When his regiment was activated for three years of federal service, Scott's company initially performed sentry duty in and around Washington, D.C.

These facts were known to the court at the time and figured prominently in newspaper reports, appeals by his superiors for clemency, and his subsequent reprieve.

Scott served faithfully with his regiment until the Battle at Lee's Mills where he was mortally wounded charging the "rifle pits".

The duty of a sentinel is of such a nature, that its neglect by sleeping upon or deserting his post may endanger the safety of a command, or even of the whole army, and all nations affix to the offence the penalty of death.

Private William Scott of Co. K. of the Third regiment of Vermont volunteers, will be released from confinement and returned to duty.

[5] According to contemporary records, Scott was mortally wounded by as many as five or six bullets, was in a coma before his death, and could not have uttered anything coherent.

Sandburg also debunked dramatic accounts that had Lincoln riding into McClellan's camp to personally deliver Scott's pardon moments before the scheduled execution.

He was also acted by Eddie Sutherland[citation needed] in the feature film The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924).