Histories of The Individuals Who Served

Lieutenant Edward Scofield

From the original Milwaukee Sentinel article. Major Edward Scofield

   With the following extract. The Reporter has now reproduced all of Mr. Dodge‘s article in the Milwaukee Sentinel. It has done this because the article, from first to last, has been replete with interest to Major Scofield's Oconto county friends and neighbors, and because it was the narration, in brief, of an honorable life worthy of emulation by the rising generation. It is a story of native honesty, energy and courage developed into vigorous and successful manhood, which may properly inspire others that of imitation from which like good results may follow. It is the story of a man whose success has been earned and deserved and whose election to the office. of governor will be a lit tribute to his achievements.

 This part of the sketch is devoted to the Major's army career and will be read with particular interest by those who have known and have not forgotten what it was to be a soldier in the war for the Unions.

  Edward Scofield was 21 years old when the war broke out. He left a country printing office to enlist at the first call of the government for troops. He was unable to get into the first regiments assigned to Pennsylvania. But old Gov. Curtin, the war—governor of the “Key-stone state" held 15,000 soldiers which he called "the reserves" in readiness to the field. This was a wise provision. The first battle of Bull Run was a disaster to the Union cause. The call went from Washington to Curtin to send on his “reserves” just as the panic-stricken Union forces fled from Bull Run field into Washingtoin. The 15,000 young Pennsylvanians of the reserves were dispatched to Washington by the first train. In this new army was young Scofield, a private. The reserves were placed in front of Washington and the influence of that movement served to check the march of the Confederates upon the nation’s capital.

  As evidence of the patriotism which moved the young Pennsylvanians it is worthy of note that they went into battle form in front of Washington as Pennsylvanian troops only. There was not time to muster them into the service of "Uncle Sam." Their first duty was performed as state troops called to defend the federal government, and as such a soldier young Scofield performed his first military service.

  From the early part of the war through three years of the campaigns of the army of the Potomac, Scofield marched and fought with the Eleventh Pennsylvania regiment. He was in every battle of' the Potomac army during those three years. He earned a promotion at the battle of Fredricksbiirg, and became a first lieutenant. At the battle of Gettysburg, which was fought upon the Soil of his native state, so ardent was he that he earned a promotion to be a captain "for meritorious conduct on the field."

  This brings the military career of Scofield down to the close of the three years period of his first enlistment. He was out of the service in May, 1864, but he did not leave the field.  Another battle was imminent, and it promised to be a terrific one. There was a demand for trained men, and volunteers were called for from among the veterans to engage in what proved to be the battle of the Wilderness. Without being formally re-mustered into service, Scofield was given the command of the Eleventh Pennsylvania regiment, and in that service he led the regiment into the great battle. It was a terrible contest, and two-thirds of the famous Pennsylvania reserve division, of which the. Eleventh regiment was a part, was lost in that battle. The field where the reserves fought was in choked by a rank growth of scrub pine. This pine caught fire. Blinded by the smoke and overcome by the heat, a panic followed and Col. Scofield gave the command to his men to rush for the rear and save themselves. Some of them broke through the burning pine and escaped. Those who thought to skirt the fire ran into the arms of rebels, several regiments of the men in gray having already flanked the Union forces.


  Here Scofield and about 2,500 of the federal forces were captured. They were taken to Lynchburg and confined in tobacco sheds as prisoners of war. Two days later they were taken to Danville, Virginia, one of the worst of the prison-Iife experiences of the prisoners. They were huddled sixty in each freight car and with scarcely any food or drink they were hurried through the country. At Columbia the privates were separated from the commissioned officers and sent to Andersonville. The officers were taken to Macon, Georgia, and kept in a prison stockade for about two months. There were about 3,000 officers in this pen,and the treatment accorded them was precisely like that given to the enlisted men at Andersonville. The only advantage the officers had was in the fewer numbers kept in one pen. The fare was the same - a little cornmeal and water. No shelter but the sky, and no covering but worn and tattered blankets.

  Much has been written about the privations endured by the private soldiers who were penned up in the awful stockades of death such as Andersonville, and enough is known of the horrors of those death-pens where men starved to death or wasted away under the most terrible diseases. But evidences are not wanting that the prison pens of the officers were no better, with the single exception that they were not so crowded. The officers were no better treated because they were officers, and the offense offered by the Confederate authorities for not penning up the commissioned officers with the enlisted men was said to be owing to fear of organization for escape under experienced leaders among the officers. The food and water was just as bad at Macon, Columbia, Savannah and other points where the officers were imprisoned as in the prison pens of the private soldiers. The same stories of slow death from scurvy and starvation, of malaria and exposure are told by the officers as have been recounted among the experiences of the privates were prisoners of war who were prisoners of war.


  After spending two months at Macon, Scofield with others was removed to Columbia, South Carolina and thence back to Savannah, Georgia, and soon after to Charleston, S. C. After a short stay here they were removed to Wilmington, N. C. In these places the prisoners were kept either in stockades or workhouse yards. At Columbia, S. C, they were kept three months in the winter in a stockade without shelter. The same fruitless attempts to escape from these prison hells was made by Scofield and his companions as were so often tried by the luckless privates in the larger prisons. Once at Columbia, S. C., and once at Savannah attempts to escape were almost successful. At Columbia, a tunnel was made by the men leading out under the stockade fence. It was seen as soon as opened at the outer end and the prisoners were taken before they could make a dash for liberty. One night at Savannah, being taken out in a squad of prisoners to gather firewood, Scofield quietly laid down behind a log and when the squad marched back to the prison pen he was not missed. He had his liberty for two days. But it was liberty worse than imprisonment. He wandered about in the swamps with only an occasional mouthful given him by friendly negroes. But after forty-eight hours of liberty he was recaptured and confined in a dungeon as punishment for endeavoring to escape.


  Early in the spring of 1865 the forces of Gen. Sherman were moving up from the South through the Carolinas. The war prisoners, with whom Scofield was incarcerated, were hastened from Wilmington to Railegh, but as Sherman approached they were taken back to a point near Wilmington. Gen. Schofield of the Union forces captured Wilmington, and the rebels took the prisoners and conveyed them outside the town, paroled them and permitted them to make their way into Schofield’s lines. Major Scofield was in this squad of unkempt, ill and hungry prisoners. They were taken on boats and transferred to Annapolis, Md. After being kept a few days to recuperate they were transferred to Washington, where they were released March 5, 1865, after ten months of prison life in a dozen prison stockades through the South. One would naturally think such an experience would be quite enough for a young man of 24 or 25. When released, young Scofield weighed ninety-six pounds and was feeble and ill. But his spirits revived when he ascertained immediately on being discharged that a commission as major awaited him for his gallant conduct in the battle of the Wilderness ten months previously. It inspired him to again try the field. He returned to Pennsylvania to recuperate. The government was still calling for troops and a draft was in progress in the little town of Brookville. A gentleman who had been drafted offered Scofield $1,500 to go as his substitute. To this proposition the young veteran replied:
 “I will not go as a substitute at any price if I must return as a private. But if I can pass muster in my present condition I will go, provided I can have a commission which my experience clearly gives me title.”
 
  There was no doubt of his securing a colonelcy in the new regiments of raw recruits, but before the organizations could be effected the war closed and young Scofield did not get back into the service, nor did be secure the $1,500 as substitute. But he had shown his willingness, and stood for re-enlistment while the marks left by the terrible prison life were still upon him.