About Schofield's Move-- Part 2: A Grand Plan Works Out

The topic of last February's McHenry County Civil War Round Table was Sherman's Carolina's Campaign and Schofield's move from Tennessee to Wilmington was an integral part of it.  Back to what J.D. Cox had to say about it:

"The subsidiary operations which were intended to co-operate with Sherman's march northward from Savannah were two.

"First, the capture of Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, and second, the transfer of Schofield from Middle Tennessee to the Carolina coast, where, with the Tenth Corps under Major General A. H. Terry and the Twenty-third under Major General Cox, he was to reduce Wilmington and advance upon two lines from that city and from Newbern to Goldsboro, at which place it was expected a junction with Sherman would be made.

"The attack upon Fort Fisher was practically simultaneous with Sherman's departure from Savannah and with Schofield's from Clifton on the Tennessee River; and the result of all, accomplished two months later, was the reunion at Goldsboro of the army which Sherman had led at Atlanta, except that the Tenth Corps was substituted for the Fourth, which still remained at the West."

Schofield's corps had been with Sherman at Atlanta, then moved west to stop Hood in Tennessee.

--Old Secesh