{"id":144962,"date":"2023-07-28T08:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=144962"},"modified":"2023-07-27T13:31:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T17:31:33","slug":"valor-friday-235","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=144962","title":{"rendered":"Valor Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Liet. Gen. John Schofield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Veterans of modern times will be aware that sometimes, if you want recognition for your actions, you gotta be proactive. Want to get some promotion points by getting a medal or two? If you do all the leg work on writing up the awards package, the likelihood of receiving the award go up exponentially. \u201cNobody cares about your career as much as you do,\u201d was the advice I was once given, and I found it to be very true.<\/p>\n

Historically, this also appears to be the case. I\u2019ve detailed the history of the American awards and decorations system before. The nation\u2019s highest award for combat gallantry, the Medal of Honor, was instituted during the Civil War. Until World War I, it was the only such award.<\/p>\n

Of the more than 3,500 Medals of Honor awarded since that time, more than 1,500 were awarded for actions during the Civil War. I can\u2019t find exact numbers, but many of those awards were years and decades after the conflict. More than 500 were awarded during the years 1891-1897.<\/p>\n

This happened because the War Department, upon anyone\u2019s petition, would make an award with virtually no supporting evidence or documentation. It wasn\u2019t until 1897 that the Secretary of War would make it more burdensome to receive such an honor. Applications would need to be made within one year of the action. In the next several years, regulations were added that prohibited self-nominations and required nominations to be made by those with first-hand knowledge of the events described.<\/p>\n

I went down this rabbit hole (read more about it here<\/a>) by way of a request. One of our members came across the name of Lieutenant General John Schofield, MoH recipient, Commanding General of the US Army, Secretary of War, and namesake of the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. He nominated himself (when he was interim Secretary of War no less) for the MoH.<\/p>\n

Schofield undoubtedly had a long and distinguished career in the service of our country. He started his service by graduating West Point, rose to brevet brigadier general very early in the Civil War, and saw action at Wilson\u2019s Creek, Missouri. He was one of the youngest major generals in the Union Army a year later. He saw extensive service in the Trans-Mississippi Theater and then commanded an army during the Atlanta Campaign under Sherman. Post-war, he was Secretary of War (1868-1869) under Presidents Johnson and Grant, then in 1888 was placed in command of the whole of the United States Army.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t find much on Schofields actions that warranted the Medal of Honor, which he received for Wilson\u2019s Creek. He received the medal in 1892 and his citation says, quite simply;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Was conspicuously gallant in leading a regiment in a successful charge versus the enemy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Schofield was a major at the time, and was chief of staff to General Lyon, commanding the Union line at Wilson\u2019s Creek (who fell in that action). I won\u2019t say Schofield didn\u2019t earn the medal, and his name was never included on any lists of those who should have it rescinded, but our reader thought it curious that one, especially of such a high rank, could make application for the country\u2019s highest honor for themselves.<\/p>\n

Schofield was the first Commanding General of the Army to hold the Medal of Honor. In 1895 he was replaced by Lieutenant General Nelson Miles, who also received the Medal of Honor in 1892 for Civil War acts. Upon Miles\u2019 retirement in 1903, the position was changed to its current Chief of Staff of the United States Army (CSA).<\/p>\n

In 1906, Major General J Franklin Bell became CSA. Bell had received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action as a colonel in the Philippines. He was replaced four years later by Major General Leonard Wood<\/a>, who was a MoH recipient from the Indian Wars. He was the last officer to be CSA while wearing the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n

Douglas MacArthur was CSA from 1930 to 1935, but his Medal of Honor wasn\u2019t awarded until the Second World War the better part of a decade later. He was also the oldest man to ever receive the medal, receiving it for his actions at the age of 62.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veterans of modern times will be aware that sometimes, if you want recognition for your actions, … Valor Friday<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":121944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,10,593,389,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-army","category-historical","category-medal-of-honor","category-valor","category-we-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/121944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}