Cyrus I. Scofield, Tennessee Confederate Soldier and Bible Scholar

    Lenawee County, Michigan, might seem like a strange place for a Confederate soldier to be born. Cyrus Ingerson Scofield first saw the light of day there on August 19, 1843. His father was a millwright, and his mother died several months after his birth. Cyrus was an avid reader growing up. When his stepmother passed in 1859, Cyrus headed to Wilson County, Tennessee, where his sister and brother-in-law lived. He later claimed that he was getting ready to take the examinations to enter the university when the war came, although which university he planned to enter is not clear.[1]

   At the age of seventeen, Scofield enlisted in what became Company H, 7^th Tennessee Infantry. On May 20, 1861, he was mustered in as a private in Nashville. One biographical sketch stated that he served as an orderly. After completing organization at Camp Trousdale, the 7^th Tennessee transferred to Virginia. They participated in the Cheat Mountain Campaign and were later assigned to James J. Archer’s brigade. Scofield probably saw fighting through the Seven Days Campaign, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Harpers Ferry, and Sharpsburg. Scofield was reported sick and in Chimborazo Hospital from April 8 to May 1, 1862.[2] 

Flag of the 7th TN

   Scofield wrote the Secretary of War on July 8, 1862, stating that he was a native of Michigan where his father still lived, and that when he entered the service, he was a minor. Scofield wrote that his “health was never good [and] is broken by exposure and fatigue in the recent series of engagements with the Enemy before Richmond . . . I have fought in three battles for the South and have no intention of deserting her cause but after a short time to enter Guerilla service in East Tenn.”[3] It was the recommendation by his company commander that Scofield be discharged on September 26, 1862. Scofield had volunteered to serve one year, a time that had already elapsed. And, he was not “a citizen of the Confederate States but an Alien friend.” With discharge in hand, Scofield returned to Tennessee.[4]

   Scofield told a later biographer that he was then drafted back into the Southern army on an unknown date and was ordered to report to a Camp of Instruction at McMinnville. “I started on foot with the intention of effecting my escape to the federal lines which I succeeded in doing after marching 75 miles to Bowling Green Ky. I reported myself to the authorities took the oath of allegiance and passed on to St. Louis to my friends here.” Scofield sought out a parole from the Federal provost marshal, stating that he was a “loyal citizen of the U.S. which I have always been notwithstanding the untoward circumstances in which I have been placed during this rebellion and the false position I have found myself against my inclination occupying until my recent escape from Tennessee.” Scofield remained in St. Louis, working as a clerk. There is no record that he ever served in the Federal army.[5] 

Later life image of Scofield.

   In 1866, Scofield married and studied law, then worked in the St. Louis assessor’s office. He then moved to Kansas, serving in the state house, and was appointed a US District attorney. Sometime in the 1870s, Scofield became a Christian. By the fall of 1879, he was helping with an evangelistic campaign conducted by Dwight L. Moody. Moody had worked at the Confederate prison in Chicago during the war. (This is the same Moody as in the Moody Bible Institute.) In 1883, Scofield was ordained as a Congregationalist minister, pastoring churches over the next forty years. His lasting contribution is what is now called the Scofield Reference Bible, published by Oxford University Press in 1909. While not the first Bible with notes (the Geneva Bible, published in 1551, had study notes or annotations), Scofield’s Reference Bible was one of the most popular of the 20^th century. It is unlikely that many shoppers at the Christian bookstore who see his work on the shelf, or even those who own a copy of the Scofield Reference Bible, know the fascinating and convoluted wartime journey of its editor.

  

 

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[1]  Canfield, The Incredible Scofield, 10, 12,13; Trumball, The Life Story of C.I. Scofield, 7.

[2] Cyrus J. Scofield, CMSR, Roll 148, M268, RG109.

[3] Canfield, The Incredible Scofield, 17-18.

[4] Cyrus J. Scofield, CMSR, Roll 148, M268, RG109.

[5] Rushing, “From Confederate Deserter to Decorated Veteran Bible Scholar,” 24-26.