George
Henry Thomas was born in Southampton, Virginia, on 31st July, 1816.
He studied at the U.S. Military Academy at West
Point and after graduating in 1840 joined the United
States Army. He fought in the Seminole
War and won two brevets in the Mexican
War (1846-48).
Thomas taught at West Point before
joining the 2nd Cavalry where he served as a major under Albert
S. Johnson and Robert E. Lee. Badly
wounded in the face by an arrow in November, 1860, Thomas was off
duty for over a year.
Although a Southerner, Thomas joined the Union
Army on the outbreak of the American
Civil War. Commissioned as a brigadier general, Thomas was sent
to Kentucky where he won the battle of Mill
Springs (January, 1862). He served under Don
Carlos Buell and William Rosecrans
where he took part in the battle of Stones
River (January, 1863).
William Rosecrans made a serious
tactical blunder at Chickamauga
(September,
1863) where he opened up a gap in the Union
Army lines. Rosecrans and his men fled to Chattanooga, but Thomas
held his position and emerged from the battle with much credit. He
was immediately promoted to brigadier general and succeeded Rosecrans
as commander of the Army of Cumberland.
Thomas joined William Sherman in the
task of destroying the Confederate Army
in Tennessee. Joseph E. Johnston and
his army retreated and after some brief skirmishes the two sides fought
at Resaca (14th May), Adairsvile (17th May), New Hope Church (25th
May), Kennesaw Mountain (27th June) and Marietta (2nd July).
President Jefferson Davis was unhappy
about Johnson's withdrawal policy and on 17th July replaced him with
the more aggressive John Hood. He immediately
went on the attack and hit Thomas and his men at Peachtree Creek.
Hood was badly beaten and lost 2,500 men. Two days later Hood took
on William Sherman at the Battle
of Atlanta and lost another 8,000 men.
John Hood continued to adopt an aggressive
policy in Tennessee and despite heavy losses surrounded Thomas at
Nashville. On 15th December, 1864,
Thomas broke out of Nashville and hammered Hood's army. Thomas captured
4,462 soldiers and those still left alive fled into Mississippi and
Alabama. The Confederate Army in Tennessee
had now been completely destroyed.
On 16th January, 1865, Thomas was promoted to the rank of major general
and became commander of the Department of Tennessee. In 1869 George
Henry Thomas moved to the Department of the Pacific and he died in
office after suffering a stroke in San
Francisco on 28th March, 1870.
(1) Ulysses
Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (1885)
I had been at West point
with Henry Thomas and had known him later in the old army. He was
a man of commanding appearance, slow and deliberate in speech and
action; sensible, honest and brave. He possessed valuable soldierly
qualities in an eminent degree. He gained the confidence of all who
served under him, and almost their love. This implies a very valuable
quality. It is a quality which calls out the most efficient services
of the troops serving under the commander possessing it.
(2)
Henry
Villard met George Thomas in 1863. He wrote about the
man in his autobiography, Memoirs:
Journalist and Financier (1904)
Though
a native of Virginia, he had never faltered for a moment in his fealty
to the flag. He had a commanding presence, being nearly six feet high,
and a soldier-like, erect bearing, with an open countenance, but rather
a stern expression, full light-brown hair and beard tinged with grey.
On first acquaintance, he seemed of a solid nature and stiff and distant
in manner, but on closer intercourse would reveal himself as a sturdy,
resolute character, with the strongest sense of duty, and, altogether,
a thorough soldier. He was not a genius, but was very intelligent,
and although he seemed at times not quick in perception and too deliberate
in execution, he could always be relied on to do what was required
of him to the best of his ability.
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