The seventh in the class was John M. Schofield, who was commissioned in the artillery, and who had had some years of army experience in the forts along the South Atlantic coast.
In the 45 who graduated below Schofield were many names afterwards to become very prominent in history.
John S. Bowen, of Georgia, who commanded a regiment of the Home Guards, and who did his utmost to drag his State into Secession, afterward be-. coming a Major-General in the Confederate army, graduated 13th in the class.
William R. Terrill, of Virginia, killed at Perryville while in command of a Union brigade, was the 16th.
John R. Chambliss, of Virginia, who was killed while commanding a Confederate brigade at Deep Bottom, Va., was the 31st, and William McE. Dye, who commanded a brigade with success in the Trans-Mississippi, afterwards helped to organize the Khedive's army, and who died while in command of the Korean army, was the 32d.
Philip H. Sheridan, one of the most brilliant commanders the world ever saw, stood 34th in the class, and Elmer Otis, of Philippine fame, was the 37th.
John B. Hood, who rose to the rank of a full General in the Confederate army, and commanded the forces arrayed against Sherman and Thomas at Atlanta and Nashville, was the 44th.
It is very interesting to study this list and compare it with the confident markings made by the West Point Faculty when the young men were dismissed to the active life for which the Academy had prepared them. It at least shows that, judged by West Point standards, Schofield's intellectual equipment was of the very best. He had married the daughter of his Professor of Physics, and children had come to them; promotion was very slow; he had wearied of the dull routine of the artillery officer in seacoast forts, and had seriously thought of resigning and entering the profession of law. Friends had dissuaded him from this, secured him a position as Professor of Physics in the Washington University at St. Louis, and Gen. Scott, who liked him, induced him to remain in the service and obtained for him a year's leave of absence to enable him to accept the professorship. He was engaged in his duty of teaching at the University and of writing a work on physics, of which he was very proud, when the firing on Fort Sumter took place. His political views were those of the Douglas wing of the Democracy, and he remained a Democrat ever after. He made no public profession of his views on the Slavery question or Secession, but immediately wrote to Washington offering to cancel his leave of absence, and was directed to report to Gen. Lyon for the duty of mustering in the volunteers.