General George Henry Thomas
 

The Fort Thomas Military post was designated Fort Thomas in 1890 and was named for noted Civil War Union General George Henry Thomas.

Born in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1816, Thomas grew up on his family’s large farm. After his father, John C. Thomas, died in a farming accident in 1829, young George was forced to play a leadership role in the household. A quiet, responsible, and dutiful young man, Thomas was also kind hearted. Although educating slaves was illegal in Virginia, Thomas sometimes defied the law and taught slave children to read and write. The Thomas family almost fell victim to Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1831, but were able to escape to a nearby town before the mob descended upon the property.

Thomas attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, and afterward participated in the Mexican-American War. When the country was torn apart by the Civil War, Thomas chose to fight for the Union and proved indispensable with his impressive defensive tactics at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. His victory against Confederate General John Bell Hood at Nashville in 1864 was one of the most decisive battles of the war.

After the end of the Civil War, Thomas commanded the Department of the Cumberland in Kentucky and Tennessee thought 1869. He requested assignment to command the Military Division of the Pacific, with headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco. He died there of a stroke on March 28, 1870, while writing an answer to an article criticizing his military career by John Schofield. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York.

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