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19 Chattanooga Thomas Takes Command FORTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD, RED-HEADED George H. Thomas, the fifth commander of the Army of the Cumberland, established his headquarters in an unassuming onestory frame house on Walnut near Fourth Street in Chattanooga. When Thomas, at age twenty, was clerking in a Virginia law office, his congressman, who had heard good things about Thomas, sought him out as a possible candidate for West Point. He subsequently agreed and was accepted, rooming with an eighteen-year-old Ohio plebe, William T. Sherman. Thomas later served in the Seminole and Mexican Wars, receiving two brevets in the former, and after fifteen years' service in the artillery, in 1855he became junior major in the 2d U.S. Cavalry, an outfit that fought Comanches along the Texas frontier. Thomas married Frances Kellogg of Troy, New York, a thirty-one-year-old spinster five years his senior; they would have no children. Exactly why he chose the North over his native Virginia is not known—his proSouthern sisters (who suggested that he change his last name) insisted that he came under the influence of Frances. She adamantly denied this, claiming that her husband never discussed the issue with anyone, herself included. The answer may be in Thomas's childhood, where he found an association with blacks, playing with slave children and at night teaching them, against his father's will, what he had learned in school that day. He retained this affinity as an adult. Thomas exhibited slavish work habits and was methodical to a fault; he even assigned seats to staff officers at dinner. Although commonly believed to possess a stoic personality (he once said that he taught himself "not to feel"), he could in fact become quite prickly and moody. Generally, however, colleagues knew him as soft spoken and reserved. Thomas was a private man who concealed his inner feelings; his wartime letters to his wife would be destroyed. Unlike Rosecrans, he showed little interest in religion and harbored a disdain for politics. John Beatty noted that he "puts on less style" than the other generals. Colonel Opdycke expressed "profound confidence in Thomas, not that he is brilliant, but he is firm, solid." In battle he was unflappable. His organization and training of the First Division revealed his administrative ability. Thomas, when pressed, could also fight; he had shown that at Mill Springs 362 DAYS OF GLORY and Chickamauga. Nonetheless, he did not participate at Shiloh or Perryville, and despite some historians' insistence that he saved the day at Stones River, his precise contribution, beyond general overseer, is difficult to discern in contemporary evidence . (The "hero," if any, seems to have been Sheridan.) He was on record as supporting Rosecrans in his six months' inaction after Stones River. Thomas's constant requests for reinforcements on the second day at Chickamauga helped contribute to the disaster that occurred. He had saved the army, however, and that is all that the troops and a thankful nation cared about. His contemporaries knew him as "Slow Trott," an old nickname related to his riding skills but one that now referred to his perceived tactical slowness. "Old Pap," as the troops fondly referred to him, was thus solidly competent but not brilliant. Clearly, no one else in the army approached his revered status.1 Thomas understood that Grant's selection of him over Rosecrans did not necessarily represent a vote of confidence; Grant simply distrusted Rosecrans more. The genesis of his less-than-enthusiastic estimation of Thomas is difficult to determine. Neither general enumerated their differences in postwar years. Brigadier General Reynolds, Thomas's new chief of staff and also a friend of Grant, later recounted: "The only thing Grant ever had against Thomas was that Thomas was slow. And it's the God of Almighty truth he was slow." It has been suggested that the Virginian simply lacked Sherman's aggressive style, which meshed so well with Grant's. Steven Woodworth has concluded that Thomas resented and perhaps envied Grant's new position, a conclusion that, though likely true, does not explain the history behind their cold relationship. Another historian has even implausibly conjectured that i. For comments on Thomas's red hair, see Julia A. Drake, comp., The Mail Goes Through; or the Civil War Letters of George Drake (SanAngelo,Tex.: Anchor, 1964), 67; McKinney, Education in Violence, 82-83, 89-90; Cleaves,Rock of Chickamauga, 8, 21,28-31, 45, 49, 50-51, 59-61, 64, 71;Warner, Generals...

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