John McAllister Schofield

Born in 1831 in Chautauqua County, New York, John McAllister Schofield graduated from West Point and began his career as an artillery officer and teacher. During the American Civil War he rose quickly through the Union ranks, serving in major commands in the Western Theater and playing important roles in the Atlanta Campaign and the fighting around Franklin and Nashville.

After the war, Schofield remained one of the most prominent officers in the U.S. Army. He served as secretary of war under President Andrew Johnson, later headed the Military Division of the Pacific and the Military Division of the Atlantic, and eventually became commanding general of the United States Army.

Schofield retired in the 1890s and died in 1906. Remembered as both a battlefield commander and an influential military administrator, he also left his own account of the era in his memoir, Forty-Six Years in the Army.