It was not long before Thomas was actively at work against his enemy, a force sent out by him driving Zollicoffer's men back into the Gap. He proposed to follow up this advantage and invade east Tennessee, but an order from General Buell called him back to Lebanon, Ky. Here he organized the first division of the army of the Cumberland, for which he found work very quickly. Zollicoffer had crossed the Cumberland in spite of opposition and intrenched himself at Mill Spring. Thomas at once took the road against him, making a difficult march to a point ten miles from the Confederate works, where he halted to wait for some expected reinforcements.

The over-confident Zollicoffer, thinking he had a good opportunity to win an easy victory, left his lines on January 19, 1862, drove in Thomas's pickets, and made an attack upon his line. But the affair did not work according to his plans. The vigilant Thomas was ready for him, checked his advance, and made a brilliant charge which drove the Confederates back to their works. The reinforcements coming up, he proposed to attack these works the next day, but when day dawned Zollicoffer was gone. He had crossed the river so hastily during the night that his artillery and supplies were left for the victors. In this way Thomas won the first Union victory in Tennessee. Thanks came to him for it, but no promotion.

We must go on now till October, 1862. Thomas had found plenty of marching but no fighting to do, but recently General Bragg had invaded Kentucky in an impetuous way that caused Buell to hasten back to Louisville, fearing it might be captured. The authorities at Washington were dissatisfied with this movement, which looked like giving up the State to the

enemy, and an order was sent taking the command from Buell and giving it to Thomas. This the gallant fellow did not like. Buell had increased his army to one hundred thousand men and was prepared to face his foe, and it did not seem just to rob him of his chance under the situation. The generous Thomas declined the promotion and contented himself with the command of Buell's right wing when, on the 7th of October, he moved out of Louisville. On the 8th the battle of Perryville was fought, but the right wing was so placed that it took little part in that fight. It ended in Bragg's retreat.

The authorities at Washington were still dissatisfied. Buell did not make the active pursuit they expected, so he was again removed, General Rosecrans being now ordered to replace him, an injustice to Thomas, who should have had the post. The two armies again came together near the end of the year at Murfreesboro, Ky., where on December 31, a battle of the utmost fierceness was fought. The Union right was viciously attacked and driven back and the left met with the same fate. Only the stubbornness of the centre, commanded by General Thomas, saved Rosecrans from a disastrous defeat. While his supports were retiring in confusion the brave fellow held the enemy at bay with calm and unyielding firmness, changing his front and shifting his position in the face of a victorious foe.

That night a council of war was held at which it was decided to retire upon Nashville. Thomas went sound asleep during the deliberations, at the end of which Rosecrans wakened him, saying, "Will you protect our retreat?" He looked up in amazement. "This army can't retreat," he said, and fell asleep again.

It did not retreat. A new line was formed, and when the next day dawned the Confederates were amazed to find the supposed beaten army facing them in a fresh line of battle, well posted on good ground and as steady and firm as on the day before. Bragg hesitated to attack, and it was not until the second day that he did so. This day's battle was as fierce as the preceding one and, as before, Thomas was the mainstay of Rosecrans, continuing to baffle Bragg's attacks. A cavalry and infantry charge at length ended the day, Bragg losing so heavily that he retreated during the night of January 3, leaving two thousand sick and wounded behind.

As yet, however, Thomas had not had a great opportunity. One came to him at Chickamauga, where he saved the Union army from a ruinous defeat. For months after the battle of Murfreesboro the armies were engaged in strategic movements, Bragg in Chattanooga, Rosecrans operating against him. length, by getting south of him and threatening to cut off his lines of supply, Rosecrans forced him to leave that place and hurry back through the mountain passes. Here, on the 19th of September, Bragg suddenly turned and attacked the ill-concentrated Union army, taking it at a disadvantage. A terrible two days' battle ensued, in which Rosecrans was decisively beaten and his army might have been practically destroyed but for the indomitable Thomas. For his brilliant services on this occasion, he gained the deserved title of "the Rock of Chickamauga."

It was largely through his stubborn defence on the first day that the fierce onslaughts of Bragg's veterans were repulsed. On the second day he saved the army from destruction. Reinforced by Longstreet during

the night, Bragg hurled his brigades against the Union lines in the hope of piercing them and rolling them back. The supports of Thomas's flanks were broken and the corps of Crittenden and McCook routed, the fugitives streaming back to Chattanooga in such confusion that Rosecrans hastily telegraphed that he had been defeated, and made active efforts to get the dismayed troops in some posture of defence.

But none of Thomas's men were among the fugitives. They were still fighting like lions in the field. Wheeling his lines within the defile of Frick's Gap, whose steep sides protected his flanks, and throwing up a hasty breastwork of logs and rails in his front, the man who "did not know when he was whipped fought on, repelling every attempt of the foe to break his stubborn lines. General Garfield, chief of staff to Rosecrans, hearing the roar of battle, halted in his flight and rode back to see what it meant. His surprise was extreme. "Never," he said, "will I forget my amazement and admiration when I beheld that grand officer holding his own, with defeat on every side."

Nightfall found him still in his position, the unyielding rock that held back the tide of victory. During the night he led his men back to Rossville and the next evening marched them in perfect order into Chattanooga, to the astonishment of the broken troops.

Such was the exploit to which Thomas owed his greatest fame. A month later Rosecrans was removed from his command and Thomas appointed in his place. The task before him was a terrible one. Hemmed in by Confederate troops, the army on quarter rations, the horses almost starving, ammunition nearly exhausted, the troops half clad, the army mules dragging scant supplies along a difficult path, dying by thousands on