128 THE RETKOSPECT OF THE YEAR. 
General Thonia;?' ooinmtiiul did the heavy work in the 
advance upon Athuita where he h)st thirt^'-twu per cent 
of his sixty thousand men. Then he turned back to Nash- 
ville, Tenn., being closely followed by Hood, and soon af- 
ter arriving in that city, where he was reinforced by fifteen 
thousand of Grant's men, he attacked Hood's army and in 
a short engagement so demolished the enemy that it did 
no further effective service as an army. For this he was 
promoted to the rank of major general by the secretary 
of war, and here ended his military career in the field, 
though he planned important campaigns in Georgia and 
Alal^ama. He was a great favorite with the lecturer who 
had opportunities of knowing his character, having at one 
time been on his staif. 
General Thomas was mentioned in connection with the 
Presidency in 1868 l)ut promptly declined to have his name 
used for such a purpose. 
Professor F. W. Putnam of Cambridge, delivered a lec- 
ture on " Pre-Columbian America," or the race of men 
which existed in America l)efore the coming of Columbus. 
The lecturer said that there were people here long before 
the discovery of Columbus, and it had long been a ques- 
tion who they were, and whence they came. They, or one 
stock of them, probably were the descendants of men who, 
ages before, came from very nearly the same place from 
which the great discoverer started and so when he sent 
some of those whom he called Indians, l)ut really the Ca- 
ribs, back to his ou n home, he was simply sending them 
almost to the starting point of their race. Mr. Putnam 
alhuled to the glacial [period and the immense gravel de- 
posits following it, and in those gravel banks were found 
implements and traces of a human race, showing that man 
existed thousands and tens of thousands (jf years ago, here 
in America. He diliered from the generally accepted the- 
