In 1838, General Winfield Scott put the Cherokee removal into action. The Cherokee remained in their homes despite continuous warnings and directives to gather at the forts. Scott told them that the President of the United States had sent him with a powerful army to cause them to join their people on the other side of the Mississippi, and he urged them not to resist and compel his forces to resort to arms, saying that as an old warrior who had witnessed many scenes of slaughter, he begged to be spared the horror of witnessing the destruction of the Cherokees.