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This engaging biography addresses all phases of the military career of John M. Schofield, beginning with his days as a West Point cadet in 1849 to his retirement as commanding general in 1895. Thereafter, he served as an informal adviser to President William McKinley in 1898. Donald B. Connelly persuasively contends that while Schofield displayed competent or skilled combat leadership as a Federal general in the Civil War, he was at his best in dealing with politics. According to Connelly's well-researched account, Schofield adeptly negotiated the labyrinth of civil-military relations during the Civil War and Reconstruction and usually handled internal army politics astutely. Though Schofield was not infallible, Connelly maintains that he seldom put a foot wrong during his army service. Schofield can be recognized for his leadership during the Civil War, especially as field commander or corps commander in 1864 at the battles of Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville, during Confederate general John B. Hood's Tennessee campaign. Connelly analyzes Schofield's decisions and actions in the battles that crippled Hood's army. But in 1862–1863 Schofield's skills as a senior officer in Missouri marked him as exceptional in dealing with politics, and Connelly convincingly demonstrates that wartime Missouri was one of the Union army's most difficult administrative assignments. Connelly explains how Schofield dealt cautiously with Radical Republicans but firmly with Confederates and pro-Confederate civilians. Guerrilla warfare and intense political rivalries made Missouri a hazardous place. President Abraham Lincoln noted that if members of opposing factions criticized Schofield, the general was treading a middle path.
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