THOMAS himself-his own unimpeachable words, recorded by COLONEL A. L. HOUGH, his confidential aid at the time they were spoken. COLONEL HOUGH says:

"A slander upon the General was often repeated in the Southern papers during and immediately subsequent to the rebellion. It was given upon the authority of prominent rebel officers, and not denied by them. It was to the effect that he was disappointed in not getting a high command in the rebel army he had sought for; hence his refusal to join in the rebellion. In a conversation with him on this subject, the General said this was an entire fabrication, not having an atom of foundation; not a line ever passed between him and the rebel authorities; they have no genuine letter of his, nor was a word spoken by him to any one that could even lead to such an inference. He defied any one to produce any testimony, written or oral, to sustain such allegation; he never entertained such an idea, for his duty was clear to him from the beginning."

Among these utterances of GENERAL THOMAS, one brief sentence, simple and sublime, is an epitome of his character and life. It is this:

"My duty was clear from the beginning of the war."

It is not enough to compare the conduct of THOMAS at this trying period with that of Northern officers who remained true to the flag. The real measure of his merit is found by comparing him with such men as LEE and JOHNSTON. Let us compare and contrast the conduct of THOMAS with that of ROBERT E. LEE, who become the military chief and idol of the Southern Confederacy, and who, by the verdict of both friends and enemies, possessed many high qualities.

We have seen that, on the 20th of April, LEE resigned his commission. On the same day, he wrote to a relative words which will remain forever as the most veritable picture of his character. He said:

"The whole South is in a state of revolution, into which Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn; and though I recognize no necessity for this state of things, and would have forborne and pleaded to the end for redress of grievances, real or supposed, yet in my own person I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my native State With all my devotion to the Union, and the feelings of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, and my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the army," etc.

LEE here avows his devotion to the Union, his feelings of loyalty and obligation as an American citizen, and declares. that there was no necessity for the rebellion; and yet, after these confessions and declarations, which surrender utterly and forever all grounds for the justification of his conduct, he abandons his Government, and offers his sword to Virginia and to that rebellion which he neither justified nor approved.

Like LEE, THOMAS deplored the suicidal strife, and denied the justice or necessity of rebellion. Like LEE, he was warmly attached to his family and friends, to Virginia and her glorious traditions. Like LEE, he acknowledged his obligations to the great Republic, of which all the people of Virginia were citizens, and to the support and defense of which he had registered his solemn oath when he became a soldier. But, unlike LEE, when the supreme hour of trial came, he rose to the full hight of the great occasion, and, esteeming the sanctity of his oath and the life of the Republic more precious than home, or kindred, or State, drew his sword to put down a rebellion which, even by LEE's confession, was both unnecessary and indefensible.

There was one thing in LEE's conduct which would have been impossible to THOMAS' nature. Though LEE wrote his resignation April 20, it was not accepted by the Secretary of War till the 25th; and the letter of the Adjutant General, in

forming him of the acceptance, was not written till the 27th. Yet, on the 23d of April, LEE accepted the appointment of Major General from the rebel Governor of Virginia, and the same day, issued and published a general order, assuming command of the military and naval forces of that State, which forces, five days before, had attacked the troops of the United States at Harper's Ferry, and also at the Gosport navy yard, and were at that moment levying war against the Government which he had solemnly sworn to defend "against all its enemies and opposers whatsoever." Instead of keeping this oath, he assumed command of the armed enemies of the Union two days before his contract of service was canceled-a contract which he had lately renewed by accepting from Abraham Lincoln the commission of Colonel in the army of the United States. [See Appendix B.]

If there had been no other sufficient motive, the religious respect with which THOMAS regarded his oath would alone have prevented him from following the example of LEE. I conclude the discussion of this topic by declaring what I doubt not will be the just and unalterable verdict of history, that this was no doubting THOMAS; that he did not need to behold the bleeding wounds of his country before he believed, for his duty was clear from the beginning," and he followed it without a murmur. Both these men are in their graves, and the judgment of mankind will finally assign them their places in history. For the verdict, I confidently appeal from the Virginia of to-day to the Virginia of the future.

66

After serving through the brief campaign of the Shenandoah, GENERAL THOMAS entered upon a wider field of action, and began that career which his country knows by heart. It is not possible, within the limits of this address, to give more than the most meager outline of his military services during the war for the Union. I shall, therefore, attempt no more

than to state the nature and scope of his work, and to consider some of the qualities which he exhibited while performing it.

The fame of GENERAL THOMAS as a soldier is linked forever with the history of the Army of the Cumberland; for, in 1861, he mustered in and organized its first brigade, and in 1865, at Nashville, the scene of his greatest victory, he passed in farewell review, and mustered out of the service, more than one hundred and thirty thousand of its war-worn veterans. The Department of the Cumberland, embracing, at first, only Tennessee and Kentucky, was created by the War Department, August 15, 1861, and GENERAL ROBERT ANDERSON placed in command. At ANDERSON'S request, SHERMAN, THOMAS, and BUELL were made Brigadier Generals of Volunteers, and assigned to his command.

The remainder of 1861 was the period of organization. The first month's work that THOMAS performed in the department, was at Camp Dick Robinson, where he mustered into service, eleven regiments and three batteries of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee troops. These he organized into the First Brigade, which formed the nucleus of the division, then of the corps, and finally of the great army which he afterward commanded so long.

In order to appreciate the career of GENERAL THOMAS, it is necessary to comprehend not only the magnitude of the work to be accomplished by the Army of the Cumberland, but also the relation which that army and its work sustained to the other great armies of the Union.

It is now easy to see that, between the Northern and Southern States, there are three great natural pathways of invasion; and to put down the rebellion, it was necessary that each of these be traversed and held by a great army. The first was the long and narrow slope from the chain of the Alleghany and Cumberland mountains to the Atlantic coast.

The second was the great Western slope from the same mountain chain to the Ohio, the Tennessee, and Tombigbee rivers, and extending southward to the Gulf. The third was the Mississippi river itself, and the immediate territory along its banks.

Peculiarities of topography and surroundings required, for each of these lines, different modes of supplying an army and of conducting campaigns. The army of the East, which operated on the first line, was in great part supplied from the sea; and many of its operations were carried on in conjunction with the navy. The army on the third, or Western line was supplied from the Mississippi river; and the gun-boat service formed a novel and important feature in its military operations.

The Army of the Cumberland held the center line, which was in many respects the most difficult of all. There could be but little naval co-operation with its movements; and only for a short distance could it be supplied by river transportation. Its main supply was by a single line of railroad, running hundreds of miles among a hostile population, and requiring a heavy force for its protection. The great central pathway led into the heart of the rebellion. It crossed the only line of railway (the Memphis and Charleston) which united the Eastern and Western States of the Confederacy. Extraordinary obstacles lay in the pathway of an army moving southward over this central route. Besides the broad and deep rivers which cross it, the great mountain chain itself, bending sharply near the Georgia line, sweeps westward until it loses itself in the low sand-hills and plains of Alabama and Mississippi, thus presenting a most formidable barrier to an army invading the Gulf States. The great gateway of the mountain chain is at Chattanooga, where the Tennessee river bursts through the barrier.

Nothing more strikingly illustrates the military genius