George Henry Thomas

George Henry Thomas (July 31, 1816 – March 28, 1870) was a general in the U.S. Army. He was one of the top Union army generals in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.

Thomas was born in Virginia in 1816. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1840. He fought in the Mexican-American War in an artillery battery. When the Civil War started, he decided to stay in the Union army instead of fighting for Virginia. He became a Brigadier General. He won a victory at the Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky in 1861.

In 1862, he became a major general and commanded a corps in the Army of the Cumberland. He fought at the Battle of Stones River and the Battle of Chickamauga. He became commander of the Army of the Cumberland during the Chattanooga Campaign in 1863. He continued commanding the army during the Atlanta Campaign. When William T. Sherman started his March to the Sea, Thomas was left behind to defend Tennessee against John Bell Hood. Thomas defeated Hood at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864.

After the war, Thomas stayed with the U.S. army. He died in 1870 in San Francisco.

George Henry Thomas Media

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  Defense of Horseshoe Ridge and Union retreat at the Battle of Chickamauga, afternoon and evening of September 20, 1863

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  Battles for Chattanooga, November 24–25, 1863

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  An American United States General during the Civil War. This image is from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.*Object number NPG.79.246.22

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  Memorial to Thomas in Oakwood Cemetery

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  Memorialized on the 1890 $5 Treasury Note, and one of 53 people depicted on United States banknotes

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  J. C. Buttre's 1877 engraving of Thomas, based on a photograph by George N. Bernard

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  Woodcut by Thomas Nast

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  General George H. Thomas' life-size statue by sculptor Rodolfo Ayoroa, located at Civil War Park, Lebanon, Kentucky

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  The bronze equestrian statue of Thomas by John Quincy Adams Ward, located at Thomas Circle in Washington, D.C.