John M. Schofield & the Politics of Generalship

by Connelly, Donald B.

• ISBN13: 9780807830079
• ISBN10: 0807830070
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-17
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

In the first full biography of Lieutenant General John McAllister Schofield (1831-1906), Donald Connelly examines the career of one of the leading commanders in the western theater during the Civil War and the role of politics in the formulation of military policy during both war and peace in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Connelly relates how Schofield, as a department commander during the war, had to cope with contending political factions that sought to shape military and civil policies. Following the war, Schofield occupied every senior position in the army--including secretary of war and commanding general of the army--and became a leading champion of army reform and professionalism. He was the first senior officer to recognize that professionalism would come not from the separation of politics and the military but from the army's accommodation of politics and the often contentious American constitutional system. Seen through the lens of Schofield's extensive military career, the history of American civil-military relations has seldom involved conflict between the military and civil authority, Connelly argues. The central question has never been whether to have civilian control but rather which civilians have a say in the formulation and execution of policy.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(11)
Early Years	12	(11)
Saving Missouri	23	(17)
Take Care of Missouri	40	(23)
If Both Factions Shall Abuse You	63	(21)
Escape to the Front	84	(30)
The Franklin-Nashville Campaign	114	(33)
To the East---to the End	147	(30)
Soldier-Statesman	177	(27)
Secretary of War	204	(15)
The Rocky Road of Reform	219	(30)
The Mistake of My Life	249	(20)
Uncertain Future	269	(32)
Incremental Reformer	301	(22)
In Retirement and in Retrospect	323	(20)
Notes	343	(84)
Bibliography	427	(24)
Index	451