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.
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.
Content retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Schofield.