Stephen Thomas ( Medal of Honor ) Stephen Thomas ( December 6 , 1809 – December 18 , 1903 ) , manufacturer , politician , jurist , and Union Army officer . He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor for gallantry . Early life . Thomas was born in Bethel , Vermont , the son of John and Rebecca ( Batchellor ) Thomas . His father died while serving in the U . S . 31st Infantry during the War of 1812 . His grandfather , Joseph , served in a New Hampshire regiment during the American Revolution . Thomas was only four years old when his father died , and he started work young to help his widowed mother . He apprenticed in the woolen industry , then started his own business , which was destroyed by fire , and finally ended up in the manufacturing business in West Fairlee . Thomas married Ann Peabody of Reading , on January 13 , 1831 . She died at West Fairlee , January 8 , 1877 . Political career . He represented the town of Fairlee in the Vermont House of Representatives in 1838 , 1839 , 1845 , 1846 , 1860 and 1861 . He was a state senator , representing Orange County in 1848 and 1849 , and a delegate to the Constitutional Conventions in 1843 and 1850 . He served a register of probate for the district of Bradford from 1842 to 1846 , and probate judge from 1847 to 1849 . He was a Democrat until the outbreak of the American Civil War , an alternate to the Democratic national convention of 1848 , delegate for the next three conventions , in 1852 , 1856 and 1860 , and candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1860 . Governor Erastus Fairbanks called an extra session of the State Legislature on April 23 , 1861 , which Thomas attended . He was a member of the Ways and Means committee , which intended to report out a bill appropriating half a million dollars for military purposes . Thomas presented an impassioned speech supporting an amendment that doubled the amount to one million dollars . He said " Until this rebellion shall have been put down , I have no friends to reward and no enemies to punish , and I trust that the whole strength and power of Vermont , both of men and of money , will be put into the field to sustain the government . " After some spirited debate in the full house , the measure was passed unanimously . Thomas also supported passage of a bill giving every non - commissioned officer and private seven dollars a month in addition to their Federal pay , and that bill was enacted as well . Military career . Thomas was commissioned as colonel of the 8th Vermont Infantry on November 12 , 1861 , and proceeded to recruit the regiment , which was destined to be part of Benjamin F . Butler ' s New England Division . The regiment left Vermont for the Department of the Gulf on March 4 , 1862 , and Thomas commanded it through May 1863 , when he assumed command of the 2nd Brigade , 1st Division , XIX Corps , which included the 8th Vermont . During this period , the 8th Vermont participated in the Occupation of New Orleans , and battles at Raceland , Boutte Station , Bayou des Allemands , Bisland , and Port Hudson . In July 1864 , a portion of the XIX Corps , including the 8th Vermont , was transferred to the eastern theater of the war . They arrived at Fortress Monroe just in time to join the VI Corps in the Shenandoah Valley , and participate in Major General Philip Sheridan ' s campaign against the Confederacy ' s Jubal Early . Thomas commanded the 2nd Brigade , 1st Division from October 15 to October 24 , and again from November 1 to December 3 , which included the 8th Vermont , 12th Connecticut , 160th New York and 47th Pennsylvania infantry regiments . During this period , the 8th Vermont participated in the Battle of Opequon , Battle of Fisher ' s Hill , Battle of Cedar Creek , and Newton , Virginia . In 1892 he received the Medal of Honor for " distinguished conduct in a desperate hand - to - hand encounter , in which the advance of the enemy was checked , " at Cedar Creek on October 19 , 1864 . Thomas was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers on February 1 , 1865 , and mustered out of the service August 24 , 1865 . Postwar . General Thomas started the war as a Democrat , but by the time he returned home , he was a Republican . " But the opposition of the old party , whose favorite he had been , would not permit it , and he was obliged to defend his course in public . The leaders with whom he had affiliated said to him after his return from the war , ' THOMAS , you ' ve changed ; we haven ' t . ' ' Fools never do , ' was his reply . He refused to be a candidate for governor , but did serve as lieutenant governor in 1867 and 1868 under Governor John B . Page . He served as a delegate to the soldiers ' convention that nominated General Ulysses S . Grant for the presidency . He was appointed by President Grant as a U . S . pension agent in 1870 , and served in that capacity for eight years . In the late 1880s Thomas was president of the U . S . Clothes Pin Company , of Montpelier , which had 15 employees and customers worldwide . He was also president of the North Haverhill Granite Company . He was a member of and served as commander of the Grand Army of the Republic , and president of the Vermont Officers ' Reunion Society . General Thomas died in Montpelier , and is buried in Green Mount cemetery . Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Colonel , 8th Vermont Infantry . Place and date : At Cedar Creek , Va . , October 19 , 1864 . Entered service at : Montpelier , Vt . Birth : Vermont . Date of issue : July 25 , 1892 . Citation : Distinguished conduct in a desperate hand to hand encounter , in which the advance of the enemy was checked .