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On September 29 1831, John McAlister Schofield, American Major General (Union Army), was born in Gerry, New York (d. 1906). From the article:
"John McAllister Schofield (September 29, 1831 – March 4, 1906) was an American soldier who held major commands during the American Civil War. He later served as U.S. Secretary of War under Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant, and Commanding General of the United States Army.I
Early life
John McAllister Schofield was born September 29, 1831, in Gerry, Chautauqua County, New York, son of Rev. 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 would ultimately be buried in 1888.[1]
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.[2] 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.[3] Schofield graduated in 1853, ranking seventh in his class, and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the artillery.[4]
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 would be 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, Missouri.[2] 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 (and his brothers as discussed below) 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.[5]
Schofield was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on November 21, 1861, and to major general on November 29, 1862. From 1861 to 1863 he held various commands in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, most of the time in command of the Army of the Frontier. He was eventually relieved of duty in the West, at his own request, due to altercations with his superior Samuel R. Curtis.
On April 17, 1863, he took command of the 3rd Division in the XIV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. He returned to Missouri as commander of the Department of Missouri in 1863. His command in Missouri was marred by controversy after a massacre at Lawrence, Kansas, when Schofield refused to allow a posse to pursue the combatants into Missouri. Pro-Union Missourians sent a delegation to Washington DC in October to plead with President Lincoln to dismiss Schofield for sympathizing with pro-Confederate Bushwhacker para-military marauders who were attacking loyal Union citizens. Lincoln backed Schofield's position, attributed the carnage to wartime conditions rather than the commander's inadequacy, and instructed Schofield to respect civil liberties unless assemblies or newspapers were working palpable harm to the military.[6]
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 became embroiled in another controversy with the commander of the US XIV Corps (Volunteer), Major General John Palmer, who resigned rather than serve under Schofield, whom he considered to be of lower rank, but whom Gen. Sherman backed, at Utoy Creek (becoming the only resignation during a major operation in U.S. history, although Palmer was ultimately reassigned to Kentucky and helped assert federal control over that border state for three years). Schofield with his XXIII Corps and the XIV Corps then 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. He became embroiled in a further controversy, when placed under General Stanley commanding the US IV Corps, on August 30, 1864.
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.[7] 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.[4]
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 from his cabinet, from June 1868 to March 1869, Schofield served as Secretary of War, while Gen. Canby took command of the First Military District. Schofield served in an interim capacity until the United States Senate confirmed John Aaron Rawlins as Grant's Secretary of War.
Postbellum career
Schofield was promoted to major general 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 country's second largest.
Following 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).[8]
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.[10] 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.[11]
General Schofield received the Congressional Medal of Honor on July 2, 1892. During the unrest of the Pullman Strike, Schofield worked with President Cleveland in a discreet advisory role.[12][13][14][15] 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 would have 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 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.[16]
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.[17]
Emma Kilbourne
During his military career, perhaps because of his reformer image, Schofield would be dogged by accusations of favoritism toward family members. His brother George Wheeler Schofield (1833-1882) would also become a brevet Brigadier General of U.S. Volunteers during the American Civil War, originally volunteering with the 1st Missouri Volunteer Infantry in November 1861 and promoted to Captain in the 1st Missouri Light Artillery after the Siege of Vicksburg, and rising to command the 2nd Regiment Missouri Volunteer Light artillery and ultimately being commissioned as a Major in the Regular Army after the Civil War and serving in the 10th Cavalry and later the 6th Cavalry on the Western Frontier, and for whom the .45 caliber Smith and Wesson Schofield revolver was named. Another brother Charles Brewster Schofield (1849-1901) would graduate from West Point in 1870. C.B. Schofield would later serve as his Gen. J.M. Schofield's aide during the Indian Wars from 1878-1885. After rising to the rank of Captain during the Spanish–American War, he died of a heart attack in Matanzas, Cuba in 1901 and was also buried at Arlington National Cemetery. While Gen. John Schofield was in charge of Military District No. 1 in Virginia, his brother Elisha McAllister Schofield (1835-1882) was the assessor for the City of Richmond, Virginia and was among many killed on April 26, 1870 as a result of the collapse of the balcony during a session of the Virginia Court of Appeals. His son in law, Brig. Gen. Avery Delano Andrews and his wife Mary Campbell Schofield Andrews are also buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[18]
Death and legacy
Prior to 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.[19] 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.[4] 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, 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
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization:
Major, 1st Missouri Infantry. Place and date: At Wilsons Creek, Mo., August 10, 1861. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Born: September 29, 1831, Gerry, N.Y. Date of issue: July 2, 1892.
Citation:
Was conspicuously gallant in leading a regiment in a successful charge versus the enemy.[20][21]
The medal was recommended by Schofield himself when he was interim U.S. Secretary of War (1868–69). Historian Benson Bobrick is critical of this and notes the vagueness of the details in the citation.[5]
General Schofield was posthumously entitled to the Civil War Campaign Medal and the Indian Campaign Medal. Both medals were created in 1907, a year after Schofield died.
"John McAllister Schofield (September 29, 1831 – March 4, 1906) was an American soldier who held major commands during the American Civil War. He later served as U.S. Secretary of War under Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant, and Commanding General of the United States Army.I
Early life
John McAllister Schofield was born September 29, 1831, in Gerry, Chautauqua County, New York, son of Rev. 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 would ultimately be buried in 1888.[1]
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.[2] 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.[3] Schofield graduated in 1853, ranking seventh in his class, and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the artillery.[4]
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 would be 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, Missouri.[2] 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 (and his brothers as discussed below) 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.[5]
Schofield was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on November 21, 1861, and to major general on November 29, 1862. From 1861 to 1863 he held various commands in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, most of the time in command of the Army of the Frontier. He was eventually relieved of duty in the West, at his own request, due to altercations with his superior Samuel R. Curtis.
On April 17, 1863, he took command of the 3rd Division in the XIV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. He returned to Missouri as commander of the Department of Missouri in 1863. His command in Missouri was marred by controversy after a massacre at Lawrence, Kansas, when Schofield refused to allow a posse to pursue the combatants into Missouri. Pro-Union Missourians sent a delegation to Washington DC in October to plead with President Lincoln to dismiss Schofield for sympathizing with pro-Confederate Bushwhacker para-military marauders who were attacking loyal Union citizens. Lincoln backed Schofield's position, attributed the carnage to wartime conditions rather than the commander's inadequacy, and instructed Schofield to respect civil liberties unless assemblies or newspapers were working palpable harm to the military.[6]
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 became embroiled in another controversy with the commander of the US XIV Corps (Volunteer), Major General John Palmer, who resigned rather than serve under Schofield, whom he considered to be of lower rank, but whom Gen. Sherman backed, at Utoy Creek (becoming the only resignation during a major operation in U.S. history, although Palmer was ultimately reassigned to Kentucky and helped assert federal control over that border state for three years). Schofield with his XXIII Corps and the XIV Corps then 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. He became embroiled in a further controversy, when placed under General Stanley commanding the US IV Corps, on August 30, 1864.
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.[7] 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.[4]
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 from his cabinet, from June 1868 to March 1869, Schofield served as Secretary of War, while Gen. Canby took command of the First Military District. Schofield served in an interim capacity until the United States Senate confirmed John Aaron Rawlins as Grant's Secretary of War.
Postbellum career
Schofield was promoted to major general 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 country's second largest.
Following 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).[8]
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.[10] 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.[11]
General Schofield received the Congressional Medal of Honor on July 2, 1892. During the unrest of the Pullman Strike, Schofield worked with President Cleveland in a discreet advisory role.[12][13][14][15] 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 would have 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 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.[16]
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.[17]
Emma Kilbourne
During his military career, perhaps because of his reformer image, Schofield would be dogged by accusations of favoritism toward family members. His brother George Wheeler Schofield (1833-1882) would also become a brevet Brigadier General of U.S. Volunteers during the American Civil War, originally volunteering with the 1st Missouri Volunteer Infantry in November 1861 and promoted to Captain in the 1st Missouri Light Artillery after the Siege of Vicksburg, and rising to command the 2nd Regiment Missouri Volunteer Light artillery and ultimately being commissioned as a Major in the Regular Army after the Civil War and serving in the 10th Cavalry and later the 6th Cavalry on the Western Frontier, and for whom the .45 caliber Smith and Wesson Schofield revolver was named. Another brother Charles Brewster Schofield (1849-1901) would graduate from West Point in 1870. C.B. Schofield would later serve as his Gen. J.M. Schofield's aide during the Indian Wars from 1878-1885. After rising to the rank of Captain during the Spanish–American War, he died of a heart attack in Matanzas, Cuba in 1901 and was also buried at Arlington National Cemetery. While Gen. John Schofield was in charge of Military District No. 1 in Virginia, his brother Elisha McAllister Schofield (1835-1882) was the assessor for the City of Richmond, Virginia and was among many killed on April 26, 1870 as a result of the collapse of the balcony during a session of the Virginia Court of Appeals. His son in law, Brig. Gen. Avery Delano Andrews and his wife Mary Campbell Schofield Andrews are also buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[18]
Death and legacy
Prior to 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.[19] 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.[4] 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, 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
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization:
Major, 1st Missouri Infantry. Place and date: At Wilsons Creek, Mo., August 10, 1861. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Born: September 29, 1831, Gerry, N.Y. Date of issue: July 2, 1892.
Citation:
Was conspicuously gallant in leading a regiment in a successful charge versus the enemy.[20][21]
The medal was recommended by Schofield himself when he was interim U.S. Secretary of War (1868–69). Historian Benson Bobrick is critical of this and notes the vagueness of the details in the citation.[5]
General Schofield was posthumously entitled to the Civil War Campaign Medal and the Indian Campaign Medal. Both medals were created in 1907, a year after Schofield died.
John Schofield - Wikipedia
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Thank you for reminding us my friend SGT (Join to see) that on September 29, 1831 future USMA, West Point graduate, Federal Major General in the Civil War and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor John M. Schofield.
As a plebe cadet at USMA in 1976 I had to memorize Schofield's Definition of Discipline:
Schofield’s Definition of Discipline
“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 to give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice 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 the 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 regard for himself, while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his inferiors, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.”
Major General John M. Schofield
Address to the Corps of Cadets, U.S. Military Academy
August 11, 1879
Micro-management occurred in the US Civil War long before instant communications was achieved via Radio. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set forth the duties of Maj Gen Schofield in command in Missouri: 1. Advance efficiency of military establishment. 2. Arrest individuals and suppress newspapers when they are working injury to military. 3. Remove inhabitants en masse at own discretion. 4. Do not engage in returning fugitive slaves nor in enticing slaves from their homes. 5. Allow no one to enlist Negro troops except upon orders. 6. Allow no one to confiscate property except upon orders. 7. Allow only those qualified under Missouri laws to vote. 8. So far as practicable, expel guerrillas, marauders, and murderers.
Espionage in the Civil War. Truth can be stranger than fiction.
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/what-was-the-most-significant-event-on-october-1-during-the-u-s-civil-war?urlhash=2283317
From .westpointaog.org/page.aspx?pid=4329
"SCHOFIELD'S DEFINITION OF DISCIPLINE
Most graduates can recite verbatim Schofield’s Definition of Discipline that begins, “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.” Said definition being delivered with chin squeezed dramatically back at the command of an upperclassman often caused the Plebe involved to lament the fact that he himself was the victim of both harsh and tyrannical treatment. What most do not recall is that this definition constituted only two-thirds of one paragraph in a much longer address on the “venerable vice of hazing” delivered to the Corps of Cadets on 11 August 1879 by MG John M. Schofield, Class of 1853, Superintendent from 1 September 1876 to 21 January 1881. The Corps of Cadets at the time numbered only about 240, with the Class of 1880 subsequently graduating only 52.
Schofield began his little presentation on a congenial note by stating:
“Young gentlemen, I have some words to say to you, and I will try to detain you no longer than may be necessary. I have chosen this mode, rather than that of a printed order, of saying what I wish to strongly impress upon your minds, partly because I am doing my duty toward you, as your instructor, quite as much as my duty toward the Government as your commander.”
He then indicated that he wished to speak to them about “the treatment of New Cadets by their Seniors in the Corps.” He did not hold them responsible as individuals for the increase in hazing that appeared following the Civil War. “The practice of hazing has prevailed in most, if not all, of the institutions of learning, both in this country and in England, for many generations. It has always been condemned by the more enlightened, and generally denounced by the regulations.”
He then compared hazing to slavery, robbery (of human rights), wanton arson and the tendency of small boys to bully their even smaller neighbors. He concluded that “The practice of hazing is both injurious and humiliating to its victims and degrading to those who engage in it.” He then added a practical note: “Your constant associates after you leave the Academy must be the members of higher and lower classes. The memory of ill-treatment will remain with its victim as long as he lives. You can never be a ‘brother officer’ to him whom you once degraded. The stern discipline of a commanding officer will soon be forgotten when it can be remembered that he always treated his subordinates with justice and due respect. But wanton injustice and contumely can never be forgotten, except by a spirit too mean to feel its sting.”
He warned that hazing at West Point does not even warrant “the poor excuse that is urged for it at civilian colleges. For the military discipline and instruction which all new cadets must necessarily undergo, are quite sufficient to cure them of any undue egotism with which they may be afflicted upon entering the Academy. But no consideration of mere utility, even if that could be fairly urged, could justify the violation of individual rights. Hazing is essentially criminal and must therefore be suppressed.”
“Like all vicious and illegal indulgences, the practice of hazing tends toward revolting extremes. In former times at West Point it was confined, with rare exceptions, to comparatively harmless sport. Sometimes the treatment was quite rough and accompanied by more or less of vulgarity. But any approximation to degrading or insulting treatment was almost unknown.” Plebes on guard duty at night at summer camp notoriously were subjected to rough handling by “ghosts” bedeviling them by spiriting away their weapons or tossing the Plebe guards themselves into ravines. “But by degrees, here as elsewhere, the poison seems to have spread and become more and more virulent, until now [new cadets] are subjected to degrading treatment, such as no gentleman can possibly justify or defend.”
“The very foundation of civil society is mutual respect for individual rights. And nowhere is such mutual respect more strictly enjoined and rigidly enforced than in military organizations. Without it, tyranny on the one hand and disaffection and mutiny on the other must destroy the efficiency of an army.”
“The most odious of all forms of tyranny is the tyranny of a mob; that is, of an unlawful combination of many persons to overawe an individual and compel him to submit to wrong, or deter him from the exercise of his rights or the denunciation of those who have wronged him.”
He then again reinforced the notion that the best and most successful commanders enacted justice tempered by kindness and then spoke those words quoted much earlier and learned verbatim by every cadet as “Schofield’s Definition of Discipline.” But he went on to say that the differences among men often are less than imagined. The Yearling thinks himself far superior to the naïve and confused New Cadet, but to the disinterested observer, the difference is barely perceptible.
“A veteran soldier sees but little difference between the different grades, from his own down to that of a junior cadet, and treats them all with nearly equal respect. It would be well for young soldiers to profit by such examples. The road to military honor will be guarded all the way by the hearts of those who may be your subordinates. You cannot travel that road unless you can command those hearts.”
He again reminded them that hazing is universally condemned, with the only defense offered that it is indulged in by boys too young to know better. “Are you, young gentlemen, willing to be regarded as boys? To be treated as boys, who are not old enough to know better? No! I have disdained on your behalf to consider the subject in this light. You are old enough and have sense enough to see this matter in its true light.” Instead, he believed, that many cadets suffered from the practices that may have been common in other educational institutions, from the influence of rough companions, and most of all from “inheritance of a vicious practice which has so long been indulged here . . . . But now, since the view of it entertained by those in authority has been clearly pointed out to you, I shall not give my assent to the proposition that you are not old enough to understand it, or that you are not men and gentlemen enough to accept and act upon it . . . . I trust that we now clearly understand each other and know what our line of conduct in the future must be.”
John McAllister Schofield, the son of a prominent minister, was questionably dismissed from the Academy but then graduated seventh of 52 men in his class; taught at West Point in the Department of Philosophy from 1855 to 1860 (and married Harriet Bartlett, the daughter of his department head, in 1857); was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions as a major, 1st Missouri Infantry, during the bloody Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, on 10 August 1861; commanded at multiple levels during the Civil War; was held in high regard by President Lincoln and Generals Grant, Sherman and Thomas (for brave leadership at the Battle of Franklin, TN); served on a diplomatic mission to France regarding withdrawal of their forces in Mexico; retired from the Army as General-in-Chief in 1895; and served as president of the Association of Graduates from 1900 until his death in 1906. And now you know the rest of the story of Schofield’s Definition of Discipline.
Your humble servant, J. Phoenix, Esquire."
FYI LTC Bill Koski CW5 (Join to see) MSG Brad Sand SGM Steve Wettstein SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO1 John Miller SP5 Robert Ruck SPC (Join to see) PO3 Steven Sherrill SN Greg Wright Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey TSgt Joe C. Cpl Joshua Caldwell SGT Michael Thorin SP5 Dave (Shotgun) Shockley SPC Margaret Higgins
As a plebe cadet at USMA in 1976 I had to memorize Schofield's Definition of Discipline:
Schofield’s Definition of Discipline
“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 to give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice 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 the 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 regard for himself, while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his inferiors, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.”
Major General John M. Schofield
Address to the Corps of Cadets, U.S. Military Academy
August 11, 1879
Micro-management occurred in the US Civil War long before instant communications was achieved via Radio. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set forth the duties of Maj Gen Schofield in command in Missouri: 1. Advance efficiency of military establishment. 2. Arrest individuals and suppress newspapers when they are working injury to military. 3. Remove inhabitants en masse at own discretion. 4. Do not engage in returning fugitive slaves nor in enticing slaves from their homes. 5. Allow no one to enlist Negro troops except upon orders. 6. Allow no one to confiscate property except upon orders. 7. Allow only those qualified under Missouri laws to vote. 8. So far as practicable, expel guerrillas, marauders, and murderers.
Espionage in the Civil War. Truth can be stranger than fiction.
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/what-was-the-most-significant-event-on-october-1-during-the-u-s-civil-war?urlhash=2283317
From .westpointaog.org/page.aspx?pid=4329
"SCHOFIELD'S DEFINITION OF DISCIPLINE
Most graduates can recite verbatim Schofield’s Definition of Discipline that begins, “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.” Said definition being delivered with chin squeezed dramatically back at the command of an upperclassman often caused the Plebe involved to lament the fact that he himself was the victim of both harsh and tyrannical treatment. What most do not recall is that this definition constituted only two-thirds of one paragraph in a much longer address on the “venerable vice of hazing” delivered to the Corps of Cadets on 11 August 1879 by MG John M. Schofield, Class of 1853, Superintendent from 1 September 1876 to 21 January 1881. The Corps of Cadets at the time numbered only about 240, with the Class of 1880 subsequently graduating only 52.
Schofield began his little presentation on a congenial note by stating:
“Young gentlemen, I have some words to say to you, and I will try to detain you no longer than may be necessary. I have chosen this mode, rather than that of a printed order, of saying what I wish to strongly impress upon your minds, partly because I am doing my duty toward you, as your instructor, quite as much as my duty toward the Government as your commander.”
He then indicated that he wished to speak to them about “the treatment of New Cadets by their Seniors in the Corps.” He did not hold them responsible as individuals for the increase in hazing that appeared following the Civil War. “The practice of hazing has prevailed in most, if not all, of the institutions of learning, both in this country and in England, for many generations. It has always been condemned by the more enlightened, and generally denounced by the regulations.”
He then compared hazing to slavery, robbery (of human rights), wanton arson and the tendency of small boys to bully their even smaller neighbors. He concluded that “The practice of hazing is both injurious and humiliating to its victims and degrading to those who engage in it.” He then added a practical note: “Your constant associates after you leave the Academy must be the members of higher and lower classes. The memory of ill-treatment will remain with its victim as long as he lives. You can never be a ‘brother officer’ to him whom you once degraded. The stern discipline of a commanding officer will soon be forgotten when it can be remembered that he always treated his subordinates with justice and due respect. But wanton injustice and contumely can never be forgotten, except by a spirit too mean to feel its sting.”
He warned that hazing at West Point does not even warrant “the poor excuse that is urged for it at civilian colleges. For the military discipline and instruction which all new cadets must necessarily undergo, are quite sufficient to cure them of any undue egotism with which they may be afflicted upon entering the Academy. But no consideration of mere utility, even if that could be fairly urged, could justify the violation of individual rights. Hazing is essentially criminal and must therefore be suppressed.”
“Like all vicious and illegal indulgences, the practice of hazing tends toward revolting extremes. In former times at West Point it was confined, with rare exceptions, to comparatively harmless sport. Sometimes the treatment was quite rough and accompanied by more or less of vulgarity. But any approximation to degrading or insulting treatment was almost unknown.” Plebes on guard duty at night at summer camp notoriously were subjected to rough handling by “ghosts” bedeviling them by spiriting away their weapons or tossing the Plebe guards themselves into ravines. “But by degrees, here as elsewhere, the poison seems to have spread and become more and more virulent, until now [new cadets] are subjected to degrading treatment, such as no gentleman can possibly justify or defend.”
“The very foundation of civil society is mutual respect for individual rights. And nowhere is such mutual respect more strictly enjoined and rigidly enforced than in military organizations. Without it, tyranny on the one hand and disaffection and mutiny on the other must destroy the efficiency of an army.”
“The most odious of all forms of tyranny is the tyranny of a mob; that is, of an unlawful combination of many persons to overawe an individual and compel him to submit to wrong, or deter him from the exercise of his rights or the denunciation of those who have wronged him.”
He then again reinforced the notion that the best and most successful commanders enacted justice tempered by kindness and then spoke those words quoted much earlier and learned verbatim by every cadet as “Schofield’s Definition of Discipline.” But he went on to say that the differences among men often are less than imagined. The Yearling thinks himself far superior to the naïve and confused New Cadet, but to the disinterested observer, the difference is barely perceptible.
“A veteran soldier sees but little difference between the different grades, from his own down to that of a junior cadet, and treats them all with nearly equal respect. It would be well for young soldiers to profit by such examples. The road to military honor will be guarded all the way by the hearts of those who may be your subordinates. You cannot travel that road unless you can command those hearts.”
He again reminded them that hazing is universally condemned, with the only defense offered that it is indulged in by boys too young to know better. “Are you, young gentlemen, willing to be regarded as boys? To be treated as boys, who are not old enough to know better? No! I have disdained on your behalf to consider the subject in this light. You are old enough and have sense enough to see this matter in its true light.” Instead, he believed, that many cadets suffered from the practices that may have been common in other educational institutions, from the influence of rough companions, and most of all from “inheritance of a vicious practice which has so long been indulged here . . . . But now, since the view of it entertained by those in authority has been clearly pointed out to you, I shall not give my assent to the proposition that you are not old enough to understand it, or that you are not men and gentlemen enough to accept and act upon it . . . . I trust that we now clearly understand each other and know what our line of conduct in the future must be.”
John McAllister Schofield, the son of a prominent minister, was questionably dismissed from the Academy but then graduated seventh of 52 men in his class; taught at West Point in the Department of Philosophy from 1855 to 1860 (and married Harriet Bartlett, the daughter of his department head, in 1857); was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions as a major, 1st Missouri Infantry, during the bloody Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, on 10 August 1861; commanded at multiple levels during the Civil War; was held in high regard by President Lincoln and Generals Grant, Sherman and Thomas (for brave leadership at the Battle of Franklin, TN); served on a diplomatic mission to France regarding withdrawal of their forces in Mexico; retired from the Army as General-in-Chief in 1895; and served as president of the Association of Graduates from 1900 until his death in 1906. And now you know the rest of the story of Schofield’s Definition of Discipline.
Your humble servant, J. Phoenix, Esquire."
FYI LTC Bill Koski CW5 (Join to see) MSG Brad Sand SGM Steve Wettstein SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO1 John Miller SP5 Robert Ruck SPC (Join to see) PO3 Steven Sherrill SN Greg Wright Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey TSgt Joe C. Cpl Joshua Caldwell SGT Michael Thorin SP5 Dave (Shotgun) Shockley SPC Margaret Higgins
What was the most significant event on October 1 during the U.S. Civil War? | RallyPoint
Autumn during the civil war was a time of changing colors in vegetation and colder weather in the northern areas of the battlefields. It was also a time of campaigning before the cold of winter set in. Short campaigns would conclude by the first frost. However, the sieges would continue throughout the winter in places like Petersburg in 1864 to 1865. In the early fall of 1861, southern leadership eagerly sought to leverage the decisive victory...
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
LTC Stephen F. SGT (Join to see) Sad to Say Like Many Others having been stationed in Hawaii I Knew of Schofield Barracks but No Knowledge of the Man.
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Very interesting share. Spent some time at Schofield Barracks in the 80s.
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