The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-15

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10-Within a
few DAVIS another of those valiant war
riors of thirty years ago will pass out
of official existence. For more than
forty years the name of John NJ. Scho-
field has figured on The records of the
army. first among the cadets at West
Point and now among the command
ing officers. Old age is the merciless
cause of his retirement, but the sixty
ODD years of the veteran Sit lightly
upon him, and there is every inc cation
that many years of vigorous enjoyment
are still in store for him.
To rise to the rank of major-general,
commanding officer of the United
States army, has been the dream of
every youngster who wore the uniform
of the West Point cadet. In 1S49 a
country boy from Canandaigna, in
Chautauqua county, New York, en-
tered the military academy. He was
studious and quiet, cool and obedient,
a hard worker, but never brilliant,
One of his instructors said: Hell
make a safe soldier, a good man to
rely upon"
The country boy was John NJ Scho-
field. Others in his graduating class of
1853 passed with higher honors than he
did, and gave promise of more brilliant
careers. but the safe, StudiouS boy
triumphed in the end. 1t is the old
story Of Wellington and Napoleon
one conservative, mathematically eX-
act, calm and plodding, the other
meteoric, a genius, a worshipper at
tie shrine of destiny. Waterloo passed
judgment upon the abilities of the two
VII on, Io Of
General Schofeld .retires from the
army, after having obtained the thigh
est rank within its gift.
Ia the Atlanta Campaign.
Many years from now, in the histo-
ries to be written in the future General
Schofield will be a grander figure in
the closing years of the war than he
IS today. The campaign of Atlanta,
where the wonderful soldiers of the
COnfederacy, under General Joseph +.
Johnston, we're slowly ground to pieces,
lighting ana 1na5terfully retreating all
the time against overwhelming num-
bers and equipment, viii be the halo
surrounding the name of Schofeld in
years to come.
How much Of the success of that cam
paign was due to his Flooding persever-
ance, has never been accurately meas
ton given to Sherman. True, the orig
inal genius Of the campaign was Sher-
mans, but the responsibility of eXecu-
ton rested largely upon Schofield. He
1t was who carried out to the letter the
plan of his superior, overpowering I'M
forseen obstacles created by the vaga-
Ties of war; and letting nothing inter-
fere with the success Of the mission as
signed him.
81
Georgia campaign numbered il. 900 men.
1t was called the army of the Ohio.
ard had just passed through the Knox
Vile campaign. 1t was in May of 1864
that General Schofeld crossed the Ten
nessee line into northern Georgia,
where Sherman was concentrating his
forces FOR the final humiliation of the
stalwart remnant of the Ccnfederacy.
under Johnston.
Given Hazardous Work
In mapping out the campaign, Sher-
man decided that Schofield should
keep in the van occupying the atten-
ton of Johnston, by doing the demon
stra ting. This was a most hazardous
feature of the campaign, particularly
in deailDg with a soldier of Johnston's
great skill. But Schofield was equal to
the task, and in all the battles preced-
ing the fight for Atlanta, he was a
potent factor in driving the warriors
in grey slowly back from point to point
and meeting fierce resistance at every
stopping point. For Johnston excelled
in the art of holding his opponents at
bay while the rear Of his army built
Notifications and raised entertainments
five or six miles back.
There was fighting every day in that
campaign, and some of it rivaled in fe-
rocity the bitterest struggles of the
war. In the fight for Resaca, one of
Sehofeld's divisions commanded by Ju- /
dab had a terrific struggles, losing 600
men in a short time. When the main