events. He claims that Scott left on 9 November, the day after the Trent Affair: however, he must also know that Scott had arrived in New York to start planning the trip on 2 November. He must also know that Scott had left Paris when war threatened - indeed, that he was back in the US at the point TFSmith has him travelling to Potsdam - and that on his return he asked the government if there was any service he could render. Why would Scott do this if he had been given a mission in Europe by the Union government?

The simple answer is that there was no mission. Scott went to Paris to convalesce alongside his sick wife, was dragooned into an impromptu public relations scheme, and returned home when war threatened to break out. There was no Union master-plan, no devious contingency scheme worked out by Lincoln and Seward, no 4D chess involving Mexico. It is a figment of TFSmith's over-active imagination, fuelled by equal measures of bias and ignorance.