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Thomas, George H., as Major General, United States Volunteers
Description
Literature
cf. Drew Gilpin Faust, The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, New York, 2007
Condition
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
Burying the dead at Chickamauga—and collecting relics for the Great Western Sanitary Fair.
George Thomas rose to prominence on the second day of the battle of Chickamauga, 20 September 1863. There he rallied the Union troops from a frenzied retreat, preventing the army of General William S. Rosecrans from being overrun and earning the sobriquet "The Rock of Chickamauga." Thomas's exploits and subsequent rear-guard action allowed the Army of the Cumberland to make an orderly retreat to Chattanooga, where a new headquarters was established. Shortly afterwards, Thomas replaced Rosecrans as commanding officer, and two month later he led his men back into Georgia, retaking the ground at Chickamauga.
In this letter, Thomas asks that Union burial parties also collect battlefield relics to support the Sanitary Commission: "Whilst on the Battlefield of Chickamauga burying the remains of our brave men left unburied by the enemy I wish you to request the men to collect relics of the Battle to be sent to the Great Western Sanitary Fair to be opened in Cincinnati on the 15th of this month. By so doing they will be making a most valuable contribution to the Sanitary Commission, which has contributed so magnificently in supplying comforts to our brave Volunteers in the field, devoting their lives to the defense of our common Country."
Charles Boynton's History of the Great Western Sanitary Fair (Cincinnati, 1864) catalogues many items collected through Thomas's offices in the "List of Articles Exhibited in Art & Curiosity Halls," including a rebel canteen, cartridge boxes, bayonets, gun-screws, shell fragments, ramrods, and a bunch of grape-cuttings from Lookout Mountain. Boynton's History also catalogues the many letters contributed for sale by military, political, and literary figures, including one from Thomas that mentions that he "caused to be collected some of the relics of the battle-field near this place."
It was not unusual that the casualties of a Civil War battle would remain unburied nearly three months after they had fallen. While truces were occasionally invoked to allow each side to recover and inter their dead, "Responsibility for the dead usually fell to the victor, for it was his army that held the field" (Faust, p. 69). In With Sabre and Scalpel, Confederate surgeon John Wyeth described the aftermath of the battle of Chickamauga: "most of the Confederate dead had been gathered in long trenches and buried; but the Union dead were still lying where they fell. For its effect on the survivors it was the policy of the victor to hide his own losses and let those of the other side be seen" (quoted in Faust, p. 71).
Thomas's commitment to helping the Sanitary Commission "in supplying comforts to our brave Volunteers in the field, devoting their lives to the defense of our common Country" is especially poignant. A native of Virginia, Thomas found himself disowned by his family when he took up the Union cause.