hat Schofield came to his
house about nine o'clock for breakfast and afterwards kept his
headquarters there until the battle began; that after breakfast he retired
to a bedroom where he slept until noon or shortly after; that a short time
before the battle began Cox was there in conference with Schofield and
staff officers kept coming and going until the fighting began; that
Stanley was there with Schofield and they were waiting for their dinner;
that they told him there would be no battle that day because Hood would
not attack breastworks but that after dinner they would ride on to
Nashville together and the army would follow after dark.

Stanley and Cliffe had been schoolboys together in Wayne County, Ohio, and
as Cliffe was a well known Union man, it was supposed to be unsafe for
him to remain in Franklin and he was invited to accompany Schofield and
Stanley on their ride to Nashville. General Schofield has claimed that he
scored a great success in his campaign against Hood and that this success
was largely due to his intimate knowledge of Hood's character, gained
while they were classmates at West Point, which enabled him to foresee
what Hood would do and then make the proper dispositions to defeat him. At
Franklin he relied so confidently on his ability to foretell what Hood's
action would be that he not only wholly neglected to give any personal
attention to the preparations for assault which Hood was making in plain
sight of our front but he would not give any heed to the reports brought
him by those who had seen these preparations. It was his belief, based on
his intimate knowledge of Hood's character, that Hood was making an
ostentatious feint to mask his real intention of executing a flank
movement, for in a telegram to General Thomas, dated at three o'clock,
Schofield informed Thomas that Hood was in his front with about two corps
and seemed prepared to cross the river above and below.

He has tried to escape all personal responsibility for the blunder by the
weak statement that he was across the river when the battle began. Even if
that statement were true, and it is directly contradicted by the
disinterested statement of Doctor Cliffe as well as by an abundance of
other reliable evidence, both direct and circumstantial, there is no
possible escape for Schofield from the inexorable logic of the situation.
For two hours Hood was engaged in preparations for assault in plain sight
of thousands of our soldiers.