Scott was very heavy in his last years of service, and was unable to mount a horse or walk more than a few paces without stopping to rest. He was often in ill health, and suffered from gout, dropsy, rheumatism, and vertigo. After retiring, he traveled to Europe with his daughter, Cornelia, and her husband, H. L. Scott. In Paris, he worked with Thurlow Weed to aid American consul John Bigelow in defusing the Trent Affair, a diplomatic incident with Britain. On his return from Europe in December 1861, he lived alone in New York City and at West Point, New York, where he wrote his memoirs and closely followed the ongoing civil war. After McClellan's defeat in the Seven Days Battles, Lincoln accepted Scott's advice and appointed General Halleck as the army's senior general. In 1864, Scott sent a copy of his newly published memoirs to Ulysses S. Grant, who had succeeded Halleck as the lead Union general. The copy that Scott sent was inscribed, "from the oldest to the greatest general." Following a strategy similar to Scott's Anaconda Plan, Grant led the Union to victory, and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia surrendered in April 1865.