John Schofield facts for kids
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John Schofield
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| Commanding General of the U.S. Army | |
| In office August 14, 1888 – September 29, 1895 |
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| President | Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | Philip Sheridan |
| Succeeded by | Nelson A. Miles |
| 28th United States Secretary of War | |
| In office June 1, 1868 – March 13, 1869 |
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| President | Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant |
| Preceded by | Edwin Stanton |
| Succeeded by | John Aaron Rawlins |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
John McAllister Schofield
September 29, 1831 Gerry, New York, U.S. |
| Died | March 4, 1906 (aged 74) St. Augustine, Florida, U.S. |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Political party | Republican |
| Education | United States Military Academy (BS) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States• Union |
| Branch/service | United States Army • Union Army |
| Years of service | 1853–1860 1861–1895 |
| Rank |  Lieutenant General |
| Commands | Superintendent of the United States Military Academy (1876–1881) Army of the Frontier Department of the Missouri XXIII Corps Army of the Ohio |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | Medal of Honor |
John McAllister Schofield (September 29, 1831 – March 4, 1906) was an American soldier who held major commands during the American Civil War. He was appointed U.S. Secretary of War (1868–1869) under President Andrew Johnson and later served as Commanding General of the United States Army (1888–1895).
Contents
Early life
John McAllister Schofield was born September 29, 1831, in Gerry, Chautauqua County, New York, the son of the Reverend James Schofield (1801–1888) and his first wife, the former Caroline (McAllister) Schofield (1810–1857). His father, a Baptist minister in Sinclairville became a domestic missionary and moved his family (which then included six children and would include 10 who survived infancy) to Bristol, Illinois. When John was 12, they finally settled in Freeport, Illinois, where Rev. Schofield became the town's first Baptist minister in 1845, and where he was ultimately buried in 1888.
As a young man John Schofield was educated in the public schools, helped his family farm and build their home, and then surveyed land in northern Wisconsin before spending a year teaching school in Oneco, Illinois not far from Freeport. Then U.S. Rep. Thomas J. Turner secured John Schofield an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He sold land for travel expenses and reported on June 1, 1849. In his final year at the Academy, while a teaching assistant in the mathematics section, cadet Schofield was accused of allowing others in his classroom to make offensive jokes and drawings on the blackboard. He was dismissed from West Point, but after meeting with Illinois' U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, appealed the decision to the Secretary of War, who referred the matter back to a Board of Inquiry at the Academy. A majority of the review board voted to rescind the expulsion, but one of the two officers who voted to sustain it, cavalry and artillery instructor Lt. George H. Thomas, later became a commander of Schofield during the Civil War. Although Schofield's eventual memoirs did not mention Thomas on the review board, his persistent criticism of Thomas's generalship after the war may reflect this incident. Schofield graduated in 1853, ranking seventh in his class, and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the artillery.
Schofield served for two years in the artillery. His first post was at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, which he later noted involved the same guns that were used to bombard Fort Sumter in 1861. He then served at various places in Florida during the armed truce with the Seminole Nation, but contracted fevers and dysentery and was ultimately evacuated (with the assistance of future Confederate General A. P. Hill) and recovered at Culpeper, Virginia.
Upon regaining his health, First Lieutenant Schofield returned to West Point as assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy from 1855 to 1860. His career seemed stalled, so he took leave (1860–1861), to work as professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis. Several of his brothers had settled in St. Louis, following the lead of his eldest brother Rev. James Van Pelt Schofield (1825–1898).
Civil War
When the Civil War broke out, Schofield helped assure Missouri did not join the Confederacy. He became a major in the 1st Missouri Infantry Regiment and served as chief of staff to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon until Lyon's death during the Battle of Wilson's Creek (Missouri) in August 1861. Schofield acted with "conspicuous gallantry" during the battle, and decades later received the Medal of Honor for that action.
Schofield was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on November 21, 1861. From 1861 to 1863 he held various commands in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. He commanded the District of St Louis from that date to 10 April 1862, the Military District of Missouri from 5 June to 24 September 1862, and the District of Southwest Missouri to 10 November 1862. He led the Army of the Frontier from 12 October 1862 to 30 May 1863. He was promoted to major general of volunteers on November 29, 1862 at the age of 31, making him one of the youngest major generals in the Civil War.
On 30 September 1862, a Federal brigade suffered a defeat at the First Battle of Newtonia in southwest Missouri. Both James G. Blunt and Schofield rushed to Newtonia, Missouri with reinforcements and sent the Confederate force fleeing south into Arkansas. The department commander Samuel Ryan Curtis created the Army of the Frontier with Schofield in command. Blunt led the 1st Division, James Totten the 2nd Division, and Francis J. Herron the 3rd Division. The army numbered 20,000 men, but probably 14,000 were fit for duty. Schofield's army crossed into northwest Arkansas on 17 October. Blunt's division soon moved west into Indian Territory where it won the Battle of Old Fort Wayne on 22 October. Meanwhile, Schofield with the 2nd and 3rd Divisions occupied Huntsville, Arkansas. Schofield's troops clashed with forces led by Thomas C. Hindman, and the Confederates retreated south on 29 October. On 4 November, with the approval of Curtis, Schofield's two divisions withdrew northeast to Springfield, Missouri while Blunt's division remained in northwest Arkansas.
He was eventually relieved of duty in the West, at his own request, due to altercations with his superior Samuel R. Curtis.
From 17 April to 10 May 1863, Schofield led the 3rd Division in the XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland. He returned to Missouri as commander of the Department of Missouri from 24 May 1863 to 30 January 1864.
In 1864, as commander of the Army of the Ohio, Schofield participated in the Atlanta Campaign under Major General William T. Sherman. Sherman placed him in command of a major operation to break the rail lines in late July 1864. Schofield with his XXIII Corps and the XIV Corps spent the month in front of Atlanta and East Point with lackluster results. Sherman resorted to a flanking movement to defeat the Confederates under Hood. Schofield was sent to cut off Hardee's retreat at Jonesboro but failed to move.
Sherman, after the fall of Atlanta, took the majority of his forces on a March to the Sea through Georgia. Schofield's Army of the Ohio was detached to join Major General George H. Thomas in Tennessee. When Confederate General John Bell Hood invaded Tennessee and nearly cut off Schofield's command at Spring Hill, Hood's rash assault to regain momentum at the subsequent Battle of Franklin resulted in a significant defeat. On December 15–16, Schofield took part in Thomas's crowning victory at the Battle of Nashville where Hood's Army of Tennessee was decisively defeated, and effectively destroyed as a fighting force for the remainder of the war. However, during the buildup towards the battle Schofield intrigued against Thomas, feeding Grant false information, in order to try to succeed his senior in command. For his services at Franklin he was awarded the rank of brigadier general in the regular army on November 30, 1864, and the brevet rank of major general on March 13, 1865.
Ordered to operate with Sherman in North Carolina, Schofield moved his corps by rail and sea to Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in 17 days, occupied Wilmington on February 22, 1865, fought the action at Kinston on March 10, and on March 23, joined Sherman at Goldsboro.
Reconstruction
After the war, President Andrew Johnson sent Schofield on a special diplomatic mission to France, urging withdrawal of French troops in Mexico. General Schofield also joined the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society composed of officers of the Union armed forces and their descendants. After retiring from active duty, Schofield served as the Order's commander-in-chief (from 1899 to 1903).
During Reconstruction, President Johnson appointed Schofield to serve as military governor of Virginia and of the First Military District. Thus, he oversaw the elections (in which blacks and whites voted) which resulted in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868. When Radicals took over that convention and proposed to disenfranchise former Confederates Schofield voiced concerns about corruption to Congress as well as his commander, General Ulysses Grant. Schofield's position was of high importance and sensitivity, due to the region's proximity to Washington as well as Confederate President Jefferson Davis's incarceration in Norfolk and awaiting trial under Judge John Curtiss Underwood, who chaired the Constitutional Convention and had close links with Congressional Republicans. After President Johnson forced Edwin M. Stanton, a Radical Republican who had served as Secretary of War since 1862, to resign, Schofield served as Secretary of War from June 1868 to March 1869.
Postbellum career
Schofield was promoted to major general in the Regular Army on March 4, 1869, the same day General Ulysses S. Grant was sworn in as president of the United States. Schofield then served for a year as head of the Department of Missouri, the Army's second largest military department.
Following General George Thomas' death, Schofield succeeded him in commanding the Military Division of the Pacific, the country's largest.
In 1873, Schofield was given a secret task by Secretary of War William Belknap to investigate the strategic potential of a United States presence in the Hawaiian Islands. Schofield's report recommended that the United States establish a naval port at Pearl Harbor.
Starting in 1876 until 1881, Schofield became superintendent of the United States Military Academy. A major focus was reducing hazing and increasing professionalism within the academy. In 1878, Schofield drew the ire of Radical Republicans when President Rutherford B. Hayes asked him to reopen the case of Major General Fitz John Porter, who had been convicted by a court-martial for cowardice and disobedience at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Schofield's review board used new evidence from Confederate generals who had participated in the battle, and then found that Porter had been wrongly convicted and that his actions might have saved the entire Union army from complete defeat caused by the ineptitude of Maj. Gens. John Pope and Irvin McDowell.
On April 5, 1880, an African American cadet at West Point, Johnson Chesnut Whittaker, was found bruised and beaten in his cot. He claimed that he had been attacked by fellow cadets, but the administration claimed he had fabricated his story to win sympathy. Whittaker was court-martialed and expelled for allegedly faking an assault on himself staged by his fellow cadets. A Congressional investigation into the incident resulted in Schofield's removal from his post as superintendent in 1881.
Schofield then served in the Department of the Gulf (1881–82), the Military Division of the Pacific (1882–83), the Military Division of the Missouri (1883–86), and the Military Division of the Atlantic (1886–88). He also went to France to witness military maneuvers there. Gen. Schofield was also the first President of the Army and Navy Club (founded 1885, incorporated 1891).
Upon the death of General Philip Sheridan in 1888, General Schofield, by virtue of his seniority in rank, became the commanding general of the United States Army. He supported military professionalism, including subordination to the civilian Secretary of War. Schofield also supported adoption of lineal promotions and initiated performance reviews which limited political patronage considerations from the promotion process. Writing from South Dakota, General Schofield seconded a report of General Thomas H. Ruger which urged the federal government to honor treaty obligations with Native Americans.
General Schofield received the Medal of Honor on July 2, 1892 for his actions at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in 1861. During the unrest of the Pullman Strike, Schofield worked with President Cleveland in a discreet advisory role. On February 5, 1895, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. Lieutenant General Schofield retired on September 29, 1895, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64.
However, he remained active in government affairs, supporting Elihu Root, testifying before congressional committees in support of the Army Reorganization Act of 1901 and the Dick Act of 1903 which established the U.S. National Guard.
Personal life
John Schofield married Harriet Whitehorn Bartlett, daughter of W.F.C. Bartlett (Chairman of West Point's Department of Philosophy) and they had two daughters and four sons. Two sons, John (1858–1868) and Henry (1862–1863), died before reaching adulthood. William Bartlett Schofield (1860–1906) survived to adulthood and began a U.S. Army career, rising to Major, as did Richmond McAlister Schofield (1867–1941). After Harriet died in 1888, she was buried with her father and son John in the United States Military Academy Post cemetery.
At age 60, in Keokuk, Iowa in June 1891, Schofield remarried, to 27-year-old Georgia Wells Kilbourne, with whom he had a daughter, Georgiana. Georgia Wells Kilbourne was a native of Keokuk, Iowa. She was the daughter of George Kilbourne, and was named Georgia for her father. She attended school in New York, and afterwards studied abroad. General Schofield and Kilbourne were married in 1891. Her mother, Mrs. Kilbourne, and her younger sister, Miss Emma Kilbourne, spent a part of the year at her Washington home. Emma Kilbourne had a literary predilection, devoting much of her time to reading and study.
Death and legacy
Before his death, Schofield became the last surviving member of Andrew Johnson's cabinet. His memoirs, Forty-six Years in the Army, were published in 1897. General Schofield became an honorary companion of the Military Order of Foreign Wars.
General Schofield died at St. Augustine, Florida on March 4, 1906. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Schofield Barracks, Hawaii are named in his honor.
Today, Schofield is also remembered for a lengthy quotation that all cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, The Citadel, Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, and the United States Air Force Academy are required to memorize. It is an excerpt from his graduation address to the class of 1879 at West Point:
The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling, but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or other of dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them respect for himself. While he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect towards others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.
– John M. Schofield
Dates of rank
| Insignia | Rank | Date | Component |
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Brevet Second Lieutenant | July 1, 1853 | 2nd Artillery |
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Second Lieutenant | August 31, 1853 | 1st Artillery |
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First Lieutenant | March 3, 1855 | 1st Artillery |
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Major | April 26, 1861 | 1st Missouri Infantry |
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Captain | May 14, 1861 | 1st Artillery |
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Major | June 26, 1861 | 1st Missouri Artillery |
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Brigadier General | November 21, 1861 | Volunteers |
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Major General | November 29, 1862 | Volunteers |
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Brigadier General | March 4, 1863 | Volunteers |
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Major General | May 12, 1863 | Volunteers |
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Brigadier General | November 30, 1864 | Regular Army |
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Brevet Major General | March 13, 1865 | Regular Army |
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Major General | March 4, 1869 | Regular Army |
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Lieutenant General | February 5, 1895 | Regular Army |
See also
In Spanish: John McAllister Schofield para niños
- List of Medal of Honor recipients
- List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: Q–S
- List of American Civil War generals (Union)
