Abraham Lincoln’s quote about the leadership of George H. Thomas at Chickamauga:
“It is doubtful whether his heroism and skill exhibited last Sunday afternoon, has ever been surpassed in the world.”1,2
Stanton felt much the same way about him. “It is not my fault that he was not in chief command [Army of the Cumberland] months ago,” he replied to Dana’s observation that there was “no other man whose appointment would be so welcome to this army.”3
References
1. David H. Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office, p.169.
2. Tracy, Gilbert A. (ed.), Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1917, p. 233.
3. Shelby Foote, The Civil War, A Narrative Volume 2, p. 768.
