ceeded in placing one of his regiments on the flank of the enemy's line, when a charge was ordered, and the whole Confederate force was driven in confusion from the field, with the loss of its leader, Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer. Pursuit was continued till dark, when the enemy's works were reached. During the night that followed, most of the Confederate army escaped across the river, leaving guns, small-arms, and other spoils. This contest, which is known as the battle of Mill Springs, was the first real victory for the National cause since the disaster at Bull Run, six months before. The loss was 39 killed and 207 wounded on the National side, against 125 Confederates killed and 309 wounded. Immediately afterward the whole army entered upon the movements that culminated in the battle of Shiloh and the expulsion of the Confederate armies from the entire region between the Cumberland mountains and the Mississippi, Gen. Thomas shared in all these operations. On 25 April, 1862, he was made major-general, and was assigned to the command of Gen. Grant's army, the latter being made second in general command under Halleck, and thus virtually retired from active command for the time being. Soon after the occupation of Corinth, Gen. Thomas returned to his old command, and with it went through the exhausting campaign by which, at the end of September, Gen. Buell's whole army, save the isolated garrison at Nashville, was concentrated at Louisville, prepared to give battle to Gen. Bragg, who had audaciously led his army from Chattanooga to the Ohio river. At Louisville, on 29 Sept., the command of the National army was offered to Gen. Thomas, but he declined it. On 30 Oct. Gen. Buell was superseded by Gen. William S. Rosecrans, and Gen. Thomas was placed in command of five divisions, forming the centre of the army. On 31 Dec., 1862, the contending forces, under Rosecrans and Bragg, met in bloody conflict on the banks of Stone river, near Murfreesboro, Tenn. By an impetuous and overwhelming charge of the enemy at dawn, the whole right wing of the National army was swept back three miles, and its very existence was imperilled. But the centre, under Thomas, firmly held its ground and repelled every assault till nightfall. The contest was renewed on 2 Jan., 1863, when, by a bold and fiery attack of a part of Thomas's force on the enemy's right, the Confederate position was endangered, and Bragg, in the night of the 3d, retreated. The National army lay nearly motionless until June, when it entered on that series of brilliant flanking movements which, without any serious conflict, drove the enemy from Tennessee and compelled the abandonment of Chattanooga on 8 Sept. The terrible battle of Chickamauga followed, when, on 19 and 20 Sept., the Confederate army, re-enforced by Longstreet's corps from Virginia and some troops from Mississippi, put forth almost superhuman efforts to overwhelm the National forces in detail, and thus secure, once more, the prize of Chattanooga, the gateway to the heart of the Confederacy. Again, as at Stone river, the right was swept away, carrying with it the commander of the army and two corps commanders. Gen. Thomas was thus left with but little more than six out of thirteen divisions to maintain his ground against five corps flushed with seeming victory and eager with the hope of making him an easy prey. From noon till night the battle raged. Every assault of the enemy had been repelled, the National troops were full of confidence and ardor, and the final assault of the day was made by a National brigade following up with the bayonet a retreating Confederate division. In the night, by orders of the army commander, Gen. Thomas fell back to Rossville, five miles, and there awaited all the next day the expected attack; but the enemy was in no condition to make it. For the only time in its history, the Army of the Cumberland left the enemy to bury its dead. Gen. Daniel H. Hill, commanding a Confederate corps in that battle, who had served in both eastern and western armies, said: “It seems to me the élan of the southern soldier was never seen after Chickamauga. That barren victory sealed the fate of the southern Confederacy.”
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Following this great battle. Gen. Thomas on 19 Oct. was placed in command of the Army of the Cumberland. Its affairs were in a most critical condition. All communication with its base of supplies was cut off, an almost impassable river was in its rear, from the heights of Lookout mountain and Mission ridge the enemy looked down on the beleaguered force, slowly starving in its stronghold. Immediate measures were taken for its relief, and from every quarter troops were hurried toward Chattanooga, both to open communications and to re-enforce the army for active operations. Two corps from the Potomac and two from Mississippi were speedily forwarded, and all were placed under command of Gen. Grant. To his almost despairing message to Gen. Thomas to hold the place, came the cheering reply, “We will hold the town till we starve.” Thomas had then in store six days' supply for 50,000 men. Preparations were at last completed, and on 23 Nov. the forces from Mississippi, aided by a division from Thomas, attacked the northern end of Mission ridge, and gained some ground. On the 24th Lookout mountain was captured by the forces from the Potomac, strengthened by two of Thomas's brigades. On the 25th, under Thomas's leadership, the Army of the Cumberland, released from its long imprisonment, stormed and carried the three lines of rifle-pits at the base, midway, and on the summit of Mission ridge, and drove the Confederate army, in utter rout, from the fortified position it had held so confidently for two months. As the jubilant National troops reached the summit of the ridge, the whistle of the first steamboat, loaded with supplies, told that the siege was indeed ended.
In the spring of 1864 Gen. Thomas entered upon the Atlanta campaign, at the head of 65,000 veterans, being two thirds of the grand army commanded by Gen. Sherman. He occupied the centre of the line. From Chattanooga to Atlanta it was an almost continuous battle of a hundred days. The relative amount of work done by each of the three armies is indicated by the losses. The Army of the Cumberland lost, in killed and wounded, 32 per cent., the Army of the Tennessee 26 per cent., the Army of the Ohio 16 per cent. On 1 Sept., at Jonesboro', the 14th army corps of Thomas's army made a successful assault, completely driving from the field the enemy's right, and on the 2d the 20th corps, also of Thomas's command, entered Atlanta, and the campaign was ended.
