Fort Riley historic names: George Henry Thomas

Courtesy Photo | Fort Riley's Thomas Ave. is named for George Henry Thomas — a Union soldier who twice turned down promotions because he didn’t feel as though he deserved them.  

KS, UNITED STATES

01.17.2020

Story by Gail Parsons 

Fort Riley Public Affairs Office

This is part of a continuing series exploring the people behind names of Fort Riley streets, buildings and parade fields.

Thomas Avenue, which winds through the McClellan Place housing area, is named for George Henry Thomas — a Union Soldier who twice turned down promotions because he didn’t feel as though he deserved them.
A website dedicated to this general, http://generalthomas.com/controve.htm, described him as “regular Army” with a strict sense of ethics.
Born July 31, 1816, into a slave-holding family in Virginia, Thomas entered West Point at the age of 20, which earned him the nickname of “Old Tom” from his younger classmates, according to https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/george-thomas.
He graduated 12th in his class and began his military career as a second lieutenant in Company D, 3rd U.S. Artillery. His first taste of battle was during the Seminole War, for which he received the brevet rank of first lieutenant “for gallantry and good conduct against the Florida Indians”.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, he served in the Mexican American War and later served as the instructor of cavalry and artillery under then Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, the academy superintendent.
When the Civil War started, Thomas found himself on the opposite battlefield of several men with whom he had served.
According to Battlefields.org, he was courted by the South and offered prominent commissions in the Confederate Army.
“His decision to remain loyal to the Union created a deep rift with his family, one that would not heal in his lifetime,” the website states. “Thomas’ comrades and former students reacted no less vehemently: former star pupil and fellow Virginian J.E.B. Stuart wrote to his wife, ‘I would like to hang him as a traitor to his native state.’”
His choice to stay with the U.S. Army bode well for the Union. Several accounts of his career show Thomas to be a Soldier who knew his way around the
battlefield.
One of his prominent victories, according to Battlefields.org, was at Mill Springs, Kentucky, in January 1862. The division-sized battle was the first decisive Union victory in the West and denied the Confederates the Cumberland Gap.
Although there were many skirmishes and battles that Thomas led his men through successfully, it was the September 1863 battle at Chickamauga at the Georgia, Tennessee border, where he would cement his place in history. It was there he would earn his nickname “The Rock of Chickamauga” and become fodder for a folk song by Jimmy Driftwood.
Generalthomas.com reprinted this account of the battle from The Army of the Cumberland, by Henry M. Cist.
“During the heavy fighting of the 20th, Thomas was the only general officer left on the field of rank above a division commander. Learning sometime later in the day of the disaster on our right, he gathered his troops together from all parts of the field to the position selected by himself after the break on the right. Here in a more marked degree even than at Stone’s River, he displayed his great staying quality. Posting his troops on the lines he designated, he, so to speak, placed himself with his back against a rock and refused to be driven from the field. Here he stayed, despite the fierce and prolonged assault of the enemy, repulsing every attack. And when the sun went down he was still there. Well was he called the “Rock of Chickamauga”, and trebly well for the Army of the Cumberland that George H. Thomas was in command of the left at that battle. On the 20th, when the hour of supreme trial came and he was left on the field with less than one half of the strength of the army that the day before had been barely able to hold its own against the rebel assaults, he formed his 25,000 troops on “Horseshoe Ridge”, and successfully resisted for nearly six long hours the repeated attacks of that same rebel army, largely reinforced until it numbered twice his command, when it was flushed with victory and determined on his utter destruction. There is nothing finer in history than Thomas at Chickamauga.”
This stand by Thomas prevented the loss of Chattanooga and a series of events that could have resulted in President Abraham Lincoln winning reelection, which would have changed the course of the war.
By the end of the war, Thomas had achieved the rank of major general. While other generals of the time were jockeying for their new positions, Thomas was not interested in rising through the ranks and becoming involved in politics.
According to generalthomas.com, because Gen. Ulysses Grant was intending to run for president, President Andrew Johnson wanted Thomas to replace Grant as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. He asked the Senate to confirm Thomas to the rank of brevet Lt. General and was prepared to promote Thomas over Generals Grant, Sherman, Meade and Sheridan.
“Thomas, ever the honorable gentleman and Soldier, quickly asks the president to recall the nomination as he knows it is inspired primarily by politics,” the website states. “He would rather pass up a chance at three stars than be used to interfere with a brother officer’s career.”
Thomas would also decline the unanimous nomination for president by the Tennessee State Convention in 1968.
After the war, while other commanders were publishing their memoirs and cementing their legacy, Thomas destroyed his private papers to keep his life from being “hawked in print,” said battlefields.org.
“William T. Sherman, a lifelong friend since their West Point days, however, called Thomas’ services throughout the war ‘transcendent’ and listed him along with Ulysses S. Grant as the heroes deserving ‘monuments like those of Nelson and Wellington in London, well worthy to stand side by side with the one which now graces our capitol city of George Washington,’” said battlefields.org.
In 1869, he transferred to San Francisco where he commanded the Department of the Pacific. He died the following year of a stroke.

• Date Taken: 01.17.2020
• Date Posted: 01.28.2020 11:24
• Story ID: 360656
• Location: KS, US