The Rock of Chickamauga: Life of George H. Thomas (Abridged)

Slow, deliberate, and highly successful in war, General George Thomas nevertheless has never received the accolades he deserves. He shunned self-promotion and even refused military promotion when he felt it was unjustified.

But he saved a great Union army at Chickamauga and was highly-respected by his peers. On January 18, 1862, he defeated Confederate Brig. Gens. George B. Crittenden and Felix Zollicoffer at Mill Springs, gaining the first important Union victory in the war.

One of the charms of this book is that it was written by Colonel Donn Piatt. A former diplomat, a campaigner for Lincoln with whom he rode to Chicago after the 1860 election, gadfly, and friend of the powerful, Piatt spent the last years of the 19th century as a popular author.

Considered a wit, Piatt told Rutherford Hayes (future president) that when shells were whistling around them at Bull Run he had tried to remember his prayers but could only recall "Oh Lord, for these and all thy other mercies, we desire to be thankful."

Piatt was not a fan of Ulysses S. Grant and includes in this book John Rawlins' letter to Grant about his drinking.

General George Thomas has generally been held in high esteem by Civil War historians; Bruce Catton and Carl Sandburg wrote glowingly of him, and many consider Thomas one of the top three Union generals of the war, after Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. But he never wrote an autobiography and burned his private papers.

This is a definitive biography of one of the Union's great generals and is long overdue for conversion to e-book.

For the first time, this long-out-of-print book is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones.

Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.

Dettagli