George Henry Thomas (July 31, 1816 - March 28, 1870) was an American Army officer and a General of the Union during the American Civil War, one of the main commanders at the Western Theater.
Thomas served in the Mexican-American War and then chose to remain with the US Army for the Civil War, despite his relic as a Virginian. He won one of the first Union wins in the war, at Mill Springs in Kentucky, and served in an important subordinate command at Perryville and the Stones River. His stout defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 rescued the Union Armed Forces from being thoroughly directed, earning him his most famous nickname, "Stone Chickamauga". He followed soon after with a dramatic breakthrough about Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga. In the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of 1864, he achieved one of the most decisive victories of the war, destroying the army of General Confederate John Bell Hood, his former pupil at West Point, at the Battle of Nashville.
Thomas had a successful record in the Civil War, but he failed to achieve the historic praise of some of his contemporaries, such as Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman. He developed a reputation as a slow and deliberate general who avoided self-promotion and who resisted progress in a position when he did not think they were justified. After the war, he did not write memoirs to advance his legacy. He also had an uncomfortable personal relationship with Grant, who served him poorly when Grant advanced in the rankings and eventually became president.
Video George Henry Thomas
Early life and education
Thomas was born in Newsom's Depot, Southampton County, Virginia, five miles (8 km) from the North Carolina border. His father, John Thomas, descendent of Welsh, and his mother, Elizabeth Rochelle Thomas, descendants of French Huguenot immigrants, had six children. George has three sisters and two brothers. The family led the upscale plantation lifestyle. In 1829, they had 685 acres (2,77 km 2 ) and 24 slaves. John died in a farm accident when George was 13, leaving his family in financial trouble. George Thomas, his sister, and his widowed mother were forced to flee their homes and hide in the nearby forest during 1831 slave rebellion by Nat Turner. Benson Bobrick has stated that while some repressive measures were imposed after the destruction of rebellion, Thomas took the lesson in other ways, seeing that slavery was so vile an institution that forced slaves to act violently. This is a major event in the formation of his view of slavery; that the idea of ​​a satisfied slave in the care of a good lord is a sentimental myth. Christopher Einolf, on the other hand, wrote "For George Thomas, the view that slavery is needed as a way of controlling blacks is supported by his personal experience of the Nat Turner Revolt.... Thomas did not leave a written record of his opinion of slavery but the fact that he had a slave for the rest of his life indicating that he is not against it. "The traditional story is that Thomas taught as many as 15 family slaves to read, violating Virginia laws that prohibit this, and regardless of his father's wishes.
Thomas was appointed to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, in 1836 by Congressman John Y. Mason, who warned Thomas that no candidate from his district had passed. Entering the age of 20, Thomas was known by his fellow coworkers as "Old Tom" and he became an instant friend with his roommates, William T. Sherman and Stewart Van Vliet. He made steady academic progress, was appointed a cadet official in his second year, and graduated 12th in the 42nd class in 1840. He was appointed as the second lieutenant in Company D, 3 US Artillery.
Maps George Henry Thomas
Military career in the United States
Thomas's first assignment with artillery troops began in the late 1840s at the outpost of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the Seminole War, where his troops performed infantry duties. He led them on a successful patrol and was appointed the first lieutenant on 6 November 1841. From 1842 to 1845 he served in the post in New Orleans, Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, and Fort McHenry in Baltimore. With the Mexican-American War soaring, the regiment was ordered to Texas in June 1845.
In Mexico, Thomas leads a rifle crew with differences in Fort Brown battles, Resaca de la Palma, Monterrey, and Buena Vista, receiving three brevet promotions. In Buena Vista, General Zachary Taylor reported that "the service of light artillery, always striking, more than amazingly different" during the battle. Jail. General John E. Wool wrote of Thomas and other officers that "without our artillery, we will not hold our position for an hour." The commander of Thomas's battery wrote that "the coolness and firmness of Thomas did not contribute little to the success of the day." Lieutenant Thomas is more than defending the reputation he has long enjoyed in his regiment as an accurate and scientific artist. " During the war, Thomas served closely with an artillery officer who would become the main antagonist in the Civil War - Captain Braxton Bragg.
Thomas was transferred to Florida in 1849-50. In 1851, he returned to West Point as a cavalry and artillery instructor, where he established close professional and personal relationships with other Virginia officers, Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee, Academy inspector. His appointment there is partly based on a recommendation from Braxton Bragg. Concerned about the poor condition of the Academy's old horse, Thomas moderated the cadets' tendency to work too hard during cavalry training and was known as the "Slow Trot Thomas". Two Thomas students who received his recommendation for cavalry assignment, J.E.B. Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee, became prominent Confederate cavalry generals. Another Civil War Connection was a cadet who was expelled for disciplinary reasons on the recommendation of Thomas, John Schofield, who would denounce Thomas in postbellum writings about his ministry as commander of the corps under Thomas in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. On November 17, 1852, Thomas married Frances Lucretia Kellogg, 31, from Troy, New York. The couple remained at West Point until 1854. Thomas was promoted to captain on 24 December 1853.
In the spring of 1854, Thomas's artillery troops were transferred to California and he led two companies to San Francisco via the Panama Dwarf, and then made a tiring land parade to Fort Yuma. On May 12, 1855, Thomas was appointed general of the 2nd US Cavalry (later redesigned the 5th US Cavalry) by Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War. Once again, Braxton Bragg has made recommendations for Thomas's progress. There was a suspicion as the Civil War got closer that Davis had assembled and trained an elite US Army officer combat unit that harbored Southern sympathy, and Thomas's appointment for the regiment implied that his colleagues assumed he would support his home country in Virginia. future conflicts. Thomas continued his close relationship with the second commander of the regiment, Robert E. Lee, and the two officers traveled extensively together in separate ministry for military court duties. In October 1857, Major Thomas was assumed to be the commander of the cavalry regiment, a task he would maintain for two and a half years. On August 26, 1860, when there was a clash with a Comanche soldier, Thomas was injured by an arrow that pierced the flesh near his chin area and clung to his chest in Clear Fork, Brazos River, Texas. Thomas pulled the dart out and, after a surgeon dressed in his wound, continued to lead the expedition. This was the only combat injury suffered by Thomas during his long military career.
In November 1860, Thomas asked for a year's absence. Her antebellum career has been distinguished and productive, and she is one of the rare officers with field experience in all three combat weapons - infantry, cavalry, and artillery. On his way back to southern Virginia, he had an accident in Lynchburg, Virginia, crashed from the train platform and wounded his back. This accident made him contemplate leaving the military service and making him suffer for the rest of his life. Continuing to New York to visit his wife's family, Thomas stopped in Washington, DC, and conferred with the head of Winfield Scott, advising Scott that Major General David E. Twiggs, commander of the Texas Department, harbored separatist and unreliable sympathizers in his post.
American Civil War
Remaining with Union
At the outbreak of the Civil War, 19 of the 36 officers at the US Cavalry II resigned, including three superior Thomas - Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and William J. Hardee. Many Southern-born officers are split between faithfulness with their country and loyalty to their country. Thomas fought with the decision but chose to stay with the United States. His northern-born wife may help influence his decision. In response, his family changed his picture to the wall, destroyed his letters, and never spoke to him again. (During the difficult economic times in the South after the war, Thomas sent some money to his sister, who angrily refused to accept it, stating that they had no relatives.)
Nevertheless, Thomas remained in the Union Army with a certain suspicion around him. On January 18, 1861, just months before Fort Sumter, he had applied for a job as cadet commander at the Virginia Military Institute. Any real tendency for the cause of secession, however, could be denied when he rejected the offer of Virginia Governor John Letcher to become chief arms officer of the Virginia Provisional Army. On June 18, his former student and fellow member of the Virginian, Confederate Colonel J.E.B. Stuart, writing to his wife, "Old George H. Thomas is an enemy cavalry commander, I want to hang him, hang him as a traitor to his home country." However, when the Civil War started, he won the affection of Union soldiers serving below him as "soldiers of soldiers," lovingly referring to Thomas as "Pap Thomas".
Kentucky
Thomas was quickly promoted to become a lieutenant colonel (on April 25, 1861, succeeding Robert E. Lee) and colonel (May 3, succeeding Albert Sidney Johnston) in the regular army, and brigadier general volunteers (17 August). In the First Bull Run Campaign, he led a brigade under Major General Robert Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley, but all his next task was at the Western Theater. Reporting to Major General Robert Anderson in Kentucky, Thomas was assigned to recruit training and to lead independent forces in the eastern part of the state. On January 18, 1862, he defeated the Confederate Brigadier. Gens. George B. Crittenden and Felix Zollicoffer at Mill Springs, earned an important first Union victory in the war, destroying Confederate forces in eastern Kentucky, and lifting Union spirit.
Shiloh and Corinth
On December 2, 1861, Brig. General Thomas was assigned to lead First Division Army Major General Don Carlos Buell in Ohio. He attended the second day of the Battle of Shiloh (7 April 1862), but arrived after the fighting had stopped. Winners in Shiloh, Major General Ulysses S. Grant, heavily criticized over the bloody battle and his superior, Major General Henry W. Halleck, reorganized his department Mississippi to ease Grant out of direct field command. Three soldiers in the department are divided and combined into three "wings". Thomas, was promoted to major general, effective 25 April 1862, was given command of the right wing, which consists of four divisions of the former Army Grant in Tennessee and one of the Army Ohio. Thomas managed to lead these alleged troops in the siege of Corinth. On June 10, Grant returned to the Tennessee Army's native command.
Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga
Thomas returned to serve under Don Carlos Buell. During the Invasion of the General Confederate Braxton Bragg in Kentucky in the fall of 1862, the Union's high command became nervous about Buell's cautious tendencies and offered the Ohio Army command to Thomas, who refused. Thomas served as Buell's second commander at the Battle of Perryville; though tactically unconvincing, the fighting stopped Bragg's invasion of Kentucky when he voluntarily retreated to Tennessee. Again frustrated by Buell's ineffective pursuit of Bragg, the Union replaced him with Major General William Rosecrans. Thomas wrote on October 30, 1862, a letter of protest to Stanton's Secretary, feeling that Rosecrans was junior for him, but Stanton wrote back on Nov. 15, telling him that's not the case (Rosecrans is actually his junior, but his commission as major general has retreated to make him senior in Thomas) and reminds him of his previous refusal to accept orders; Thomas objected and withdrew his protest.
Fighting under Rosecrans, leading the newly renamed "Center" wing of the Cumberland Army, Thomas gave an impressive performance at the Stones River Battle, holding the center of the backward Union line and again preventing Bragg's victory. He was responsible for the most important part of the maneuver from Decherd to Chattanooga during the Tullahoma Campaign (June 22 - July 3, 1863) and the Tennessee River crossing. At the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19, 1863, now leading the XIV Corps, he once again held a desperate position against Bragg's attack while the Union line on his right collapsed. Thomas collects the damaged and scattered units together at the Horseshoe Ridge to prevent a significant Union defeat from wasted defeat. The future president James Garfield, a field officer for the Cumberland Army, visited Thomas during the battle, bringing Rosecrans orders to retreat; when Thomas said he had to stay behind to ensure the safety of the Army, Garfield told Rosecrans that Thomas "stood like a rock". After the battle he became widely known by the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga", representing his determination to hold a vital position against powerful opportunities.
Thomas succeeded Rosecrans in command of the Cumberland Army shortly before the Battle of Chattanooga (November 23-25, 1863), a stunning Union victory highlighted by Thomas's army invading the Confederate line at Missionary Ridge. When the Cumberland Army advanced farther than ordered, General Grant, at Orchard Knob asked Thomas, "Who made the advance payment?" Thomas replied, "I do not know, I'm not."
Atlanta Atlanta and Franklin/Nashville
During the General's Major General William Tecumseh Sherman through Georgia in the spring of 1864, the Cumberland Army numbered more than 60,000 people, and Thomas's staff performed logistics and engineering for the entire Sherman army group, including developing a new series of Cumberland pontoon. At the Battle of Peachtree Creek (July 20, 1864), Thomas's defense destroyed Lt. Gen. John B. Hood's army in his first attempt to break the siege of Atlanta.
When Hood broke away from Atlanta in the fall of 1864, stuffed a long Sherman line of communication, and tried to force Sherman to follow him, Sherman left his communications and started March to the Sea. Thomas stayed behind to fight Hood in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. Thomas, with a smaller force, competes with Hood to reach Nashville, where he will receive reinforcements.
At the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, most of Thomas's troops, under the command of Major General John M. Schofield, dropped Hood's powerful defeat and held him long enough to cover the concentration of Union forces in Nashville. In Nashville, Thomas had to organize his troops, which had been withdrawn 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 melted enough for his men to move. North Korea, including General Grant himself (now head of all Union forces), became impatient with the delay. Major General John A. Logan was sent on orders to replace Thomas, and soon afterwards Grant began his westward journey from City Point, Virginia to take command directly.
Thomas attacked on December 15, 1864, in the Battle of Nashville and effectively destroyed Hood's command in two days of fighting. Thomas sent his wife, Frances Lucretia Kellogg Thomas, the next telegram, the only communication that survived Thomases' correspondence: "We have whipped the enemy, took many prisoners and large artillery."
Thomas was appointed a great general in the regular army, with the date of his victory in Nashville, and received Congressional Thanks:
... to Major General George H. Thomas and the officers and soldiers under his command for their skill and courage, where the rebel forces under General Hood were formally defeated and expelled from the state of Tennessee.
Thomas may have hated his late promotion to the major general (who made him a junior by rank until Sheridan); after receiving the telegram announcing it, he said to the George Cooper Surgeon: "I think it's better late than never, but it's too late to be rewarded, I get this in Chickamauga."
Thomas also received another nickname of his victory: "The Sledge of Nashville".
Next life and death
After the end of the Civil War, Thomas ordered the Cumberland Department in Kentucky and Tennessee, and occasionally West Virginia and parts of Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama, until 1869. During the Reconstruction, Thomas acted to protect white free men. violation. He set up a military commission to enforce the employment contract because local courts no longer operate or biased against blacks. Thomas also uses troops to protect places threatened by violence from the Ku Klux Klan. In a November 1868 report, Thomas noted an attempt by the former Confederate to paint the Confederacy in a positive light, stating:
The greatest effort made by the defeated rebels since the close of the war was to spread the idea that the causes of freedom, justice, humanity, equality, and all the calendars of freedom, were violent and false when attempts at southern independence failed. This is, of course, intended as a political species, in which the crime of betrayal may be covered with a false lacquer patriotism, so the sedimentary sediment may go down in history hand in hand with the government's defenders, thus wiping out with their own own stain hand; an amazing species of self-forgiveness in irregularity, when it is thought that life and property - seized by state law, war, and nation, through the generosity of government and people - is not required of them.
President Andrew Johnson offered Thomas the rank of lieutenant general - with the intention of eventually replacing Grant, a Republican president and future, with Thomas as general leader - but Thomas who always faithfully asked the Senate to withdraw his name for the nomination because he did not want to be a party political. In 1869 he asked for an assignment to lead the Pacific Military Division with headquarters in Presidio San Francisco. He died there due to a stroke while writing answers to an article criticizing his military career by his rival, John Schofield. Sherman, then general leader, personally relayed the news to President Grant at the White House. None of his blood relatives attended his funeral because they never forgave him for his loyalty to the Union. She is buried at Oakwood Cemetery, in Troy, New York. The headstone was carved by Robert E. Launitz and consisted of a white marble sarcophagus topped with a bald eagle.
Legacy
His cadets at West Point gave him the nickname "Slow Trot Thomas", and this nickname was used to diminish his reputation. He moved slowly because of his injured back, but he was mentally anything but slow, just methodical. He is known for his accurate assessment and profound knowledge of his profession and once he understands the problem and the time is right to act, he will do a quick and powerful punch.
The veteran organization for the Cumberland Army, throughout its existence, struggles to see that he is respected for everything he has done.
Thomas was in command of only two main battles in the Civil War, Battle of Mill Springs at the beginning and the Battle of Nashville nearing the end. Both are victories. However, his contributions to the Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Peachtree Creek battles were decisive. Its main heritage lies in the development of the modern war doctrine and in its logistical mastery.
Thomas is generally upheld by Civil War historians; Bruce Catton and Carl Sandburg write passionately about him, and many consider Thomas one of the three Union of war generals, after Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. But Thomas never entered a popular consciousness like those people. The general smashed his personal letters, saying that he did not want "his life to be sold in the eyes of curious people." Beginning in the 1870s, many Civil War generals published memoirs, confirmed their decisions or waged a long war, but Thomas, who died in 1870, did not publish his own memoirs. In addition, most of his campaigns were in Western war theater, which received little attention both in the pressures of the day and in contemporary historical records.
Grant and Thomas also have a great relationship, for reasons that are not entirely clear, but well proved by contemporaries. When Grant, dripping with rain, arrived at Thomas's headquarters before the Chattanooga Campaign, Thomas, who was trapped in other activities, did not recognize the general for several minutes until an attendant intervened. Thomas's perceived lag in Nashville - though necessitated by the weather - pushed Grant into impatience, and Grant almost succeeded Thomas. In Personal Memoirs, Grant tended to minimize Thomas's contributions, especially during the Franklin-Nashville campaign, saying his movements were "always so deliberate and very slow, though effective in defense."
Grant, however, admits that Thomas's final success in Nashville avoided all criticism. Sherman, who was close to Thomas during the war, also repeated allegations after the war that Thomas was "slow", and this incriminating with vague praise tended to influence perceptions of the Chickamauga Stone deep into the 20th century. Both Sherman and Grant attended Thomas's funeral, and were reported by a third party to have been seen moving by his death. The legendary horse's grandfather Thomas, Billy, gave birth to his best friend, Sherman.
Thomas was always in good company with his commander in the Cumberland Army, William Rosecrans. Even after Rosecrans was released from command and replaced by Thomas, he had nothing but praise for him. After hearing Thomas's death, Rosecrans sent a letter to the National Tribune, declaring Thomas' passing is' National Disaster... Some know him better then I do, no one appreciates him anymore. '
In 1877, Sherman published an article praising Grant and Thomas, and comparing it to Robert E. Lee. Having stated that Thomas, unlike his counterpart, Virginian Lee, stood in Union, Sherman wrote:
During the entire war, his service was transcendent, winning the first major victory at Mill Springs in Kentucky, January 20, 1862, participating in all Western campaigns in 1862-3-4, and finally, December 16, 1864 annihilating troops from Hood, who in mid-winter forward to Nashville to surround him.
Sherman concludes that Grant and Thomas are worthy "heroes" of monuments like Nelson and Wellington in London, worthy of standing side by side with those now blessing our Capitol city 'George Washington.' "
In Memory
A fortress south of Newport, Kentucky is named in his honor, and the city of Fort Thomas now stands there and carries his name as well. A memorial to honor Thomas, Major General George Henry Thomas, can be found in the famous Thomas Circle in Washington, D.C.
A portrait of Thomas engraved that typically appears on US banknotes in 1890 and 1891. These bills are called "financial records" or "coin notes" and are much collected today because of their delicate and detailed carvings. The $ 5 Thomas "fancyback" record of 1890, with an estimated 450-600 existing relative to 7.2 million printed, ranks as number 90 in "100 Greatest American Currency Notes" compiled by Bowers and Sundman (2006).
Thomas County, Kansas, founded in 1888, is named in his honor. The cities of Thomas County are named after the fallen soldiers in the Battle of Chickamauga. Thomas County, Nebraska, also named after him.
In 1999 a sculpture of Thomas by sculptor Rudy Ayoroa was inaugurated in Lebanon, Kentucky.
The Statue of Thomas is located at Grant's Tomb in Manhattan, New York.
Portrait 3/4 in length, executed by US General Samuel Woodson Price (1828-1918) in 1869 and awarded by General Price's heir, was hung on the steps to the Special Collection at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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