[wideawake]

Thomas smashed the CSA Army of the Tennessee - not just defeated it, but erased it from existence - permanently winning the war in the West.

Grant defeated Lee, but Thomas made sure that Lee would never receive outside help.

Because of Thomas, Grant's victory became inevitable.

Thomas chose to do the right thing, Lee chose to do the popular thing.

Lee is still popular, Thomas is still right.

[C19fan]

I forget the country artist but I knew a big star wrote a song about Thomas smashing Hood outside Nashville. I heard it at the Memorial Day Concert at Capitol Hill. Awesome song especially if you can appreciate the history behind it.

[prof.h.mandingo]

After the battle of Franklin Hood's army was in terrible shape. Thomas did indeed destroy Hood's army but by the winter of 1864 this was a sideshow.
Thomas was a very good general but almost anyone could have taken out Hood at that point of the war. The north was going to win no matter what happened in the West. Sherman had trashed Georgia and was headed to meet with Grant.

[Kenny Bunk]

George H. Thomas, an absolute master of training, logistics, and the integration of cavalry and artillery with infantry, was probably the most reliable general on either side in The War of Northern Aggression.

He got results with a comparatively low "Butcher's Bill," too. He was unfortunately the victim of a vicious political PR cabal set up by Grant, Sherman, and Scholfield, who used him to distract Lincoln and Halleck from their own failures in the field. For instance, Grant was stalled for months at Vicksburg, but that did not stop him from endlessly bitching to Washington about Thomas' "slowness" at Nashville ... this after Sherman had stripped Thomas' command of well trained divisions, all his remounts, months of supplies, and most of his artillery!

While we're on the subject, I am somewhat jaundiced by now whenever I read yet another hagiographic piece about the great Southern Generals, particularly Lee. Yes, he was a great tactician. But remember he was working on interior lines of communication ... a tremendous advantage. Great general that he was, he was also a complete dunderhead when it came to logistics. In the industry-poor south, his armies never lacked for ammo delivery. but in the agriculturally rich South, his men generally never got a square meal (unless they captured it from the Federals), or a decent pair of pants, much less boots. It's fashionable to blame that on his Commissary General, but it took Lee until 1865 to notice? It also should be noticed that Lee's outstanding victories, quite brilliant as they were, were at tremendous cost in casualties. His battles on northern territory were nearly run standoffs ... but again at shattering cost in casualties.

All around great generalship? Thomas takes it. Grant and Sherman admitted it long after the war when Grant was President and Sherman Secretary of War. Schofield, who served as Chief of The Army and gave himself the CMoH, was caught in a tissue of lies about Thomas in his memoirs. The superior whom he had continually sabotaged had the posthumous satisfaction of sorts of seeing his detractor totally discredited.

On both sides, the war effort was seriously crippled by much political infighting among jealous generals. Thomas is the most obvious case on Team Yankee.