his ability to handle large bodies of troops upon the battlefield,
and for this reason refused to accept the command of that army,
just prior to Perryville, when tendered him. His kind consideration
for the feelings of others was one of his marked characteristics.
With a pure mind and large heart, his noble soul made him one of
the greatest of Nature's noblemen--a true gentleman. The experience
of Chickamauga ripened his powers and developed him to his full
height. As the General who won the first victory in the West, who
saved an army by his skill and valor, and who was the only General
of the war on either side able to crush an army on the battlefield,
George H. Thomas, "the true soldier, the prudent and undaunted
commander, the modest and incorruptible patriot," stands as the model
American soldier, the grandest figure of the War of the Rebellion.

One of Grant's first acts on taking command was to telegraph Thomas
to hold Chattanooga at all hazards. The commander who had seen his
troops on less than half rations for nearly a month, with steadily
approaching signs of starvation, hardly needed an intimation that
what had been gained by the sacrifice on Chickamauga's field was
not to be yielded up without a struggle. Thomas replied "We will
hold the town till we starve." On the 24th, Grant, in company
with Thomas and W. F. Smith, made a personal inspection across the
river of the situation, with reference to carrying out the plan
of Rosecrans for the opening of the road by Brown's Ferry, and
approving of it, Thomas was directed to proceed to execute it.
This plan required the greatest secrecy of movement, otherwise
Longstreet's entire command would resist the landing, and contemplated
the co-operation of Hooker's moving up from Bridgeport, holding the
road to Kelley's Ferry. The latter was to meet a force sent from
the town down the river in pontoons under cover of night, which was