Schofield, John McAllister, 1831-1906

Biography

John McAllister Schofield was born on September 29, 1831. Educated in public schools he taught for one year in Oneco, Illionos before securing an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Schofield served for two years in the artillary in South Carololina and Florida where he contracted fevers and dysentry. Upon regaining his health, First Lieutenant Schofield returned to West Point as assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy from 1855 to 1860. During the Civil War 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 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. 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. In 1864 he became commander of the Army of the Ohio. 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. During Reconstruction, President Johnson appointed Schofield to serve as military governor of Virginia and of the First Military District. From June 1868 to March 1869, Schofield served as Secretary of War, until the United States Senate confirmed John Aaron Rawlins as Grant's Secretary of War. He died on March 4, 1906.

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