720 



THOMAS, GEORGE H. 



of absence. Daring the winter of 1860-'61, he 

 watched the culmination of that conflict of 

 opinion which preceded the war, with the most 

 painful anxiety. Relinquishing his leave of 

 absence, he reported for duty at Carlisle Bar- 

 racks, Pa., on the 14th of April, the day when 

 the flag went down at Sumter, and less than 

 forty-eight hours after the first shot was fired. 

 On the 27th of May he led a brigade from 

 Chambersburg across Maryland to Williams- 

 port, and on the 16th of June rode across the 

 Potomac in full uniform at the head of his 

 brigade, to invade Virginia, and fight his old 

 commanders ; and a few days after he led the 

 right wing of General Patterson's army in the 

 battle of Falling Waters, and defeated the Con- 

 federates under Stonewall Jackson. 



After serving through the brief campaign 

 of the Shenandoah, General Thomas entered 

 upon that wider sphere of action in which he 

 was destined to win an undying reputation. 

 The Department of the Cumberland, embracing 

 at first only Tennessee and Kentucky, was 

 created by the War Department August 15, 

 1861, and General Robert Anderson placed in 

 command. At Anderson's request Sherman 

 and Thomas were made brigadier-generals of 

 volunteers, and assigned to his command. The 

 remainder of 1861 was the period of organiza- 

 tion. The first month's work that Thomas 

 performed in the department was at Camp 

 Dick Robinson, where he mustered into ser- 

 vice eleven regiments and three batteries of 

 Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee troops, 

 which he organized into the First Brigade, and 

 which formed the nucleus of the division, then 

 of the corps, and finally of the great army 

 which he afterward commanded so long. 



In the early autumn of 1861 the Confederates 

 had organized a brigade in Eastern Tennessee 

 and Southwestern Virginia for the special pur- 

 pose of guarding the mountain- passes at Cum- 

 berland Gap and Pound Gap. Before the end 

 of the year they had also organized two active 

 forces to operate in front of these gaps, one 

 under Marshall, which moved from the neigh- 

 borhood of Pound Gap down the Sandy Valley ; 

 and the other, a larger force, under Zollikoffer, 

 which occupied the road leading from Cumber- 

 land Gap to Lexington. 



The first work of General Buell's campaign 

 was to drive back these forces and occupy the 

 two mountain-passes as a protection to his 

 flank and rear. General Thomas had been 

 placed in command of the First Division of the 

 army, and on the 31st of December was ordered 

 to move against Zollikofler. In pursuance of 

 this order, he fought and won the battle of 

 Mill Spring, January 17, 1862, which was by 

 far the most important military success that 

 had yet been achieved west of Virginia ; and, 

 with the exception of the defeat of Marshall, 

 near Prestonburg, nine days before, it was the 

 first victory in the department. In this battle 

 General Thomas laid the foundation of his 

 fame in the Army of the Centre. It was the 



largest and most important command he had 

 held up to that time, and his troops came out 

 of the fight with the strongest confidence in 

 his qualities as a commander. 



From the 30th November, 1861, to the 30th 

 September, 1862, he commanded a division of 

 General Buell's army without intermission, ex- 

 cept that during the months of May and June 

 he commanded the right wing of the Army of 

 the Tennessee in and around Coriuth. On 

 September 30, 1862, he was appointed second 

 in command of the Army of the Ohio, having 

 previously refused the chief command, and 

 served in that capacity in the battle of Perry - 

 ville, and until October 30, 1862, when the old 

 name of Department of the Cumberland was 

 restored, and General Rosecrans assumed com- 

 mand. That officer reorganized the army into 

 three distinct commands right, left, and 

 centre and assigned Thomas to the centre, 

 which consisted of five divisions. He held this 

 command in the battle of Stone River, and 

 until the 9th of January, 1863, when, by order 

 of the War Department, the Fourteenth Army 

 Corps was created, and Thomas commanded it 

 during the summer campaign of Middle Ten- 

 nessee and the Chickamauga campaign, which 

 resulted in driving the enemy beyond the Ten- 

 nessee River, and gaining possession of Chatta- 

 nooga. 



On the 27th of September he was ordered 

 by General Sherman to return with a portion 

 of his army into Tennessee and defend the 

 department against Hood's invasion. By the 

 end of October Sherman had determined to 

 cut loose from his base and march to the sea. 

 For this service he selected the flower of his 

 grand army, including two of the best corps 

 of Thomas's force. 



By the 5th of November Hood was encamped 

 on the banks of the Tennessee with 45,000 in- 

 fantry and not less than 1.2,000 of the best 

 cavalry in the South. Thus Thomas was 

 confronted by that veteran army which had 

 so ably resisted Sherman on his march to 

 Atlanta. At the same date Thomas had an 

 effective force of but 23,000 infantry and 7,000 

 cavalry. Convalescents and dismounted cavalry 

 were coming back to him from Atlanta ; raw 

 recruits were moving from the North, and two 

 divisions were en route from Missouri. The 

 problem before him was how to delay the ad- 

 vance of the enemy until he could organize a 

 force strong enough to win a battle. The his- 

 tory of this campaign is too well known to 

 need repetition here. 



Nashville was the only battle of our wai 

 which annihilated an army. Hood crossed 

 the Tennessee late in November, and moved 

 northward with an army of 57,000 veterans. 

 Before the end of December, 25,000 of them 

 were killed, wounded, or captured ; thousands 

 more had deserted, and the rabble that followed 

 him back to the South was no longer an army. 



The nation was by this time ready to rec- 

 ognize General Thomas's merits, and to under- 



