General who never lost a battle featured in 9/21 presentation

LACONIA — The Laconia Historical and Museum Society will host a PowerPoint presentation by David Decker, a local authority on the Civil War, on Wednesday, September 21 at the Laconia Public Library in the meeting room on the lower level at 7 p.m.

Decker will deliver a presentation on the life and career of General George Thomas, with special emphasis on his unbroken string of victories throughout the Civil War, 1861-65.

Thomas is well known as the best commander on defense in the war. He twice saved the Union Army from destruction at Stone's River and at Chicamauga. After this second battle, the newspapers dubbed him “the Rock of Chicamauga”, and President Lincoln called his effort the most heroic act in the history of the world.

Thomas was equally effective on offense, as was shown in the Tulahoma Campaign and then in the Atlanta Campaign. His crowning achievement occurred at the battle of Nashville, where he completely destroyed John Bell Hood's army, originally 57,000 men but reduced to 3,000 men at Tupelo, Mississippi, having been chased there by Thomas for 250 miles over three weeks. The result of this battle was the end of the war in the west, in December 1864, four months before Lee surrendered to Grant, and five months before Johnston surrendered to Sherman.

At the conclusion of the war and five years later at his death, at least 10 of his closest colleagues, fellow generals, proclaimed Thomas to be the best general of the war, or of the 19th century, or since George Washington. Thomas was the only general who never lost a battle during the entire Civil War.

CAPTION

Civil War authority Dave Decker will tell the story of undefeated Civil War General George Thomas at a meeting of the Laconia Historical and Museum Society next Wednesday. (Courtesy photo)