Thread by @pptsapper

Happy birthday to this king, the Rock of Chickamauga, the Hammer of Nashville: George H Thomas. Born in Virginia, he remained loyal to the US and never received the proper recognition he deserves as superb combat leader in the history of the US Army

Well we'll well if it isn't the consequences of my own gin catching up to me

So I've had a *few* drinks, and I realized, you're probably like "what's the hammer of Nashville shit, was Thomas some sort of carpenter?" Well, not EXACTLY

Hearken, my children, to my tale

You might call this a story of fire and ice. this all begins when Sherman takes Atlanta. There's the fire part. Now the rebs send John Bell "I like big frontal attacks and I cannot lie" Hood to go counter Uncle Billy. He decides to run north to take out the US supply line

Sherman is like "whatever" and takes his most veteran troops and runs off yelling "TO THE SEA" leaving Thomas to deal with the whole Hood sitch. Thomas is all "k, thx bro" and begins trying to cobble together a force to deal with Hood who heading into Tennessee

Hood has a chance to defeat the US Armies before they can unite but in classic Hood fashion misses a bunch of opportunities. Finally catches Schofield's force at Franklin, TN in late November '64 and decides the best thing to do is to attack HEAD ON. signature move

Schofield is all dug in and shit and brushes off Hood's attacks like he's brushing the non-existent hair off his bald scalp, causing about 6k rebel casualties out of Hood's 31k. Never astute at the maths, Hood is like "LET'S ATTACK AGAIN" but Schofield withdraws to Nashville

Hood pursues to find that Thomas is waiting for him all dug in and Hood pauses. He thinks. It hurts to think, but he does it anyways. He decides NOT to attack. This is BIG character development, kids. Like, a turning point. But Hood, being Hood, fucks it all up

He decides to be s n e a k y. He sends of diversionary raids here and there to try to trick Thomas to come out of his forts and fight him. Thomas glances around and is like "nah bro" and continues to build up his forces. This confused Hood. Which isn't hard to do, really

The rebel raids aren't taken well in DC. At all. Everyone wants Thomas to attack. Grant gets all pissy and even tho an ice storm freezes up all movement on Dec 8, makes preparations to relieve Thomas even going so far as to leave Petersburg to take command himself.

Now you're thinking, whoa whoa whoa, by is ol Hiram being so mean to the Rock of Chickamauga? Wellllll. Here's the thing. Ol' GHT, he's from Virginia. Bunch of people are thinking maybe he's not exactly loyal. And he never moves as fast as anyone wants him to

Back at West Point as an instructor GHT had earned the nickname "slow trot." Not EXACTLY because he was slow. See, he thought the cadets were being too aggressive to the horses & wearing them down by charging them too early. So he had them proceed at the slow trot b4 charging

But when he charged, he CHARGED. Like, Jerome Bettis at the height of his game charged. A relentless onslaught which left a lotta really confused and dazed ppl wondering what happened and why they'd been defeated. See, Thomas was all about preparation before victory

Because of this, ol GHT is basically undefeated both in and outta conference. He's never lost a battle, up until Chickamauga when the whole US line gives way. Well, all but Thomas, who planted his massive bulk, rallied the boys, and then told the rebs to fuck off right outta here

Which they promptly did, after fucking around and finding out, earning Thomas the most metal nickname, the Rock of Chickamauga. It's a month later when his boys, all angry about needing to be "rescued" at Chattanooga decide to yeet the rebs right off Missionary Ridge

In the midst of said yeeting, Grant asks Thomas who ordered the assault. "My *slow* ass, SIR" he said. Well, no he didn't say that, but he probably thought it as the Army of the Cumberland treated Bragg's army like a worn-out punching bag and sent it running

The other problem was that Thomas wasn't good at Army politics. He didn't want to tread on toes. Other than rebel ones that is. And he repeatedly turned down offers of higher command to not offend fellow officers. Who had no scruples in trying to screw him over later, smh

Anyways, back to Nashville. By December 15, he'd finished outfitting his cavalry corps under Wilson which he was planning to use as dismounted infantry. His assault force included units of US Colored Troops, which he was a proponent of, believing they would fight well

With Hood dug in with about 25,000 men, Thomas decided to go all blacksmith on his ass. He sent one force to hit Hoods right, one to serve as an anvil in the center, and a hammer of fast moving infantry and cavalry around his left flank. Basically, how the US Army fights today

Hood suddenly realizes that maybe he's made a huge mistake by sending off forces to attack elsewhere as he's suddenly hit on the right and front. But things go ok for him at first.

At first.

All of a sudden Thomas's hammer strikes Hood's left and utterly crushes it, with US troops coming in from 3 sides in a triple envelopment that ol RE Lee could only dream of achieving. Hood is smart for once and orders a withdrawal to secondary positions on high ground

So now it's December 16 and Thomas is facing dug in rebs in a tight line on high ground. He orders operation blacksmith again, an attack on Hoods left and a hammer on his right. The US attack on the left gets hammered by reb artillery and rifle fire, driving many units back

All except the 13th USCT which is like "fuck these assholes" and charges up to breach the rebel line before falling back with 40% losses. But they did the trick. Hood sends reinforcements to the left to keep it safe. Seeing this, Thomas is like "yo Schofield, go fuck em up"

But Schofield, the ol regular and future US Army hero and general of the army, pulls a Mcclellan and says he's outnumbered and needs more troops. So Thomas directs the Scottish born Illinois militiaman John McArthur with his division to assist. McArthur promptly attacks

His 3 brigades smash the rebel left, sending Hood's men running for the rear and safety. But whoooooooops they ain't no safety because Wilson's cavalry had scooted on into the rebel rear and dismounted to fight as infantry, capturing thousands of prisoners

Hood is now in panic mode as his army disintegrates around him, heading south as quickly as they're able. By the time they reach safety, Hood can report only about 15,000 men out of the 33,000 he'd marched north with. In the ice of TN, he'd been smashed by the Hammer of Nashville

This is one of the few times that a rebel field army was basically destroyed as an effective fighting force but we never hear about it because of how wonderful everyone else was based on their glowing postwar memoirs that read like Navy SEAL books about their doings

Incidentally, after the war, Thomas is given a chance to get back at Grant for the way he fucked him over, when crazy-ass President Johnson offers him command of the army to supplant Grant who is hard at Reconstruction.

Thomas tells him to fuck right off with that shit

Thomas was all about Reconstruction and the rights of freedpeople, even tho his entire family disowned him. He also saw straight thru the bullshit being pitched from the ex-rebels spewing their Lost Cause nonsense, as he writes this to Grant in 1868

GHT dies in 1870. None of his family attends his funeral in Troy, NY, where his wife was from. But Grant and Sherman do. Sometimes even the Army buddies you argue with are the ones that stand by you in the end.

So that's why he's called the hammer of Nashville.
#drunjhistory