George Henry Thomas
George Henry Thomas | |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | "Rock of Chickamauga," "Sledge of Nashville," "Slow Trot Thomas," "Old Slow Trot," "Pap" |
Born | Newsom's Depot, Virginia, US | July 31, 1816
Died | March 28, 1870 San Francisco, California, US | (aged 53)
Buried | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | United States Army (Union Army) |
Years of service | 1840–1870 |
Rank | Major general |
Commands held | XIV Corps Army of the Cumberland Military Division of the Pacific |
Battles/wars |
|
Spouse(s) | Frances Lucretia Kellogg, m. 1852 |
Signature |
George Henry Thomas (July 31, 1816 – March 28, 1870) was an American
Thomas served in the
Thomas had a successful record in the Civil War, but he failed to achieve the historical acclaim of some of his contemporaries, such as
Early life and education
Thomas was born at
Thomas was appointed to the
Antebellum military career
Thomas's first assignment with his artillery regiment began in late 1840 at the primitive outpost of
In Mexico, Thomas led a gun crew with distinction at the battles of Fort Brown, Resaca de la Palma, Monterrey, and Buena Vista, receiving two more brevet promotions.[14] At Buena Vista, Gen. Zachary Taylor reported that "the services of the light artillery, always conspicuous, were more than unusually distinguished" during the battle. Brig. Gen. John E. Wool wrote about Thomas and another officer that "without our artillery we would not have maintained our position a single hour." Thomas's battery commander wrote that Thomas's "coolness and firmness contributed not a little to the success of the day. Lieutenant Thomas more than sustained the reputation he has long enjoyed in his regiment as an accurate and scientific artillerist."[15] During the war, Thomas served closely with an artillery officer who would be a principal antagonist in the Civil War—Captain Braxton Bragg.[16]
Thomas was reassigned to Florida in 1849–50. In 1851, he returned to West Point as a cavalry and artillery instructor, where he established a close professional and personal relationship with another Virginia officer,
In the spring of 1854, Thomas's artillery regiment was transferred to California and he led two companies to San Francisco via the
In November 1860, Thomas requested a one-year leave of absence. His antebellum career had been distinguished and productive, and he was one of the rare officers with field experience in all three combat arms—infantry, cavalry, and artillery. On his way home to southern Virginia, he suffered a mishap in Lynchburg, Virginia, falling from a train platform and severely injuring his back. This accident led him to contemplate leaving military service and caused him pain for the rest of his life. Continuing to New York to visit with his wife's family, Thomas stopped in Washington, D.C., and conferred with general-in-chief Winfield Scott, advising Scott that Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs, the commander of the Department of Texas, harbored secessionist sympathies and could not be trusted in his post.[20] Twiggs did indeed surrender his entire command to Confederate authorities shortly after Texas seceded, and later served in the Confederate military.[21]
American Civil War
Remaining with the Union
At the outbreak of the Civil War, 19 of the 36 officers in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry resigned, including three of Thomas's superiors—Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and William J. Hardee.[22] Many Southern-born officers were torn between loyalty to their states and loyalty to their country. Thomas struggled with the decision but opted to remain with the United States. His Northern-born wife probably helped influence his decision. In response, his family turned his picture against the wall, destroyed his letters, and never spoke to him again. During the economic hard times in the South after the war, Thomas sent some money to his sisters, who angrily refused to accept it, declaring they had no brother.[23]
Nevertheless, Thomas stayed in the Union Army with some degree of suspicion surrounding him, despite his action concerning Twiggs. On January 18, 1861, a few months before
Kentucky
Thomas was promoted in rapid succession to be lieutenant colonel (on April 25, 1861, replacing Robert E. Lee) and colonel (May 3, replacing Albert Sidney Johnston) in the regular army, and brigadier general of volunteers (August 17).[28] In the First Bull Run Campaign, he commanded a brigade under Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley,[29] but all of his subsequent assignments were in the Western Theater. Reporting to Maj. Gen. Robert Anderson in Kentucky, Thomas was assigned to training recruits and to command an independent force in the eastern half of the state. On January 18, 1862, he defeated Confederate Brig. Gens. George B. Crittenden and Felix Zollicoffer at Mill Springs, gaining the first important Union victory in the war, breaking Confederate strength in eastern Kentucky, and lifting Union morale.[30]
Shiloh and Corinth
On December 2, 1861, Brig. Gen. Thomas was assigned to command the 1st Division of Maj. Gen.
Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga
Thomas resumed service under Don Carlos Buell. During Confederate General Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky in the fall of 1862, the Union high command became nervous about Buell's cautious tendencies and offered command of the Army of the Ohio to Thomas, who refused, as Buell's plans were too far advanced. Thomas served as Buell's second-in-command at the Battle of Perryville, but his wing of the army did not hear the fighting engaged in by the other flank. Although tactically inconclusive, the battle halted Bragg's invasion of Kentucky as he voluntarily withdrew to Tennessee. Again frustrated with Buell's ineffective pursuit of Bragg, the government replaced him with Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans. Thomas wrote on October 30, 1862, a letter of protest to Secretary Stanton, because Rosecrans had been junior to him, but Stanton wrote back on November 15, telling him that this was not the case (Rosecrans had in fact been his junior, but his commission as major general had been backdated to make him senior to Thomas) and reminding him of his earlier refusal to accept command; Thomas demurred and withdrew his protest.[31]
Fighting under Rosecrans, commanding the
Thomas succeeded Rosecrans in command of the
Atlanta and Franklin/Nashville
During Maj. Gen.
When Hood broke away from Atlanta in the autumn of 1864, he menaced Sherman's long line of communications, and endeavored to force Sherman to follow him, Sherman abandoned his communications and embarked on an offensive through Georgia. Thomas was ordered to defend Tennessee from confederate offensive operations, culminating in the
At the
As the weather finally warmed and rain washed away the snow on December 14,Thomas drafted the orders and distributed them to his corps commanders on the day to attack on the confederates on the next day, and the Battle of Nashville effectively destroyed Hood's army in two days of fighting. Thomas sent his wife, Frances Lucretia Kellogg Thomas, the following telegram, the only communication surviving of the Thomases' correspondence: "We have whipped the enemy, taken many prisoners and considerable artillery."
As news of the victory streamed north, Logan returned to Grant and returned his orders to relieve Thomas. Thomas was appointed a major general in the regular army, with date of rank of his Nashville victory, and received the Thanks of Congress:[35]
... to Major-General George H. Thomas and the officers and soldiers under his command for their skill and dauntless courage, by which the rebel army under General Hood was signally defeated and driven from the state of Tennessee.
Thomas may have resented his delayed promotion to major general (which made him junior by date of rank to Sheridan); upon receiving the telegram announcing it, he remarked to Surgeon George Cooper: "I suppose it is better late than never, but it is too late to be appreciated. I earned this at Chickamauga.".[36]
Thomas also received another nickname from his victory: "The Sledge of Nashville".[37]
Later life and death
After the end of the Civil War, Thomas commanded the Department of the Cumberland in Kentucky and Tennessee, and at times also West Virginia and parts of Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama, through 1869. During the
[T]he greatest efforts made by the defeated insurgents since the close of the war have been to promulgate the idea that the cause of liberty, justice, humanity, equality, and all the calendar of the virtues of freedom, suffered violence and wrong when the effort for southern independence failed. This is, of course, intended as a species of political cant, whereby the crime of treason might be covered with a counterfeit varnish of patriotism, so that the precipitators of the rebellion might go down in history hand in hand with the defenders of the government, thus wiping out with their own hands their own stains; a species of self-forgiveness amazing in its effrontery, when it is considered that life and property—justly forfeited by the laws of the country, of war, and of nations, through the magnanimity of the government and people—was not exacted from them.
— George Henry Thomas, November 1868.[39]
President
Legacy
The veterans' organization for the Army of the Cumberland, throughout its existence, fought to see that he was honored for all he had done.[citation needed] In 1879, they commissioned the equestrian statue of Thomas at Thomas Circle, Washington, D.C.[41]
Thomas was in chief command of only two battles in the Civil War, the Battle of Mill Springs at the beginning and the Battle of Nashville near the end. Both were decisive victories. However, his contributions at the battles of Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Peachtree Creek were decisive. His main legacies lay in his development of modern battlefield doctrine and in his mastery of logistics.[citation needed]
Thomas has generally been held in high esteem by Civil War historians; Bruce Catton and Carl Sandburg wrote glowingly of him, and many[who?] consider Thomas one of the top three Union generals of the war, after Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. But Thomas never entered the popular consciousness like those men. The general destroyed his private papers, saying he did not want "his life hawked in print for the eyes of the curious." Beginning in the 1870s, many Civil War generals published memoirs, justifying their decisions or re-fighting old battles, but Thomas, who died in 1870, did not publish his own memoirs. In addition, most of his campaigns were in the Western theater of the war, which received less attention both in the press of the day and in contemporary historical accounts.
Grant and Thomas also had a cool relationship, for reasons that are not entirely clear, but are well-attested by contemporaries. It apparently started when Halleck placed Thomas in command of most of Grant's divisions after the Battle of Shiloh. When a rain-soaked Grant arrived at Thomas's headquarters before the
Grant did, however, acknowledge that Thomas's eventual success at Nashville obviated all criticism.[
Thomas was always on good terms with his commanding officer in the Army of the Cumberland, William Rosecrans. Even after Rosecrans was relieved of command by Grant and replaced by Thomas, he had nothing but praise for him. Upon hearing of Thomas' death, Rosecrans sent a letter to the National Tribune, stating Thomas' passing was a "National Calamity... Few knew him better than I did, none valued him more."[43]
In 1887, Sherman published an article praising Grant and Thomas, and contrasting them to Robert E. Lee. After noting that Thomas, unlike his fellow Virginian Lee, stood by the Union, Sherman wrote:
During the whole war his services were transcendent, winning the first substantial victory at Mill Springs in Kentucky, January 20th, 1862, participating in all the campaigns of the West in 1862-3-4, and finally, December 16th, 1864 annihilating the army of Hood, which in mid winter had advanced to Nashville to besiege him.
Wellington in London, well worthy to stand side by side with the one which now graces our capitol city of 'George Washington.'"[45]
J. C. Buttre's 1877 engraving of Thomas, based on a photograph by George N. Bernard[46] Woodcut by Thomas Nast General George H. Thomas' life-size statue by sculptor Rodolfo Ayoroa, located at Civil War Park, Lebanon, Kentucky The bronze equestrianstatue of Thomas by John Quincy Adams Ward, located at Thomas Circlein Washington, D.C. Painting of Thomas at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military ParkIn memoriam
A fort south of
Major General George Henry Thomas, can be found in the eponymous Thomas Circle in Washington, D.C.[47]A distinctive engraved portrait of Thomas appeared on U.S. paper money in 1890 and 1891. The bills are called "
treasury notes" or "coin notes" and are widely collected today because of their fine, detailed engraving. The $5 Thomas "fancyback" note of 1890, with an estimated 450–600 in existence relative to the 7.2 million printed, ranks as number 90 in the "100 Greatest American Currency Notes" compiled by Bowers and Sundman (2006).[48]Thomas County, Kansas, established in 1888, is named in his honor. The townships of Thomas County are named after fallen soldiers in the Battle of Chickamauga.[49] Thomas County, Nebraska, is also named after him.[50]
In 1999 a statue of Thomas by sculptor Rudy Ayoroa was unveiled in Lebanon, Kentucky.[51]
A bust of Thomas is located in Grant's Tomb in Manhattan, New York.
Thomas's torn loyalties during the Civil War are briefly discussed in Chapter XIX of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Andersonville" (1955).
A three-quarter length portrait of him, executed by U.S. general Samuel Woodson Price (1828–1918) in 1869 and gifted by the heirs of General Price, hangs in the stairwell to Special Collections at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky.
A Sons of Union Veterans Camp, Camp No. 19 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is named in his honor.
He was honored as the namesake of the George Henry Thomas Post Number 5 of the Grand Army of the Republic.[52] A 10-mile road in Southampton County, Virginia, his birthplace, is named General Thomas Highway.
See also
Citations
- ^ Cleaves, p. 7.
- ^ Coppee, LL. D., Henry (1898). Great Commanders, General Thomas. D. Appleton and Company. p. 2.
- ^ Coppee, LL. D., Henry (1898). Great Commanders, General Thomas. D. Appleton and Company. p. 3.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 14–15.
- ^ Cleaves, pp. 6–7; Einolf, p. 20; O'Connor, p. 60.
- ^ Bobrick, p. 14.
- ^ Einolf, p. 19. Einolf's statement about owning slaves "during much of his life" is apparently derived from his family's ownership, his use of a family slave as a personal valet during "at least part of his military service", and the woman named Ellen whom his wife Francis bought in 1858 (p. 74).
- ^ Cleaves, pp. 6–7; O'Connor, p. 60; Furgurson, p. 57, suggests that while this was illegal, it was not uncommon for slaves to be taught to read; biography of Thomas Archived November 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, by Kennedy Hickman. Einolf, p. 13, offers a contrary view: "It is unlikely, however, that Thomas taught his family's slaves how to read.... While Thomas did eventually come to support education and freedom for blacks, he did not do so until much later in life, when the events of the Civil War had changed his views on race." He attributes (p. 12) the story to an interview conducted in 1890 by Oliver Otis Howard, who "wanted to explain Thomas's Unionism in terms of an antipathy toward slavery and so looked for early indications of sympathy toward African-Americans in Thomas's childhood."
- ^ Coppée, p. 4.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 22–29.
- ^ Eicher, p. 527; Einolf, p. 30.
- ^ Eicher, p. 527; Einolf, pp. 32–35.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 36–40.
- ^ Einolf, p. 55, and Cleaves, p. 43, refer to three brevet promotions. Eicher, p. 527, documents only two: brevet captain for Monterrey and brevet major for Buena Vista. Van Horne, p. 7, also lists only the two promotions.
- ^ Einolf, p. 54.
- ^ Cleaves, pp. 24–42; Einolf, pp. 39–57.
- ^ Cleaves, pp. 48–51; Einolf, pp. 60–66; Eicher, p. 527. Cleaves claims that Thomas was assigned to the Academy in 1853 on the recommendation of William S. Rosecrans.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 72–73.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 72–79; Cleaves, pp. 56–61.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 78–81; Cleaves, pp. 62–63.
- ^ Cutrer, Thomas W.; Smith, David Paul. "TSHA | Twiggs, David Emanuel". www.tshaonline.org. Austin, TX: Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 93, 97.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Einolf, p. 81.
- ^ Einolf, p. 83; Cleaves, pp. 64–66.
- ^ Einolf, p. 99.
- ^ Civil War letters by Sargeant Sherman Leland, 104th Illinois Infantry, Co.D., a unit which served under General Thomas during the Chattanooga Campaign. Mr. Leland noted this is the nickname fellow soldiers used to convey genuine respect and affection for the General. They also referred to General Sherman as "Uncle Billy" These letters are unpublished.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 97, 101; Eicher, p. 527.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 99–100.
- ^ Einolf, pp. 101–23; Cleaves, pp. 81–100.
- ^ Broadwater, p. 88-91
- ^ Broadwater, p. 136.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 866.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 866–867.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 867.
- ^ Stephen Z. Starr, "Grant and Thomas: December, 1864," Archived November 25, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Cincinnati Civil War Round Table website
- ^ Broadwater, p. 1, pp. 205-221.
North & South, Volume 11, number 2, page 90, December 2008.- ^ Thomas, George Henry (December 4, 1868). "The Department Reports". Sacramento Daily Union. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
[T]he greatest efforts made by the defeated insurgents since the close of the war have been to promulgate the idea that the cause of liberty, justice, humanity, equality, and all the calendar of the virtues of freedom, suffered violence and wrong when the effort for southern independence failed. This is, of course, intended as a species of political cant, whereby the crime of treason might be covered with a counterfeit varnish of patriotism, so that the precipitators of the rebellion might go down in history hand in hand with the defenders of the government, thus wiping out with their own hands their own stains; a species of self-forgiveness amazing in its effrontery, when it is considered that life and property—justly forfeited by the laws of the country, of war, and of nations, through the magnanimity of the government and people—was not exacted from them.- ^ Harrison, A. Rebecca (August 3, 1984). "National Register of Historic Places Registration nomination, Oakwood Cemetery (Javascript)". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. p. 11. Archived from the original on December 10, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved July 24, 2021.- ^ Grant, chapter LX.
ISBN 0-252-01703-X. JSTOR 25101219., pp. 445.- ^ Sherman, W. T. (May 1887). "Grant, Thomas, Lee". North American Review. 144 (366): 437–450.
- ^ Cleaves, p. 277.
- ^ dcmemorials.com
- ^ Bowers, Q.D., and D.M. Sundman, 100 Greatest American Currency Notes, Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2006.
- ^ Thomas County website Archived August 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Fitzpatrick, Lilian Linder (1925). "Nebraska Place-Names". p. 139. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
- ^ "Announcement of Lebanon sculpture". Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
- ^ Together We Served.com, Essay
General references
- Bobrick, Benson. Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009.
ISBN 978-0-7432-9025-8.- Broadwater, Robert. General George H. Thomas. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2009.
ISBN 978-0-7864-3856-3.- Bowers, Q.D., and D.M. Sundman, 100 Greatest American Currency Notes, Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2006.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thomas, George Henry". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 866–867.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the- Cleaves, Freeman. Rock of Chickamauga: The Life of General George H. Thomas. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1948.
ISBN 0-8061-1978-0.- Coppée, Henry. General Thomas, The Great Commanders Series. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1893.
OCLC 2146008.- Eicher, John H., and
ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.- Einolf, Christopher J. George Thomas: Virginian for the Union. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
ISBN 978-0-8061-3867-1.- Furgurson, Ernest B. "Catching up with Old Slow Trot". Smithsonian, March 2007.
ISBN 0-914427-67-9.- O'Connor, Richard. Thomas, Rock of Chickamauga. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1948.
OCLC 1345107.- Van Horne, Thomas Budd. The Life of Major-General George H. Thomas. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1882.
OCLC 458382436.- Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964.
ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.Further reading
- Cimprich, John. "A Critical Moment and Its Aftermath for George H. Thomas." in The Moment of Decision: Biographical Essays on American Character and Regional Identity. Randall M. Miller and John R. McKivigan, editors. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994.
- Downing, David C. A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 2007.
ISBN 978-1-58182-587-9.- Johnson, Richard W. Memoir of Maj-Gen George H. Thomas. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Co., 1881.
OCLC 812607.- McKinney, Francis F. Education in Violence: The Life of George H. Thomas and the History of the Army of the Cumberland. Chicago: Americana House, 1991.
ISBN 0-9625290-5-2.- Palumbo, Frank A. George Henry Thomas, Major General, U.S.A.: The Dependable General, Supreme in Tactics of Strategy and Command. Dayton, OH: Morningside Bookshop, 1983.
ISBN 0-89029-311-2.- Thomas, Wilbur D. General George H. Thomas: The Indomitable Warrior. New York: Exposition Press, 1964.
OCLC 1655500.- Van Horne, Thomas B. The Army of the Cumberland: Its Organizations, Campaigns, and Battles. New York: Smithmark Publishers, 1996.
ISBN 0-8317-5621-7. First published 1885 by Robert Clarke & Co.- Wills, Brian Steel. George Henry Thomas: As True as Steel. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2012.
ISBN 978-0-7006-1841-5.External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Henry Thomas.Wikiquote has quotations related to George Henry Thomas.
- George H. Thomas in Encyclopedia Virginia
- Stone, Henry (1889). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography.
.- Johnston, Alexander (1888). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (9th ed.).
- Picture of $5 US Treasury Note featuring George Thomas, provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
- The General George H. Thomas Home Page
- General George H. Thomas and Army of the Cumberland Source Page
- An article by Stephen Z. Starr about the relationship between Grant and Thomas