That gilds your glorious tomb.
Many brave and gallant generals of the Civil War took part in the battle of Chattanooga. On the side of the Union we might mention the names of Generals Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Hooker, Granger, Palmer, Howard, Slocum, Geary, J. J. Remolds, W. F. Smith. Butterfield, Cruft, T. J. Wood, Sheridan, Davis, Baird, Johnson, M. L. Smith, J. E. Smith, Osterhaus, Brannan, Corse, C. R. Woods, Loomis, Beatty, Harker, Hazen, Wagner, Willich, Von Steinwehr, Ruger, Turchin, D. McCook and Rosseau; and among the Confederate Generals, Bragg, Hardee, Breckenridge, Cleburne, Hindman, Buckner, Stewart, Cheatham, Walker, Stevenson. Armstrong, Jackson, Anderson, Walthall, Wright, Moore, Polk, Gist, Vaughan, Reynolds, Adams, Bate, Cumming, Clayton, Brown, Pettus, Strahl, Lewis, Wade, Grigsby, Lidell, Stowell, M. Smith, Manigault and Tyler.
To Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, to whom all plans were submitted, upon whom rested the greatest responsibility, and who gave the final and decisive orders, should be given the greatest credit for the victory; but I should like to say a few words in honor of another great general who took a prominent part in this battle and whose presence gave promise of success. I refer to Maj.-Gen. George H. Thomas. Gen. Thomas was of Welsh and English descent on his father's side, and French Huguenot on his mother's. His ancestors settled in southeastern Virginia in the early days of that colony. He was born in Southampton county on the 31st of July, 1816, in a happy country home. He entered West Point in 1836 and graduated in 1840, the 12th in a class of forty-two. He was assigned to the 3d Artillery. He served in the Florida War 1840-42, the Mexican War 1846-48 and the Seminole War 1849-50; was instructor of artillery and cavalry at West Point 1851-1854 and on frontier duty in Texas and California in 1860. He was brevetted several times for gallant and meritorious conduct and in 1855 was made a major in the 2d Cavalry, which he commanded for three years. He was wounded in a fight with the Indians at the head waters of the Brazos river in August, 1860, and on the following November was east on leave of absence. Three-fourths of the officers of his regiment were from the slave States. Albert Sidney Johnston was its colonel, Robert E. Lee lieut.-colonel, and W. J. Hardee the senior major. Among the captains and lieutenants were Van Dorn, Kirby Smith, Jenifers, Hood and Fitzhugh Lee. More than one-third of its officers became Confederate generals. Social and family influences bound Gen. Thomas to his native state, but his wife was a patriotic Northern lady. Gen. Thomas never wavered in his loyalty to the government, and when the first gun was fired on Fort Sumter he relinquished the remainder of his leave of absence and reported for duty at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., on the 14th of April, 1861. With but two exceptions all the officers of the 2d Cavalry from the seceded states joined the rebellion. Thomas was one of the two. His family, friends, and State summoned him to join the South. He answered by leaving Carlisle Barracks on May 27 and leading a brigade from Chambersburg across Maryland to Williamsport, and on June 16 rode across the Potomac to invade Virginia and fight his old commanders. A few days later he led the right wing of Gen. Patterson's army in the battle of Falling Waters, where the rebels under Stonewall Jackson were defeated. The fame of Gen. Thomas as a soldier is linked forever with the history of the army of the Cumberland. In 1861 he organized and mustered in its first brigade, and in 1865 at Nashville, the scene of his greatest victory, he passed in farewell review and mustered out of the service more than 130,000 of its war-worn veterans.
During the Civil War the army of the Cumberland held the center of the line, which was in many respects the most difficult of all. From the 30th of November, 1861, to 30th of September, 1862, Gen. Thomas commanded a division of Gen. Buell's army. He won the battle of Mill Springs on Jan. 19, 1862, which was the most important military success that had yet been achieved west of Virginia. On the 30th of September, 1862, he was appointed second in command of the army of the Ohio, and served as such until after the battle of Perryville. Gen. Rosecrans, who succeeded Gen. Buell, reorganized the army then known as the 14th Corps into three distinct commands, right, left, and center, and assigned Gen. Thomas to the center, which consisted of five divisions. He held this command in the battle of Stone River, and until Jan. 9, 1863, when by order of the War Department three divisions of the army were made army corps. One of them, the 14th, Gen. Thomas commanded during the campaigns of Middle Tennessee and Chickamauga, which resulted in driving the Confederates beyond the Tennessee and gaining possession of Chattanooga. On the 19th of October, 1863, in obedience to orders from the War Department, he relieved Gen. Rosecrans and assumed command of the Army of the Cumberland. Soon afterward two other armies, Sherman's and Hooker's, were brought to Chattanooga, the three forming a grand army under Gen. Grant. The army of the Cumberland, consisting of four corps, formed the center and right of the grand army. In this position Gen. Thomas commanded it at the storming of Missionary Ridge.
On Sept. 27, 1864, Gen. Thomas was ordered to Tennessee to protect the department against the invasion of Hood. While in this command he conducted the operations which resulted in the combats along the Duck river, the battle of Franklin Nov. 30, and the battle of Nashville and destruction of Hood's army on Dec. 15 and 16, 1864, and finally the capture of Jefferson Davis in May, 1865. From June, 1865 to May, 1869 he commanded most of the territory which had been the theatre of his service during the war. On the 15th of May, 1869, he started for San Francisco, where he remained in command of the Military Division of the Pacific until the date of his death March 28, 1870. He was appointed-brigadier general of volunteers Aug. 17, 1861, major-general of volunteers April 25, 1862; Brigadier General in the Regular Army Oct, 27. 1863, and Major General Dec. 15, 1864. His career was not only great and complete, but, what is more significant, was in an eminent degree the work of his own hands. It was not the result of accident or chance. Every step was marked by the most loyal and unhesitating obedience to law—to the laws of his government and the commands of his superiors. His influence over his troops grew steadily and constantly. He gradually filled them with his own spirit, until their confidence in him knew no bounds. It was reserved for the last day of Chickamauga to exhibit in one supreme example the vast sources of his great strength. After a day of heavy fighting and a night of anxious preparation, Gen. Rosecrans had established his lines for the purpose of holding the road to Chattanooga. If our army failed to hold it, not only was the campaign a failure but the army was in danger of destruction. Gen. Thomas commanded the left and center of our army. From early morning he withstood the furious and repeated attacks of the enemy, who constantly reinforced his assaults on our left. About noon the whole right wing was broken and driven from the field. Gen. Rosecrans was himself swept away in the tide of retreat. The forces of Longstreet, which had broken our right, now forming in heavy columns assaulted the right flank of Thomas with fury. Seeing the approaching danger he threw back his exposed flank and met the new peril. With but 25,000 men formed in a semi-circle, of which he himself was the center and soul, he successfully resisted for more than five hours the repeated assaults of an army of 65,000 men flushed with victory and bent on his annihilation. On a portion of his line the last assault was repelled by the bayonet and several hundred of the enemy were captured. When night had closed over the combatants the last sound of battle was the booming of Gen. Thomas' guns. He held the road to Chattanooga and the army of the Cumberland was saved from destruction.
Gen. Thomas resembled Washington in the gravity and dignity of his character, in the solidity of his judgment, in the careful accuracy of all his transactions, in his incorruptible integrity, and his extreme but unaffected modesty. Large and powerful, his movements were easy and quiet. He was resolute, unyielding, with a fortitude incapable of intimidation or dismay, and yet without pretension, boasting or self-assertion. He was altogether free from affectation or envy. He was never coarse or vulgar. He was genial and frank in communication, yet reticent and self-contained as to all that related to himself, neither inviting nor volunteering confidence. He was a model soldier. Arms was his profession. He recognized but one path to glory—the path of duty. His reason told him where his duty lay, his conscience bade him follow it. His plans of battle were carefully prepared, and then when all things were ready he launched the dread thunder-bolt of power, and with one stroke dealt the destruction he had devised. Mill Spring and Nashville—his first and last battles in the West—are capital illustrations of his military character. In reference to the battle of Nashville, the impatience of his superiors at a distance too great to appreciate the difficulties of the situation provoked from him no complaint. He telegraphed to the lieutenant-general: "I can only say that I have done all in my power to prepare, and if you should deem it necessary to relieve me, I shall submit without a murmur." When the time arrived for the delivery of the meditated blow, and its complete and thorough success was known, he received ample compensation for the temporary distrust in hearty and ungrudging congratulations from the president, secretary of war, and lieutenant-general as creditable to them as they were gratifying and just to him confirmed as they were by the thanks of Congress for the skill and dauntless courage by which the rebel army under Gen. Hood was signally defeated and driven from the State of Tennessee. A generation in Virginia will yet arise who will learn and confess the truth, that George H. Thomas, when he lifted his sword to bar the pathway of her secession, loved her as well as those who joined the cause of the South, and he served her better.
One day in September, 1863, while looking for Gen. A. McD. McCook in Chattanooga valley, I saw a signal flag waving not far away, and riding up to the signal station found Lieut. Wm. Quinton, signal officer on Gen. Thomas' staff, in communication with a signal station on Lookout Mountain. He could not tell me where to find Gen. McCook, but was very anxious to be relieved in order that he might ride on towards Chickamauga with Gen. Thomas, and asked me if I would not relieve him. As it seemed important to keep the line open, I agreed to take his place while the Twentieth Corps, which was to follow the Fourteenth, was passing. After we had made the necessary arrangements, Lieut. Quinton said to me: "Lieutenant, I would like to introduce you to General Thomas. He is one of the kindest men that ever lived, and his staff look on him more as a father than their general." So we rode up to a slight elevation where Gen. Thomas and his staff were watching his troops as they were marching along the road to Chickamauga. The general received us very cordially, paid a high compliment to the signal corps, said his signal officers were all gentlemen upon whom he felt he could always rely, and he thought the signal corps would be better appreciated in the West as the different generals became more familiar with it. While we were conversing a staff officer galloped up, saluted and announced to the general that Chattanooga had been evacuated by the enemy and occupied by the brigade of Gen. Harker. Gen. Thomas said that "he was very glad to hear it and he hoped Gen. Harker would see that all public and private property was protected; he understood that there was a large supply of hospital stores there, including considerable wine, and he wanted them all carefully saved for the benefit of his own wounded and those of the enemy." The staff officer said "he was sure that Gen. Harker would do it, and that guards were being established when he left." As we rode away Lieut. Quinton remarked "That was just like Gen. Thomas, that is the way he is always looking after the wants of his men."
The final obsequies in honor of Gen. Thomas took place on the 8th of April, 1870, in St. Paul's Episcopal church, Troy, N.Y., attended by President Grant, the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, senators and representatives of Congress, officers of the army and navy, and many veterans of the army of the Cumberland and the Civil War. The pall bearers were Generals Meade, Scofield, Hooker, Rosecrans, Hazen, Granger, Newton and McKay. The religious services were conducted by Bishop Doane of Albany and the Rev. Doctors Cort, Potter, Walsh and Reese, and the body was followed to the grave in the beautiful cemetery of Oakwood by his comrades and old soldiers, where it was buried beside his Northern wife.
Mild in manner; fair in favor;
Kind in temper; fierce in fight;