Background
Thomas was born at Newsom's Depot, Southampton County, Virginia. He was the son of John and Elizabeth (Rochelle) Thomas. The family, on his father's side, was Welsh and English; on his mother's, French Huguenot.
Thomas was born at Newsom's Depot, Southampton County, Virginia. He was the son of John and Elizabeth (Rochelle) Thomas. The family, on his father's side, was Welsh and English; on his mother's, French Huguenot.
He received his early education in the local Southampton Academy and began the study of law, serving meanwhile as deputy to his uncle, James Rochelle, clerk of the county court. Through the influence of this uncle he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, entered in 1836, and was graduated in 1840, number twelve in a class of forty-two members. Among his classmates were William T. Sherman and Richard S. Ewell.
He received his commission as second lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery, then on field service in the Florida War. He remained in Florida for two years, and received the brevet rank of first lieutenant for gallantry in action against the Indians; then he served in several Southern garrisons, receiving his promotion to the substantive grade of first lieutenant in 1844. The following year he was assigned to Bragg's light battery with Taylor's force in Texas, and served throughout Taylor's Mexican campaign. He was brevetted captain and major for gallantry at Monterey and Buena Vista. He again served in Indian troubles in Florida, and then was an instructor in artillery and cavalry at West Point, 1851-54, being promoted, meanwhile, to the rank of captain.
Upon relief at the Academy he went with a detachment of his regiment via Panama to California, and to Fort Yuma, where he served for a year. He then accepted a commission as major in the newly raised 2nd (later designated as the 5th) Cavalry, and joined at Jefferson Barracks, Mo. In this regiment, Albert S. Johnston was colonel, Robert E. Lee lieutenant-colonel, and William J. Hardee the other major; in it served many other officers who later became famous, including the Federal general George Stoneman, and the Confederate generals John B. Hood, Fitzhugh Lee, and Earl VanDorn. He served with the new regiment in Texas, and on garrison and exploration duty.
On one of his exploring expeditions he was wounded in the face by an Indian arrow. On November 1, 1860, he was granted a twelve months' leave of absence and was in the East at the outbreak of the Civil War. In spite of his Southern birth, Thomas decided to remain with the Union army, and on April 14 he joined his regiment at Carlisle, Pa. In April he became a lieutenant-colonel, and in May a colonel. He commanded a brigade in the opening operations in the Shenandoah Valley.
On August 17, 1861, he was made brigadier-general of volunteers and assigned to duty in Kentucky, organizing new troops. In November 1861, he assumed command of the 16t Division, Army of the Ohio, and won the small but decisive action of Mill Springs on January 19, 1862. His command was then withdrawn to Louisville and took part in Buell's advance to Nashville and to Pittsburg Landing. Here, on April 25, 1862, he was promoted major-general of volunteers, and commanded the right wing of Halleck's army in the advance to and capture of Corinth. He remained in command of the garrison at that place until June 22, when, with his own division, he was reassigned to Buell's army with which he served during the campaign against Bragg in Kentucky.
Buell's retreat to Louisville caused dissatisfaction in Washington, and on September 29 Thomas received orders to supersede him. Thomas declined the command, pointing out that Buell had already issued orders for the offensive, and served as Buell's second in command in the Perryville operations in October. On October 30 General Rosecrans replaced Buell. Thomas, although he had declined to supersede Buell himself, protested against serving under Rosecrans, a former junior; but the president antedated Rosecrans' commission to make him senior, and Thomas promptly acquiesced and served under him loyally. The command was several times reorganized, and was finally designated the Army of the Cumberland; Thomas' own command became the XIV Army Corps, one of three corps in the army. This corps he commanded at Stones River, and in the Tullahoma campaign in June and July 1863, which pushed Bragg out of Tennessee. Early in September, Rosecrans crossed the Tennessee River and maneuvered Bragg out of Chattanooga as he had out of the Tullahoma lines. In this process his army became widely extended, and Bragg, having been reënforced by Longstreet's corps from Virginia, made an effort to cut him off from Chattanooga. He succeeded in concentrating in time, and took position on Chickamauga Creek. Of this line, Thomas' corps formed the left, or northern flank.
The battle of Chickamauga began on September 19 but the heaviest fighting came the next day. Bragg's attack came first upon Thomas' position, which was reënforced progressively by parts of other corps. Toward noon, a gap opened on Thomas' right through an erroneous movement by a division not at the time engaged, and Longstreet penetrated the lines. Thomas' right was violently bent back, and all the troops south of that point were driven in disorder across Missionary Ridge, where they took the road to Chattanooga. Rosecrans, whose headquarters were behind the right wing, was carried to the rear by what seemed the rout of his whole force. Thomas, however, was still in the field with over half the army. His line was bent into horseshoe shape, but not broken; and here he stood all day, earning his title, "the Rock of Chickamauga. " After dark, he drew off to Rockville, five miles to the north, and he retired unmolested to Chattanooga. For this service he was promoted brigadier-general in the regular army on October 27, 1863. The situation at Chattanooga was critical. The army was in a state of siege, its supply being so reduced as to place it in a starving condition. All the energy of the North was turned toward its relief, active operations elsewhere being suspended. Grant was given supreme command in the West, and directed upon Chattanooga his own old Army of the Tennessee, now under Sherman; Hooker was sent by rail from Washington with two corps of the Army of the Potomac; Rosecrans was relieved from command of the Army of the Cumberland, and Thomas put in his place. Grant's first telegram to him directed that Chattanooga be held "at all hazards. " Thomas replied, "We will hold the town till we starve" – which seemed not a mere rhetorical expression, for the men, to use their own language, were on "half rations of hard bread and beef dried on the hoof". By the use of Hooker's command, a new and direct line of supply was opened; and when Sherman finally assumed his position on November 23, after having been delayed by bad weather, Grant was ready to undertake a general offensive. As a first move, Thomas made a reconnaissance in force on November 23, which cleared up the question of Bragg's strength and position, and secured favorable ground for the decisive action, but which also served to put Bragg on his guard. On the following two days was fought the battle that forced Bragg back from Chattanooga. Thomas' right, under Hooker, seized Lookout Mountain; the rest of his army carried Missionary Ridge.
In May 1864 Sherman's Atlanta campaign began. In this campaign, Thomas' Army of the Cumberland constituted over half of Sherman's entire force. It was constantly engaged, was in every offensive move, and bore the brunt of the only serious Confederate counter-stroke – Hood's attack at Peachtree Creek, Ga. , on July 20. Troops of this Army received the surrender of Atlanta and were first to enter the city. Thomas now suggested that his army be detached from Sherman's command, and sent on a march to the sea. When it was decided that Sherman's main force should make this movement, it became necessary to form a new army to oppose Hood in the west; Thomas was designated to command it, and was ordered to Nashville in October. The nucleus of his force, 35, 000 men, was furnished from Sherman's army, but it was necessary to collect another 35, 000 by drawing in detachments, even from beyond the Mississippi, and by bringing new troops from the north. Hood began his advance northward late in November. Thomas kept his entire field force, under Schofield, in front of Hood, delaying him. This force, having held out so long as almost to be cut off, finally took position at Franklin, vigorously checked Hood there on November 30, and then withdrew into Nashville. General Grant insisted strongly upon an immediate offensive by Thomas' whole force, but the latter insisted that he was not yet strong enough to gain a decisive victory, and that nothing less should be considered. On this point he remained firm, although his fitness for independent command and even his loyalty, were seriously questioned. It is a moot question whether Thomas did not seriously jeopardize the success of the campaign as a whole by his insistence.
On December 9 Grant directed that he be relieved, and Schofield put in his place; but meanwhile Thomas reported himself ready to move, and the order was suspended. A violent storm, with snow and ice, caused another delay. Grant then dispatched General Logan with orders to supersede Thomas; and he himself started from the James River for Nashville on December 15. But before either arrived, Thomas had moved. In a two days' battle, December 15-16, he fully vindicated his plan of action, and administered so severe a defeat to Hood that his army played no further important part in the war. He was promoted to the rank of a major-general in the regular army and on March3, 1865, received the thanks of Congress. He remained in command in this region for the rest of the war, and for some years after.
In 1868 President Johnson sent his name to the Senate for promotion to the brevet ranks of lieutenant-general and general, but, believing that the purpose of these promotions was to use him as an instrument for displacing General Grant in command of the army, he declined, saying that the honor was too great for his services since the war, and came too late to be acceptable for war service. In the same year he was strongly urged to become a candidate for the presidency, but he refused to allow his name to be used. In June 1869, he assumed command of the Military Division of the Pacific, at San Francisco, Cal. , where he died of apoplexy, leaving a widow but no children.
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. Thomas County, Nebraska, is also named after him. A bust of Thomas is located in Grant's Tomb in Manhattan, New York. A 3/4 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.
Thomas was a man of fine presence – six feet in height and weighing about 200 pounds.
He married Frances Lucretia Kellogg on November 17, 1852.
