George Henry Thomas George Henry Thomas ( July 31 , 1816 – March 28 , 1870 ) was a career United States Army officer and a Union General during the American Civil War , one of the principal commanders in the Western Theater . Thomas served in the Mexican - American War and later chose to remain with the United States Army for the Civil War , despite his heritage as a Virginian . He won one of the first Union victories in the war , at Mill Springs in Kentucky , and served in important subordinate commands at Perryville and Stones River . His stout defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 saved the Union Army from being completely routed , earning him his most famous nickname , the " Rock of Chickamauga . " He followed soon after with a dramatic breakthrough on 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 Confederate General John Bell Hood , at the Battle of Nashville . Thomas had a successful record in the Civil War , but he failed to achieve the historical acclaim of some of his contemporaries , such as Ulysses S . Grant and William T . Sherman . He developed a reputation as a slow , deliberate general who shunned self - promotion and who turned down advancements in 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 , which served him poorly as Grant advanced in rank and eventually to the presidency . Early life and military career . Thomas was born at Newsom ' s Depot , five miles ( 8 km ) from North Carolina , in Southampton County , Virginia . His father , John Thomas , of Welsh descent , and his mother , Elizabeth Rochelle Thomas , a descendant of French Huguenot immigrants , had nine children . George was a middle child and the youngest of the three boys . The family led an upper - class plantation lifestyle . By 1829 , they owned and 24 slaves . John died in a farm accident when George was 13 , leaving the family in financial difficulties . George Thomas , his sisters , and his widowed mother were forced to flee from their home and hide in the nearby woods during Nat Turner ' s 1831 slave rebellion . Benson Bobrick has suggested that while some repressive acts were enforced following the crushing of the revolt , Thomas took the lesson another way , seeing that slavery was so vile an institution that it had forced the slaves to act in violence . This was a major event in the formation of his views on slavery ; that the idea of the contented slave in the care of a benevolent overlord was a sentimental myth . Christopher Einholf , in contrast wrote " For George Thomas , the view that slavery was needed as a way of controlling blacks was supported by his personal experience of Nat Turner ' s Rebellion . . . . Thomas left no written record of his opinion on slavery , but the fact that he owned slaves during much of his life indicates that he was not opposed to it . " A traditional story is that Thomas taught as many as 15 of his family ' s slaves to read , violating a Virginia law that prohibited this , and despite the wishes of his father . Thomas was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York , in 1836 by Congressman John Y . Mason , who warned Thomas that no nominee from his district had ever graduated successfully . 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 . He made steady academic progress , was appointed a cadet officer in his second year , and graduated 12th in a class of 42 in 1840 . He was appointed a second lieutenant in Company D , 3rd U . S . Artillery . Thomas ' s first assignment with his artillery regiment began in late 1840 at the primitive outpost of Fort Lauderdale , Florida , in the Seminole Wars , where his troops performed infantry duty . He led them in successful patrols and was appointed a brevet first lieutenant on November 6 , 1841 . From 1842 until 1845 , he served in posts at New Orleans , Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor , and Fort McHenry in Baltimore . With the Mexican - American War looming , his regiment was ordered to Texas in June 1845 . In Mexico , 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 . At Buena Vista , Gen . Zachary Taylor reported that " the services of the light artillery , always conspicuous , were more than unusually distinguished " during the battle . Brig . Gen . John E . Wool wrote about Thomas and another officer that " without our artillery we would not have maintained our position a single hour . " Thomas ' s battery commander wrote that Thomas ' s " coolness and firmness contributed not a little to the success of the day . Lieutenant Thomas more than sustained the reputation he has long enjoyed in his regiment as an accurate and scientific artillerist . " During the war , Thomas served closely with an artillery officer who would be a principal antagonist in the Civil War — Captain Braxton Bragg . Thomas was reassigned to Florida in 1849 – 50 . In 1851 , he 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 , the Academy superintendent . His appointment there was based in part on a recommendation from Braxton Bragg . 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 Thomas ' s students who received his recommendation for assignment to the cavalry , J . E . B . Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee , became prominent Confederate cavalry generals . Another Civil War connection was a cadet expelled for disciplinary reasons on Thomas ' s recommendation , John Schofield , who would excoriate Thomas in postbellum writings about his service as a corps commander under Thomas in the Franklin - Nashville Campaign . On November 17 , 1852 , Thomas married Frances Lucretia Kellogg , age 31 , from Troy , New York . The couple remained at West Point until 1854 . Thomas was promoted to captain on December 24 , 1853 . In the spring of 1854 , Thomas ' s artillery regiment was transferred to California and he led two companies to San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama , and then on a grueling overland march to Fort Yuma . On May 12 , 1855 , Thomas was appointed a major of the 2nd U . S . Cavalry ( later redesignated the 5th U . S . Cavalry ) by Jefferson Davis , then Secretary of War . Once again , Braxton Bragg had provided a recommendation for Thomas ' s advancement . There was a suspicion as the Civil War drew closer 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 . Thomas resumed his close ties with the second - in - command of the regiment , Robert E . Lee , and the two officers traveled extensively together on detached service for court - martial duty . In October 1857 , Major Thomas assumed acting command of the cavalry regiment , an assignment he would retain for 2½ years . On August 26 , 1860 , during a clash with a Comanche warrior , Thomas was wounded by an arrow passing through the flesh near his chin area and sticking into his chest at Clear Fork , Brazos River , Texas . Thomas pulled the arrow out and , after a surgeon dressed the wound , continued to lead the expedition . This was the only combat wound that Thomas suffered throughout his long military career . In November 1860 , Thomas requested a one - year leave of absence . His antebellum 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 to southern Virginia , he suffered a mishap in Lynchburg , Virginia , falling from a train platform and severely injuring his back . This accident led him to contemplate leaving military service and caused him pain for the rest of his life . Continuing to New York to visit with his wife ' s family , Thomas stopped in Washington , D . C . , and 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 . Civil War . Remaining with the Union . 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 . ( During the economic hard times in the South after the war , Thomas sent some money to his sisters , who angrily refused to accept it , declaring they had no brother . ) Nevertheless , Thomas stayed in the Union Army with some degree of suspicion surrounding him . On January 18 , 1861 , a few months before Fort Sumter , he had applied for a job as the commandant of cadets at the Virginia Military Institute . Any real tendency to the secessionist cause , however , could be refuted when he turned down Virginia Governor John Letcher ' s offer to become chief of ordnance for the Virginia Provisional Army . On June 18 , his former student and fellow Virginian , Confederate Col . J . E . B . Stuart , wrote to his wife , " Old George H . Thomas is in command of the cavalry of the enemy . I would like to hang , " hang " him as a traitor to his native state . " Kentucky . Thomas was promoted in rapid succession to be lieutenant colonel ( on April 25 , 1861 , replacing Robert E . Lee ) and colonel ( May 3 , replacing Albert Sidney Johnston ) in the regular army , and brigadier general of volunteers ( August 17 ) . In the First Bull Run Campaign , he commanded a brigade under Maj . Gen . Robert Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley , but all of his subsequent assignments were in the Western Theater . 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 January 18 , 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 . Shiloh and Corinth . On December 2 , 1861 , Brig . Gen . 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 ( April 7 , 1862 ) , but arrived after the fighting had ceased . The victor at Shiloh , 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 in the department were divided and recombined into three " wings " . Thomas , promoted to major general effective April 25 , 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 . Thomas successfully led this putative army in the siege of Corinth . On June 10 , Grant returned to command of the original Army of the Tennessee . Perryville , Stones River , Chickamauga , and Chattanooga . Thomas resumed service under Don Carlos Buell . During Confederate General Braxton Bragg ' s invasion of Kentucky in the fall of 1862 , the Union high command became nervous about Buell ' s cautious tendencies and offered command of the Army of the Ohio to Thomas , who refused . Thomas served as Buell ' s second - in - command at the Battle of Perryville ; although tactically inconclusive , the battle halted Bragg ' s invasion of Kentucky as he voluntarily withdrew to Tennessee . Again frustrated with Buell ' s ineffective pursuit of Bragg , the Union replaced him with Maj . Gen . William Rosecrans . Fighting under Rosecrans , 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 victory by Bragg . He was in charge of the most important part of the maneuvering from Decherd to Chattanooga during the Tullahoma Campaign ( June 22 – July 3 , 1863 ) and the crossing of the Tennessee River . At the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 , 1863 , now 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 , a field officer for the Army of the Cumberland , visited Thomas during the battle , carrying orders from Rosecrans to retreat ; when Thomas said he would have to stay behind to ensure the Army ' s safety , Garfield told Rosecrans that Thomas was " standing 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 strong odds . Thomas succeeded Rosecrans in command of the Army of the Cumberland shortly before the Battles for Chattanooga ( November 23 – 25 , 1863 ) , a stunning Union victory that was highlighted by Thomas ' s troops storming the Confederate line on Missionary Ridge . As the Army of the Cumberland advanced further than ordered , General Grant , on Orchard Knob asked Thomas , " Who ordered the advance ? " Thomas replied , " I don ' t know . I did not . " Atlanta and Franklin / Nashville . 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 ( July 20 , 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 of 1864 , menaced Sherman ' s long line of communications , and endeavored to force Sherman to follow him , Sherman abandoned his communications and embarked on the March to the Sea . Thomas stayed behind to fight Hood in the Franklin - Nashville Campaign . Thomas , with a smaller force , raced with Hood to reach Nashville , where he was to receive reinforcements . At the Battle of Franklin on November 30 , 1864 , a large part of Thomas ' s force , under command of 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 declined to attack until his army was ready and the ice covering the ground had melted enough for his men to move . The North , including General Grant himself ( now general - in - chief of all Union armies ) , grew impatient at the delay . Maj . Gen . John A . Logan was sent with an order to replace Thomas , and soon afterwards Grant started a journey west from City Point , Virginia to take command in person . 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 following telegram , the only communication surviving of the Thomases ' correspondence : " We have whipped the enemy , taken many prisoners and considerable artillery . " Thomas was appointed a major general in the regular army , with date of rank of his Nashville victory , and received the Thanks of Congress : Thomas also received another nickname from his victory : " The Sledge of Nashville " . Later years . After the end of the Civil War , 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 . During the Reconstruction period , Thomas acted to protect freedmen from white abuses . He set up military commissions to enforce labor contracts since the local courts had either ceased to operate or were biased against blacks . Thomas also 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 for that nomination because he did not want to be party to politics . In 1869 he requested assignment to command the Military Division of the Pacific with headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco . He died there of a stroke while writing an answer to an article criticizing his military career by his wartime rival John Schofield . None of his blood relatives attended his funeral as they had never forgiven him for his loyalty to the Union and not Virginia . He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery , in Troy , New York . His gravestone was sculpted by Robert E . Launitz and comprises a white marble sarcophagus topped by a bald eagle . Thomas ' s legacy . His cadets at West Point gave him the nickname of " Slow Trot Thomas " , and this sobriquet was used to diminish his reputation . He moved slowly because of an injured back , but he was mentally anything but slow , only methodical . He was known for accurate judgment and thorough knowledge of his profession and once he grasped a problem and the time was right for action , he would strike a vigorous , rapid blow . The veterans ' organization for the Army of the Cumberland , throughout its existence , fought to see that he was honored for all he had done . Thomas was in chief command of only two battles in the Civil War , the Battle of Mill Springs at the beginning and the Battle of Nashville near the end . Both were victories . However , his contributions at the battles of Stones River , Chickamauga , Chattanooga , and Peachtree Creek were decisive . His main legacies lay in his development of modern battlefield doctrine and in his mastery of logistics . Thomas has generally been held in high esteem by Civil War historians ; Bruce Catton and Carl Sandburg wrote glowingly of him , and many consider Thomas one of the top three Union generals of the war , after Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman . But Thomas never entered the popular consciousness like those men . The general destroyed his private papers , saying he did not want " his life hawked in print for the eyes of the curious . " Beginning in the 1870s , many Civil War generals published memoirs , justifying their decisions or refighting old battles , but Thomas , who died in 1870 , did not publish his own memoirs . In addition , most of his campaigns were in the Western theater of the war , which received less attention both in the press of the day and in contemporary historical accounts . Grant and Thomas also had a cool relationship , for reasons that are not entirely clear , but are well - attested by contemporaries . When a rain - soaked Grant arrived at Thomas ' s headquarters before the Chattanooga Campaign , Thomas , caught up in other activity , did not acknowledge the general for several minutes until an aide intervened . Thomas ' s perceived slowness at Nashville — although necessitated by the weather — drove Grant into a fit of impatience , and Grant nearly replaced Thomas . In his " Personal Memoirs " , Grant tended to minimize Thomas ' s contributions , particularly during the Franklin - Nashville Campaign , saying his movements were " always so deliberate and so slow , though effective in defence . " Grant also took painstaking care to praise Thomas ' s abilities , however . He openly and fully acknowledged in the event of Nashville that Thomas ' s success obviated all criticism . Sherman , who had been close to Thomas throughout the war , also repeated the accusation after the war that Thomas was " slow " , and this damning with faint praise tended to affect perceptions of the Rock of Chickamauga well into the 20th century . Both Sherman and Grant attended Thomas ' s funeral , and were reported by third parties to have been visibly moved by his passing . Thomas ' s legendary bay horse , Billy , bore his friend Sherman ' s name . In 1877 , Sherman published an article praising Grant and Thomas , and contrasting them to Robert E . Lee . After noting that Thomas , unlike his fellow Virginian Lee , stood by the Union , Sherman wrote : Sherman concluded that Grant and Thomas were " heroes " deserving " monuments like those of Nelson and Wellington in London , well worthy to stand side by side with the one which now graces our city of ' George Washington . ' " In memoriam . A fort south of Newport , Kentucky was named in his honor , and the city of Fort Thomas now stands there and carries his name as well . A memorial honoring General Thomas can be found in the eponymous Thomas Circle in downtown Washington , D . C . A distinctive engraved portrait of Thomas appeared on U . S . paper money in 1890 and 1891 . The bills are called " treasury notes " or " coin notes " and are widely collected today because of their fine , detailed engraving . The $ 5 Thomas " fancyback " note of 1890 , with an estimated 450 - 600 in existence relative to the 7 . 2 million printed , ranks as number 90 in the " 100 Greatest American Currency Notes " compiled by Bowers and Sundman ( 2006 ) . 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 . In 1999 a statue of Thomas by sculptor Rudy Ayoroa was unveiled in Lebanon , Kentucky . A bust of Thomas is located in Grant ' s Tomb in Manhattan , New York . A fine 3 / 4 length portrait of him , executed by US 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 KY .