Was John Schofield Schofield a good general?

[Rhea Cole]

Was it Thomas who also pioneered the use of mimeographed maps?

And man -- just imagine how those clerks under the awning were razzed by the troops.

In effect, yes.

Link:

Field Mapping | History of Mapping the Civil War | Articles and Essays | Civil War Maps | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

Although all successful field commanders realized the necessity of clearly understanding the lay of the land over which they were moving or fighting, some placed a higher value on mapping activities than others. Two eminent commanders that fall in this category are Generals William T. Sherman...

www.loc.gov

 

[Enoch L. Cade]

Thanks Rhea - and I see you already provided the link in an earlier message! - Duh. I'll read your whole post next time. Thank you.

 

[67th Tigers]

From what I understand, officers initially didn't qualify for the MOH. In the 1890's, the army decided to review who they thought should have received MOH. Schofield wasn't the only civil war general to get his MOH in the 1890's. That's when Stanley got his MOH as well.

Quite a while ago, I looked in the Congressional record and it said that Schofield's MOH recommendation was put forward by "friends of Schofield." That doesn't really prove anything either way. He did receive the MOH while he was General-in-Chief of the army.

Whilst the initial Act specified it was for enlisted men only, before the first medals were awarded in 1863, it had been revised to also be open to officers. It's just no officers were nominated.

The Army had nothing to do with post-war awards. It became fashionable for ex-soldiers to get the medal. To do so they simply applied to the War Department, self-certified a citation, and received it. Things were so bad that in 1897 the rules were amended that no-one could self-nominate, and no-one could self-certify the citation.

Schofield likely simply nominated himself, as was the norm.

In was 1918 before the MOH was revised to be "for services above and beyond..." and under the revised standards Schofield would certainly not be eligible. However, the Army did not want to revoke existing awards. The only revokations they agreed to was the 553 members of the 27th Maine who did not stay in service 4 days beyond their muster out date (but the whole regiment got the MOH). Eventually, the only test applied was the presence of the enemy, leading to 911 revokations.

 

[67th Tigers]

Was it Thomas who also pioneered the use of mimeographed maps?

And man -- just imagine how those clerks under the awning were razzed by the troops.

Mimeography, in it's modern form, wasn't invented until decades after the ACW.

The map printing used two of Margedant's facsimile devices. This was a photographic process, using silver nitrate, not mimeography.

 

[Enoch L. Cade]

Mimeography, in it's modern form, wasn't invented until decades after the ACW.

The map printing used two of Margedant's facsimile devices. This was a photographic process, using silver nitrate, not mimeography.

Right, thank you. I knew it was something within the "copying" genera, just uncertain of the subfamily.