Major General George H. Thomas (USA)

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Major General George Henry Thomas (USA)


George Henry Thomas was born at Newsom’s Depot, Southampton County, Virginia on 31 July 1816. His family led an upper-class plantation lifestyle, owning 685 acres and 24 slaves by 1829. He and his widowed mother and sisters were forced to flee from their home and hide in nearby woods during Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion. Thomas came to see the idea of the contented slave in the care of a benevolent overlord was a sentimental myth.

In 1836, Thomas was appointed to the United States Military Academy by Congressman John Y. Mason, who warned Thomas that no nominee from his district had ever graduated. Entering at age 20, Thomas was known to his fellow cadets as “Old Tom” and he became instant friends with his roommates, William T. Sherman and Stewart Van Vliet. In 1840, he graduated 12th in a class of 42 and was appointed a second lieutenant in Company D, 3rd U.S. Artillery.

He served at Fort Lauderdale, Florida; New Orleans; Fort Moultrie, Charleston; and Fort McHenry in Baltimore. His regiment was ordered to Texas in June 1845 as war loomed. Thomas led a gun crew with distinction at the battles of Fort Brown, Resaca de la Palma, Monterrey, and Buena Vista, receiving three brevet promotions. He served closely with his future principal antagonist in the Civil War – Captain Braxton Bragg.

In 1851, Thomas returned to West Point as a cavalry and artillery instructor, where he established a close professional and personal relationship with another Virginia officer, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. Concerned about the poor condition of the Academy’s elderly horses, Thomas moderated the tendency of cadets to overwork them during cavalry drills and became known as “Slow Trot Thomas”. Two of his students he recommended for assignment to the cavalry, J.E.B. Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee, became prominent Confederate cavalry generals. He recommended the expulsion of John Schofield, who would excoriate Thomas in postbellum writings about his service as a corps commander under Thomas in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign.

In 1854, Thomas’s artillery regiment was transferred to California. On 12 May 1855, Thomas was appointed major of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. As the Civil War drew closer, there was suspicion that Davis had been assembling and training a combat unit of elite U.S. Army officers who harbored Southern sympathies, and Thomas’s appointment to this regiment implied that his colleagues assumed he would support his native state of Virginia in a future conflict. He resumed his friendship with Robert E. Lee, the second in command.

He assumed acting command of the regiment in October 1857. On 26 August 1860, during a clash with a Comanche warrior at Clear Fork, Brazos River, Texas, Thomas was wounded by an arrow passing through the flesh near his chin area and sticking into his chest. This was the only combat wound Thomas would suffer throughout his entire military career.

In November 1860, Thomas requested a one-year leave of absence. His 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, he fell from a train platform and severely injured his back. He contemplated leaving the military service. On a stop in Washington, he 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.

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. 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. His sisters refused his financial help after the war, declaring they had no brother. He turned down Virginia Governor John Letcher’s offer to become chief of ordnance for the Virginia Provisional Army.

On 25 April 1861, Thomas was promoted to lieutenant colonel, replacing Robert E. Lee, and colonel on 3 May, replacing Albert Sidney Johnston. On 17 August, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers. During the First Bull Run Campaign, he commanded a brigade under Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley. 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 18 January 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.

On 2 December 1861, Thomas was assigned to command the 1st Division of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. He was present at the second day of the Battle of Shiloh on 7 April 1862, but arrived after the fighting had ceased. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant came under severe criticism for the bloody battle and his superior, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, reorganized his Department of the Mississippi to ease Grant out of direct field command. The three armies of the department were divided and recombined into three “wings”. Thomas, promoted to major general effective 25 April 1862, was given command of the Right Wing, consisting of four divisions from Grant’s former Army of the Tennessee and one from the Army of the Ohio, and successfully led the wing during the Siege of Corinth. On 10 June, Grant returned to command of the original Army of the Tennessee.

Thomas returned to service under Buell. During Gen. Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky in fall 1862, the Union high command became nervous about Buell’s cautious tendencies and offered Thomas command of the Army of the Ohio, who refused. Thomas and Buell halted Bragg’s invasion at the Battle of Perryville. Buell’s ineffective pursuit of Bragg led to his replacement by Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans. Thomas protested feeling that Rosecrans was his junior. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton informed Thomas that Rosecrans’ promotion to major general had been backdated to make him superior and reminded Thomas of his earlier refusal to accept command.

Commanding the “Center” wing of the newly renamed Army of the Cumberland, Thomas gave an impressive performance at the Battle of Stones River, holding the center of the retreating Union line and once again preventing a Bragg victory. He was in charge of the most important part of the maneuvering from Decherd to Chattanooga during the Tullahoma Campaign (22 June – 3 July 1863) and the crossing of the Tennessee River.

At the Battle of Chickamauga on 19 September 1863, commanding the XIV Corps, he once again held a desperate position against Bragg’s onslaught while the Union line on his right collapsed. Thomas rallied broken and scattered units together on Horseshoe Ridge to prevent a significant Union defeat from becoming a hopeless rout. Future president James Garfield, Rosecrans’ Chief of Staff, visited Thomas during the battle, carrying orders from Rosecrans to retreat; Thomas said he would stay behind to ensure the Army’s safety and Garfield told Rosecrans that Thomas was “standing like a rock.” After the battle, he became widely known as “The Rock of Chickamauga”.

Thomas replaced Rosecrans in command of the Army of the Cumberland shortly before the Battle of Chattanooga, 23 – 25 November 1863. Thomas’s troops stormed the Confederate line on Missionary Ridge. As the Army of the Cumberland advanced further than ordered, Grant, on Orchard Knob asked Thomas, “Who ordered the advance?” Thomas replied, “I don’t know. I did not.”

During Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s advance through Georgia in the spring of 1864, the Army of the Cumberland numbered over 60,000 men, and Thomas’s staff did the logistics and engineering for Sherman’s entire army group, including developing a novel series of Cumberland pontoons. At the Battle of Peachtree Creek on 20 July 1864, Thomas’s defense severely damaged Lt. Gen. John B. Hood’s army in its first attempt to break the siege of Atlanta.

When Hood broke away from Atlanta in the autumn, Sherman abandoned his communications and embarked on the March to the Sea. Thomas stayed behind to fight Hood in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. Thomas raced Hood to reach Nashville where reinforcements awaited. At the Battle of Franklin on 30 November 1864, a large part of Thomas’s force under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield, dealt Hood a strong defeat and held him in check long enough to cover the concentration of Union forces in Nashville.

At Nashville, Thomas had to organize his forces, which had been drawn from all parts of the West and which included many young troops and even quartermaster employees. He refused to attack until his army was ready and the ice covering the ground had melted enough for his men to move. Grant grew impatient at the delay and sent Maj. Gen. John A. Logan with an order to replace Thomas, and soon Grant also started west to take command in person.

On 15 December 1864, Thomas attacked and effectively destroyed Hood’s command in two days of fighting. Thomas was appointed major general in the regular army and received the Thanks of Congress. He resented his late promotion which made him junior to Philip Sheridan. He earned another nickname “The Sledge of Nashville”. Grant and Thomas had a cool relationship for reasons not entirely clear.

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. He set up military commissions to enforce labor contracts since the local courts had either ceased to operate or were biased against blacks. He used troops to protect places threatened by violence from the Ku Klux Klan.

President Andrew Johnson offered Thomas the rank of lieutenant general with the intent to eventually replace Grant, a Republican and future president, with Thomas as general-in-chief, but the ever-loyal Thomas asked the Senate to withdraw his name because he did not want to be party to politics. He requested assignment to command the Military Division of the Pacific and he died in San Francisco on 28 March 1870 of a stroke while responding to an article by Schofield criticizing his military career.

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Major General George Henry Thomas (USA)


George Henry Thomas was born at Newsom’s Depot, Southampton County, Virginia on 31 July 1816. His family led an upper-class plantation lifestyle, owning 685 acres and 24 slaves by 1829. He and his widowed mother and sisters were forced to flee from their home and hide in nearby woods during Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion. Thomas came to see the idea of the contented slave in the care of a benevolent overlord was a sentimental myth.

In 1836, Thomas was appointed to the United States Military Academy by Congressman John Y. Mason, who warned Thomas that no nominee from his district had ever graduated. Entering at age 20, Thomas was known to his fellow cadets as “Old Tom” and he became instant friends with his roommates, William T. Sherman and Stewart Van Vliet. In 1840, he graduated 12th in a class of 42 and was appointed a second lieutenant in Company D, 3rd U.S. Artillery.

He served at Fort Lauderdale, Florida; New Orleans; Fort Moultrie, Charleston; and Fort McHenry in Baltimore. His regiment was ordered to Texas in June 1845 as war loomed. Thomas led a gun crew with distinction at the battles of Fort Brown, Resaca de la Palma, Monterrey, and Buena Vista, receiving three brevet promotions. He served closely with his future principal antagonist in the Civil War – Captain Braxton Bragg.

In 1851, Thomas returned to West Point as a cavalry and artillery instructor, where he established a close professional and personal relationship with another Virginia officer, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. Concerned about the poor condition of the Academy’s elderly horses, Thomas moderated the tendency of cadets to overwork them during cavalry drills and became known as “Slow Trot Thomas”. Two of his students he recommended for assignment to the cavalry, J.E.B. Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee, became prominent Confederate cavalry generals. He recommended the expulsion of John Schofield, who would excoriate Thomas in postbellum writings about his service as a corps commander under Thomas in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign.

In 1854, Thomas’s artillery regiment was transferred to California. On 12 May 1855, Thomas was appointed major of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. As the Civil War drew closer, there was suspicion that Davis had been assembling and training a combat unit of elite U.S. Army officers who harbored Southern sympathies, and Thomas’s appointment to this regiment implied that his colleagues assumed he would support his native state of Virginia in a future conflict. He resumed his friendship with Robert E. Lee, the second in command.

He assumed acting command of the regiment in October 1857. On 26 August 1860, during a clash with a Comanche warrior at Clear Fork, Brazos River, Texas, Thomas was wounded by an arrow passing through the flesh near his chin area and sticking into his chest. This was the only combat wound Thomas would suffer throughout his entire military career.

In November 1860, Thomas requested a one-year leave of absence. His 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, he fell from a train platform and severely injured his back. He contemplated leaving the military service. On a stop in Washington, he 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.

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. 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. His sisters refused his financial help after the war, declaring they had no brother. He turned down Virginia Governor John Letcher’s offer to become chief of ordnance for the Virginia Provisional Army.

On 25 April 1861, Thomas was promoted to lieutenant colonel, replacing Robert E. Lee, and colonel on 3 May, replacing Albert Sidney Johnston. On 17 August, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers. During the First Bull Run Campaign, he commanded a brigade under Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley. 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 18 January 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.

On 2 December 1861, Thomas was assigned to command the 1st Division of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. He was present at the second day of the Battle of Shiloh on 7 April 1862, but arrived after the fighting had ceased. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant came under severe criticism for the bloody battle and his superior, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, reorganized his Department of the Mississippi to ease Grant out of direct field command. The three armies of the department were divided and recombined into three “wings”. Thomas, promoted to major general effective 25 April 1862, was given command of the Right Wing, consisting of four divisions from Grant’s former Army of the Tennessee and one from the Army of the Ohio, and successfully led the wing during the Siege of Corinth. On 10 June, Grant returned to command of the original Army of the Tennessee.

Thomas returned to service under Buell. During Gen. Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky in fall 1862, the Union high command became nervous about Buell’s cautious tendencies and offered Thomas command of the Army of the Ohio, who refused. Thomas and Buell halted Bragg’s invasion at the Battle of Perryville. Buell’s ineffective pursuit of Bragg led to his replacement by Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans. Thomas protested feeling that Rosecrans was his junior. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton informed Thomas that Rosecrans’ promotion to major general had been backdated to make him superior and reminded Thomas of his earlier refusal to accept command.

Commanding the “Center” wing of the newly renamed Army of the Cumberland, Thomas gave an impressive performance at the Battle of Stones River, holding the center of the retreating Union line and once again preventing a Bragg victory. He was in charge of the most important part of the maneuvering from Decherd to Chattanooga during the Tullahoma Campaign (22 June – 3 July 1863) and the crossing of the Tennessee River.

At the Battle of Chickamauga on 19 September 1863, commanding the XIV Corps, he once again held a desperate position against Bragg’s onslaught while the Union line on his right collapsed. Thomas rallied broken and scattered units together on Horseshoe Ridge to prevent a significant Union defeat from becoming a hopeless rout. Future president James Garfield, Rosecrans’ Chief of Staff, visited Thomas during the battle, carrying orders from Rosecrans to retreat; Thomas said he would stay behind to ensure the Army’s safety and Garfield told Rosecrans that Thomas was “standing like a rock.” After the battle, he became widely known as “The Rock of Chickamauga”.

Thomas replaced Rosecrans in command of the Army of the Cumberland shortly before the Battle of Chattanooga, 23 – 25 November 1863. Thomas’s troops stormed the Confederate line on Missionary Ridge. As the Army of the Cumberland advanced further than ordered, Grant, on Orchard Knob asked Thomas, “Who ordered the advance?” Thomas replied, “I don’t know. I did not.”

During Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s advance through Georgia in the spring of 1864, the Army of the Cumberland numbered over 60,000 men, and Thomas’s staff did the logistics and engineering for Sherman’s entire army group, including developing a novel series of Cumberland pontoons. At the Battle of Peachtree Creek on 20 July 1864, Thomas’s defense severely damaged Lt. Gen. John B. Hood’s army in its first attempt to break the siege of Atlanta.

When Hood broke away from Atlanta in the autumn, Sherman abandoned his communications and embarked on the March to the Sea. Thomas stayed behind to fight Hood in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. Thomas raced Hood to reach Nashville where reinforcements awaited. At the Battle of Franklin on 30 November 1864, a large part of Thomas’s force under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield, dealt Hood a strong defeat and held him in check long enough to cover the concentration of Union forces in Nashville.

At Nashville, Thomas had to organize his forces, which had been drawn from all parts of the West and which included many young troops and even quartermaster employees. He refused to attack until his army was ready and the ice covering the ground had melted enough for his men to move. Grant grew impatient at the delay and sent Maj. Gen. John A. Logan with an order to replace Thomas, and soon Grant also started west to take command in person.

On 15 December 1864, Thomas attacked and effectively destroyed Hood’s command in two days of fighting. Thomas was appointed major general in the regular army and received the Thanks of Congress. He resented his late promotion which made him junior to Philip Sheridan. He earned another nickname “The Sledge of Nashville”. Grant and Thomas had a cool relationship for reasons not entirely clear.

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. He set up military commissions to enforce labor contracts since the local courts had either ceased to operate or were biased against blacks. He used troops to protect places threatened by violence from the Ku Klux Klan.

President Andrew Johnson offered Thomas the rank of lieutenant general with the intent to eventually replace Grant, a Republican and future president, with Thomas as general-in-chief, but the ever-loyal Thomas asked the Senate to withdraw his name because he did not want to be party to politics. He requested assignment to command the Military Division of the Pacific and he died in San Francisco on 28 March 1870 of a stroke while responding to an article by Schofield criticizing his military career.

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Thanks for posting this amazing colorized photo of a great man and military leader too often overlooked.
As I recall, his family never reconciled with him. When news was brought to his sister of his death, she replied, "I don't have a brother!"
 
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I think he was the best corps commander in the Union Army. He was the equivalent to a Union James Longstreet.

The only fault I can find in his record was his slowness in dealing with Hood. Grant almost had to replace him before he moved.

If Thomas had gone South and joined the CSA, there is no telling the outcome. At worst, he would have been an excellent corps commander in either major army. Imagine Thomas commanding the 2nd or 3rd Corps at Gettysburg.
 
Thomas’s staff did the logistics and engineering for Sherman’s entire army group, including developing a novel series of Cumberland pontoons.
That caught my eye.

For all you engineers and engineering buffs, here's what Wikipedia has to say about those pontoons:

Cumberland pontoons were folding pontoon bridges developed during the American Civil War to facilitate the movement of Union forces across the rivers of the Mid-South as the Federal forces advanced southward through Tennessee and Georgia.

Early pontoon bridges during the Civil War were heavy and awkward, and required special long-geared pontoon carriers to transport them to the site of the planned river crossing. There were two main types—the French-designed wooden bateau (known in the army as a "Cincinnati pontoon") and the Russian pontoon, a canvas boat. Both types were twenty-two feet in length and took considerable time to set up, requiring several men to lift into position and pin the individual sections together.

Early in 1864, the commander of the Army of the Cumberland, Major General George H. Thomas, was seeking a light-weight, easy-to-haul and erect pontoon bridge to move his troops across unfordable rivers and streams. Knowing the limitations of the two systems used by the armies in the Western Theater, he had folding pontoons developed. A similar idea had been instigated by his predecessor William S. Rosecrans earlier in the war, but had not been adopted. Captain William E. Merrill, Thomas's chief engineer, improved on Rosecrans's prototype, making it lighter and stronger. He replaced the pins that held individual sections together with hinges so that the side frame sections folded together instead of separating. The new design yielded a portable boat that was lightweight, small enough to carry on a standard supply wagon, and easier to construct in the field. It was also strong enough to support horse-drawn artillery and fully loaded wagons.

These boats soon became popularly known as Cumberland pontoons. Merrill had the first ones constructed in the army's engineer workshops in Nashville, Tennessee, under the supervision of Lieutenant James R. Willet. Soon, a train of fifty new boats was transported to the field armies. William T. Sherman used the new bridges extensively during the first two months of the Atlanta Campaign, first laying them across the Etowah River. He later used them during the March to the Sea and the 1865 Carolinas Campaign.
Thomas saw the need, and put things in motion to develop something to meet that need. That's part of being not just a good general, but a great general.
 
I've admired Thomas since I first read about him in my Dad's books back in the 1950s. Still...I wonder if his many calls for reinforcements at Chickamauga were justified and if they helped lead to Rosecrans becoming unhinged.
 
I think he was the best corps commander in the Union Army. He was the equivalent to a Union James Longstreet.

The only fault I can find in his record was his slowness in dealing with Hood. Grant almost had to replace him before he moved.

If Thomas had gone South and joined the CSA, there is no telling the outcome. At worst, he would have been an excellent corps commander in either major army. Imagine Thomas commanding the 2nd or 3rd Corps at Gettysburg.
I think if you read a biography of George Thomas you will see that there are two good reasons for his prudent preparations for meeting Hood. First, Sherman had left him with scattered forces that had to be concentrated at Nashville and given some time to coalesce into a unified fighting force. On paper his army looked formidable but in reality it needed time to become a coherent fighting unit. Second, Thomas wanted to do what had not yet been done in this war, that is, give an army such a drubbing that it would cease to be an effective army, not just to defeat Hood but to smash his army. To do that he needed to follow up an infantry victory with a cavalry pursuit and he did not initially have such a force, either the troopers or the horses for some time until just before the battle. And of course Grant, back in Virginia, had no idea of what it would be to try to fight a battle on an ice encrusted slope. Had he been on the battlefield he would have understood why Thomas had to delay the onset of battle. In my opinion Thomas was the best commander of the war. His troops loved and respected him because his habit of prudent preparation saved their lives. And if had to, he could size up a situation quickly and react immediately to the unforeseen. If the US Government did not quite know what to do with Thomas, if Lincoln was content to "let the Virginian wait", if Sherman and Grant were reluctant to admit he was the equal, or better, of them, it was to the detriment of the Union and the needless prolonging of the war. I will say one thing further. In my opinion George Thomas was the one Union general that Lee would never have been able to intimidate.
 
I think if you read a biography of George Thomas you will see that there are two good reasons for his prudent preparations for meeting Hood. First, Sherman had left him with scattered forces that had to be concentrated at Nashville and given some time to coalesce into a unified fighting force. On paper his army looked formidable but in reality it needed time to become a coherent fighting unit. Second, Thomas wanted to do what had not yet been done in this war, that is, give an army such a drubbing that it would cease to be an effective army, not just to defeat Hood but to smash his army. To do that he needed to follow up an infantry victory with a cavalry pursuit and he did not initially have such a force, either the troopers or the horses for some time until just before the battle. And of course Grant, back in Virginia, had no idea of what it would be to try to fight a battle on an ice encrusted slope. Had he been on the battlefield he would have understood why Thomas had to delay the onset of battle. In my opinion Thomas was the best commander of the war. His troops loved and respected him because his habit of prudent preparation saved their lives. And if had to, he could size up a situation quickly and react immediately to the unforeseen. If the US Government did not quite know what to do with Thomas, if Lincoln was content to "let the Virginian wait", if Sherman and Grant were reluctant to admit he was the equal, or better, of them, it was to the detriment of the Union and the needless prolonging of the war. I will say one thing further. In my opinion George Thomas was the one Union general that Lee would never have been able to intimidate.
Thank you for your insights! Beautiful defense of and tribute to Thomas.
 
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I think if you read a biography of George Thomas you will see that there are two good reasons for his prudent preparations for meeting Hood. First, Sherman had left him with scattered forces that had to be concentrated at Nashville and given some time to coalesce into a unified fighting force. On paper his army looked formidable but in reality it needed time to become a coherent fighting unit. Second, Thomas wanted to do what had not yet been done in this war, that is, give an army such a drubbing that it would cease to be an effective army, not just to defeat Hood but to smash his army. To do that he needed to follow up an infantry victory with a cavalry pursuit and he did not initially have such a force, either the troopers or the horses for some time until just before the battle. And of course Grant, back in Virginia, had no idea of what it would be to try to fight a battle on an ice encrusted slope. Had he been on the battlefield he would have understood why Thomas had to delay the onset of battle. In my opinion Thomas was the best commander of the war. His troops loved and respected him because his habit of prudent preparation saved their lives. And if had to, he could size up a situation quickly and react immediately to the unforeseen. If the US Government did not quite know what to do with Thomas, if Lincoln was content to "let the Virginian wait", if Sherman and Grant were reluctant to admit he was the equal, or better, of them, it was to the detriment of the Union and the needless prolonging of the war. I will say one thing further. In my opinion George Thomas was the one Union general that Lee would never have been able to intimidate.
I don't think Thomas could be intimidated. If Murfreesboro and Chickamauga didn't rattle him, nothing would.

His slowness @ Nashville isn't a huge demerit in my book. I was surprised when I read about it. But considering the size and condition of the force he was up against.... He could have beat them out of their pants with even equal numbers.

Didn't Schofield undermine him during the Nashville campaign, and tear down his rep long after he died?
 
I don't think Thomas could be intimidated. If Murfreesboro and Chickamauga didn't rattle him, nothing would.

His slowness @ Nashville isn't a huge demerit in my book. I was surprised when I read about it. But considering the size and condition of the force he was up against.... He could have beat them out of their pants with even equal numbers.

Didn't Schofield undermine him during the Nashville campaign, and tear down his rep long after he died?
Subordinates of Thomas convinced him that Schofield undermined him, but both Schofield and Grant said that it never happened.

Schofield was later critical of Thomas for a few things during the Nashville campaign, and his arguments had merit.
 
I don't think Thomas could be intimidated. If Murfreesboro and Chickamauga didn't rattle him, nothing would.

His slowness @ Nashville isn't a huge demerit in my book. I was surprised when I read about it. But considering the size and condition of the force he was up against.... He could have beat them out of their pants with even equal numbers.

Didn't Schofield undermine him during the Nashville campaign, and tear down his rep long after he died?
Schofield was a capable commander himself and did a very creditable job at Franklin just before Nashville and felt, with some justification , that he deserved more credit than he got, though Thomas, up to his eyeballs in problems at Nashville, had nothing to do with that. Unfortunately, since Thomas only lived some five years after the war ended, he fell victim to the kind of character, denigration, if not assassination, that those not around cannot defend themselves against. Also he asked his wife to destroy all, every single bit of his wartime correspondence and she complied, so we do not have the often self laudatory scribblings and memoirs that we do have for most high ranking officers. At his funeral the ceremonies were jammed with veterans who had fought under him and their grief was palpable. I have always gotten the impression from reading about his funeral that Sherman and Grant were more relieved at his passing, than grief stricken over his demise. In my opinion had Thomas had in his life and afterwards in death the good press that other commanders enjoyed, especially on the part of Southern authors, he would be as well known and as well respected as any other commander from that war, including that other Virginian. A modest man, a superb officer and a gentleman, a loyal Unionist, at great personal cost, if we had a beau sabre from that conflict it would be him, George Thomas.
 
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Thomas overall military greatness has been left for the most part in the dust by the publicity hungry glory hounds of the time . Yes, some of their glory is deserved. No one had an easy challenge during the Civil War. He made some errors same as everyone did, but his knowledgeable and courageous efforts are often overshadowed. If one thinks about the logistics, lack of communication, untrained soldiers, terrible sanitation and diseases it is a wonder anyone survived. He got the name "Old Slow Trot" for his lack of speed, but more the makes up for it in his accomplishments. As others have stated about his personal life, having one's family ignore you and being torn from your roots had to be an enormous burden. IMO he was as good or better then any of the list of great generals we all immediately recall.
 
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Thomas should've taken Buell's job when offered it; I think his turning the job down was a failure of his and it sure did the Union cause no service.

As for Thomas being unacknowledged or unappreciated: well I've been reading about the war for over 60 years and don't think that to be true. It's pretty hard to write about many important aspects of the war without writing about Thomas and it's hard to write about Thomas without crediting his ability. Sure, some played him down but I think his standing has been high in my lifetime at least.
 
Thomas, one of the great CW generals, has been under-rated by history. In part, that may have something to do with his lack of personal memoirs as a result of passing soon after the war, the fact that Sherman and Grant consistently tried to find fault with him, and his Virginian roots, which even Lincoln looked at with suspicion.
 
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