George Henry Thomas

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George Henry Thomas (born July 31, 1816 in Newsoms, Virginia , USA ; † March 28, 1870 in San Francisco , California ) was a professional soldier and major general in the US Army . He particularly distinguished himself in the battles at Chickamauga and around Nashville .

Life until civil war

Thomas was the fourth of nine children of the married couple John C. Thomas and Elizabeth Rochelle. The family had grown wealthy and owned 15 slaves. The father died at the age of thirteen. Although it was illegal to provide schooling to slaves in Virginia , he taught his family's slaves. Presumably because of this activity, the family was warned of Nat Turner's slave revolt in 1831 and was able to escape to the then district town of Jerusalem (now Courtland ).

He attended the local high school and, after graduating in 1834, became an assistant to his uncle, who was the clerk of the county . After his death he was proposed as his successor. Before he could be appointed, however, the district congressman proposed him for admission to the Military Academy at West Point , New York .

During the course of his studies, William Tecumseh Sherman was one of his roommates, with whom he later had a friendly rivalry. His mostly much younger classmates called him Old Tom . Thomas graduated from the Academy in 1840 as 12th of 42 in his class and with 87 formal reproaches (Sherman received 380 but was sixth).

As a lieutenant , Thomas was transferred to the 3rd US Artillery Regiment in 1840 and stationed at Fort Columbus in the port of New York . During the second war against the Seminoles in Florida in 1841, he distinguished himself through excellent performance as the leader of a 60-strong unit on an expedition against the Indians and was awarded the rank of first lieutenant on November 8, 1841 . In the following years Thomas was stationed at various locations in the south and southeast of the USA. On April 30, 1844, he was promoted to first lieutenant.

Civil war

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, although his home state Virginia joined the Confederation , he decided to remain loyal to the Union. This led to a break with his family. He then became the commander of a cavalry regiment of the US Army and was given command of the cavalry in the western theater of war. Regardless of his undisputed competence, however, he was never given his own high command, as one was not sure how unwavering his loyalty to the north was. On January 19, 1862, he was victorious in the battle at Mill Springs , and especially in the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20, 1863, he was distinguished by his steadfastness and circumspection, which saved the Union troops from a catastrophe. In 1864 he commanded the Cumberland Army on the march to Atlanta (see Atlanta Campaign ) under William T. Sherman, then in Tennessee . He emerged victorious from the Battle of Nashville from December 15-16, 1864. After the war he was given military command in Kentucky and Tennessee until 1869 , then one in San Francisco. He died there in March 1870.

He was also known by the nickname Rock of Chickamauga ("The Rock of Chickamauga") for his steadfastness in this battle.

Honors

According to him, Thomas County , Nebraska and Thomas County named in Kansas.

literature

  • Robert P. Broadwater: General George H. Thomas, A Biography of the Union's “Rock of Chickamauga” . McFarland & Company Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina 2009, ISBN 978-0-7864-3856-3 .
  • Freeman Cleaves: Rock of Chickamauga. The Life of General George H. Thomas . University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 1948, ISBN 978-0-8061-1978-6 .
  • McKinney, Francis: Education in Violence: The Life of George H. Thomas and the History of the Army of the Cumberland . Americana House, 1961, 1991. ISBN 0962529052
  • Bobrick, Benson: Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas . Simon and Schuster, 2009. ISBN 0743290259
  • Christopher J. Einolf: George Thomas: Virginian for the Union . Norman, OK 2008.

Web links

Commons : George Henry Thomas  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert P. Broadwater: Early Life and Military Training. McFarland & Company Inc., 2009, accessed on February 26, 2017 (English, General George H. Thomas, p. 5 f).
  2. ^ Robert P. Broadwater: Early Life and Military Training. McFarland & Company Inc., 2009, accessed on February 27, 2017 (English, General George H. Thomas, p. 7 f).
  3. ^ Robert P. Broadwater: Early Life and Military Training. McFarland & Company Inc., 2009, accessed on March 1, 2017 (English, General George H. Thomas, p. 8 ff (detailed description of the years in West Point)).
  4. ↑ Robert P. Broadwater: A Martial Career Begun. McFarland & Company Inc., 2009, accessed on March 1, 2017 (English, General George H. Thomas, p. 12 ff).
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, George Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American general
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Newsoms, Virginia , USA
DATE OF DEATH March 28, 1870
Place of death San Francisco