.. ... George H. Thomas 1816-70 Commander 19 Oct. 1863 — ... Solid as a rock at Mill Springs, Murfreesboro, Hoover's Gap, Stevens' Gap, McLemore's Cove, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, 100 days Campaign, Peachtree Creek, and Nashville. A very astute non-politician, won every one of his engagements in the Civil War. Born in the South, fought for the North. A man of the "angle", he was too good to get rid of, and a thorn in the side of generals turned politician. He did his homework, left the road to his soldiers. Read the 1882 biography Major General George H. Thomas by Thomas Van Horne Click here to read the photographic essay "Bring Thomas Home."

George Henry Thomas was born on 31 July 1816 in Southampton County, VA and died on 28 March 1870 in San Francisco. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY in 1840, George H. Thomas served in the Mexican War (1846-48) and as an artillery and cavalry instructor at West Point. Despite his Southern birth he remained loyal to the Union when the Civil War broke out. In command of an independent force in eastern Kentucky, Thomas defeated the Confederates under Crittenden on 19 Jan. 1862 at Mill Springs and gained the first important Union victory in the war, thus undermining the entire western defense of the CSA general Albert Sydney Johnston. Thomas then served under General Don Carlos Buell and arrilved too late at Shiloh in order to participate in the second day of the battle. After the battle Halleck put Thomas in command of Grant's Army of the Tennessee while Grant was apparently sidelined as second in command under Halleck with no responsibility. Later, when politically motivated complaints against Buell's lack of initiative against Bragg become more and more strident, Thomas was offered but refused the chief command. At the battle of Perryville his 14th corps was not engaged. Bragg was forced to withdraw into East Tennessee, but Buell was faulted for lack of pursuit, and he was replaced by William S. Rosecrans. Under  Rosecrans Thomas was instrumental in holding the center with his artillery at Murfreesboro (Stones River), Tenn. on 31 Dec. 1862 and 2 Jan. 1863. Thomas was in charge of the most important part of the maneuvering during the Tullahoma Campaign on 22-29 June 1863 and the entry into Chattanooga, Tenn. (8 Sept. 1863). On 19-20 Sept. 1863, after two days of battle along Chickamauga Creek in Georgia 12 miles south of Chattanooga, General Thomas steadfastly organized Union defenses after the collapse of the Union right wing and withstood all afternoon long violent attacks on the left wing by the entire Confederate army until the arrival of reserve units under Granger allowed an orderly withdrawal of Union troops back to Chattanooga. For this action Thomas was called the "Rock of Chickamauga" and later promoted to brigadier general of the regular army (maintaining his rank of major general of the volunteers). Thomas succeeded Rosecrans in command of the Army of the Cumberland on 19 Oct. 1863. Thomas and his Army of the Cumberland played the determining role in the great victory at Chattanooga on 23-25 Nov. 1863. This battle opened the door to the deep South and made possible the subsequent capture of Atlanta on 2 Sept. 1864 which helped assure Lincoln's reelection. Before Sherman's march to the sea in the autumn of 1864, Thomas was ordered back to Nashville to deal with the threat to Union communications by the Confederate forces of General John B. Hood. Thomas had achieved his objective by Christmas, checking the enemy army at Franklin, Tenn. on 30 Nov. 1864, and finally at Nashville, Tenn. on 15-16 Dec. 1864. At that historic battle, Thomas inflicted on Hood the worst defeat sustained in the open field on either side during the war. It was also the only decisive Union victory of the war in which the USCT played a meaningful role. Thomas then directed the forces which captured Selma and pursued and captured Jefferson Davis on10 May 1865. Thomas was made a major general of the regular army and received the thanks of Congress. Toward the end of the war and afterward Thomas was the military governor in charge of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Thomas wholeheartedly supported the reconstruction policies of Lincoln and Johnson and is recognized as being the most effective of all of the military governors. In 1869 Thomas accepted the onerous command of the Division of the Pacific with headquarters at San Francisco although his health had begun to deteriorate. He complicated matters greatly for future biographers by destryoing all of his personal papers, saying: "All that I did for my government are matters of hisotry, but my private life is my own and I will not have it hawked about for the amusement of the curious." He died at the age of 54 in his office in San Francisco.

Salient facts about George H. Thomas:

• Born 31 July 1816 on family farm near Newsom's Depot, Southampton County, VA.
• For his Army of the Cumberland career see Chronology AotC . He won every engagement or segment thereof where he commanded.
• West Point 1840.
• 2 brevets in the Mexican War. "Artillery man holding the angle" at Buena Vista. He was later to hold many angles.
• Artillery and cavalry instructor at West Point. He was called "slow trot" because he tried to keep the cadets from killing the broken-down horses. The sobriquet later proved useful to his detractors.
• At first Manassas he was under the command of Robert Patterson who was to keep Joseph Johnston at Harper's Ferry. Thomas warned Patterson that Johnston was leaving, but Patterson ordered no engagement in order to hold Johnston. It is true that Johnston had the interior line due to Scott's order placing Patterson too far from Washington.
• As a boy he gave the slaves on his family farm bible and reading lessons.
• While stationed in Florida he conducted botanical studies.
• While stationed at Ft. Yuma he conducted zoological studies which were praised by experts.
• While stationed at Ft Yuma he compiled a 70-word dictionary of a local Indian language, a work praised by ethnologists.
• He was wounded by an arrow through the flesh of his chin and into his chest during a skirmish with Comanches in 1860 in Texas. He pulled it out and went back to work. He also learned something from their tactics.
• Won the first major Union victory of the war at Mill Springs (19 Jan. 1862).
  
• Carried Rosecrans's concept of the technical army even further.
• The techniques of economy of force he used in his defense of Snodgrass Hill at Chickamauga are today one of the basic tenets of the United States Marines' assault doctrine.
• He helped introduce the use of map coordinates into battle planning.
• He introduced the concept of remote fire control at the battle of Chattanooga using his model signal corps.
• He was a pioneer (along with Rosecrans) in the use of combined forces. On 24 June 63 Wilder's mounted infantry secured Hoover's Gap for Thomas's infantry. Wilder had equipped his brigade with repeating Spencer rifles and had the firepower of a division. Never in the history of warfare had so much firepower covered 12 miles so quickly. At Nashville Wilson's super-division of 9000 dismounting cavalrymen armed with repeating Spencer carbines (thus with the firepower of an infantry corps) rode around to the rear of Hood's left. It was the only time during the Civil War in which an entire army was effectively destroyed on an open field of battle, unless you also count Mill Springs. The distinction from other famous cavalry units of the war is that Wilder and Wilson were not in any way independent from their army commander.
• He had folding, portable pontoons (called Cumberland pontoons) developed.
• Together with his chief topographical engineer, Col. William Merrill, he expanded Buell's blockhouse concept into the "Cumberland blockhouse" - a miniature fort at key railroad points consisting of double walls separated by 6 feet of earth and housing several cannons. Linked by telegraph to HQ, it could withstand siege until reeinforcements arrived.
• He had the most highly developed telegraphy service of any army on either side. At Nashville his service made possible the coordination of dozens of widely scattered units during the concentration prior to the final battle.
• Together with brevet Maj. Gen. Daniel McCallum he perfected what was probably the world's first successful movable railway base and repair center which closely followed the advance of Union troops.
• He had a wide-ranging secret service with a spy network throughout the South which even reached into Johnston's HQ. The service collected topographical data, data on the opponent, broke codes, carried out sabotage, and subverted Confederate units. It supplied many commanders in other theaters (including Grant) with information. Maybe his service sent the Frenchman Noquet to the Army of Tennessee in order to disrupt it (he absconded with funds and then escaped behind Union lines). It was this secret service which enabled Wilson to track down and capture Davis on 10 May 1865 in Georgia.
• He had the Civil War's most efficient hospital service where the use of chloroform was standard practice. Railroad cars were built to serve as field hospitals. His mobile field hospital system saved countless lives, Union and Confederate, at Chickamauga.
• He established a service for providing his troops with magazines and books.
• He established in Mill Springs, Ky. the first National military cemetery at a battlefield, cared for his men in this respect also. He then established one in Chattanooga on 24 Dec. 63. Said, when asked if the remains should be interred according to state origin: "Mix them up. I'm tired of states' rights." Also established the National military cemetary at Murfreesboro.
• He hired the first female doctor in the army (Mary Walker) who later received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
• He established the Civil War's most efficient mess service for his soldiers which later included full time cooks.
• In one way or another he always recognized the outstanding work of his individual soldiers.
• He constantly prepared his men for battle through "real life" sorties in small units rather than with parade ground drill.
• He said: "We are all cowards in the presence of immediate death. We can overcome that fear in war through familiarity."
• Dealt with the problem of "absenteeism" by setting a good example rather than with executions. He didn't take a day of leave during the entire Civil War.
• On the move he and his staff, whenever possible, rode at the side of the road and left the road to the troops.
• He also devoted himself to the training of colored troops and was the only commander under whom colored troops played a key role in a decisive Union vistory. The battle of Nashville was won, in part, because of the efforts of colored troops who held the Confederate right while Wilson and his dismounting cavalry went around the Confederate left.
• B.G. Emory Upton, division commander under Thomas and Wilson at Nashville, learned the principles which he would codify in his book "The Military Policy of the United States", basis for the future development of the U.S. military.
• At the end of the war, as military commander of most of the South, and after the war, as military governor of 5 Southern states with his headquarters in Nashville, he tried to make contending parties see reason and to keep local citizens from doing violence to his colored troops. It was a difficult job, but he won the respect of most of the people in Tennessee at least. He was granted honorary citizenship there, having lost it in Virginia.
• Around 1868 Thomas's health began to fail. Grant assigned the eastern commands to Sheridan and Meade, leaving Thomas to take the Pacific command or leave it. He took it, and in the last year of his life Thomas logged 11,000 miles of official travel. He died of a stroke on 28 March 1870 in his office in San Francisco.
• Thomas, along with 14 other generals, was accorded Thanks of the Nation, in his case for the battles of Franklin and Nashville, not for Chickamauga or Chattanooga.
• Thomas is not mentioned with one word in the college level textbook on American history "The Enduring Vision" (Heath, 1996), nor in the middle school textbook on American history "The American Journey" (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

Other information about Thomas:

1) Politics in the Union Army at the battle for Chattanooga

2) George H. Thomas - Practitioner of Emancipation

3. Life of Major General George H. Thomas by Van Horne, 1882