United States Army officer and General in the Union Army
1816 CE
to 1870 CE
George Henry Thomas (July 31, 1816 – March 28, 1870) is 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 serves in the Mexican-American War and later chooses to remain with the United States Army for the Civil War, despite his heritage as a Virginian.
He wins one of the first Union victories in the war, at Mill Springs in Kentucky, and serves in important subordinate commands at Perryville and Stones River.
His stout defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 saves the Union Army from being completely routed, earning him his most famous nickname, the "Rock of Chickamauga."
He follows soon after with a dramatic breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga.
In the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of 1864, he achieves one of the most decisive victories of the war, destroying the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood, at the Battle of Nashville.
Thomas has a successful record in the Civil War, but he fails to achieve the historical acclaim of some of his contemporaries, such as Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman.
He develops a reputation as a slow, deliberate general who shuns self-promotion and who turns down advancements in position when he does not think they are justified.
After the war, he does not write memoirs to advance his legacy.
He also has an uncomfortable personal relationship with Grant, which serves him poorly as Grant advances in rank and eventually to the presidency.
