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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS General Thomas

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Sidewheel Steamer (Tinclad No.61):
  • General Thomas was one of four light wooden gunboats built at Chattanooga, TN., for the War Department in 1864
  • Commissioned USS General Thomas, 8 August 1864 at Bridgeport, AL., Acting Master Gilbert Morton in command
  • Assigned to the IIth district of the Mississippi Squadron as a patrol vessel on the Tennessee River, above Muscle Shoals
  • Engaged Confederate General Hood's batteries at Decatur, AL., 28 October 1864
  • Participated on the attack at Decatur, 27 December 1864
  • Participated on the attack of Southern General Roddey's camp, 26 February 1865
  • Turned over to the War Department, at Bridgeport,AL., 3 June 1865
  • Sold at war’s conclusion to Capts. Fred Kimpel, Steve Thompson, and others who made her over into a packet named INGOMAR and ran her Pittsburgh-New Matamoras, OH, two rounds a week.
  • Ran into a sunken barge at Tomlinson’s Run evening of March 24, 1868 and sank.
  • Final disposition: raised and sold to D. T. Lane, Pittsburgh, and on December 31, 1868, hit a snag four miles above Wheeling and sank.
    Specifications:
    Displacement 184 t.
    Length 165'
    Beam 26'
    Depth of Hold 4' 6"
    Draft unknown
    Speed unknown
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    two 20-pdr Parrott rifles
    four 24-pdr howitzers
    14 long 9-pdrs Propulsion sail
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    General Thomas 125k
    Namesake

    George Henry Thomas, born in Southampton County, Va., 31 July 1816, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1840 and was breveted a First Lieutenant for gallantry in the Seminole War. Later he taught at West Point, and served with distinction under Taylor in the Mexican War. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Thomas, then a Colonel, chose to stay with the Union and took command of a brigade in the Shenandoah Valley. He became Brigadier General of Volunteers 3 August 1861, and was given command of a division in the Army of the Ohio. When the army was reorganized as the Army of the Cumberland, Thomas was given command of the XIV Corps, and at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 earned his famous nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga." Taking overall command of the Army of the Cumberland, he then fought successfully at Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge. Sent to oppose Hood's invasion of Tennessee in late 1864, he achieved perhaps his greatest success at the Battle of Nashville 15 to 16 December and was promoted to Major General 15 December 1864. General Thomas assumed command of the Military Division of the Pacific in June 1869, and died in San Francisco 28 March 1870.
    Brady-Handy photo.    		 Bill Gonyo
    General Sherman
    098615003    		 75k Federal gunboats on the upper Tennessee River at Bridgeport, Tennessee in March 1865. Left to right:
    USS General Sherman (Tinclad #60),
    USS General Thomas (Tinclad #61),
    USS General Grant (Tinclad #62),
    USS General Burnside (Tinclad #63)
    US Naval History and Heritage Command. Photo # NH 109627. ©Review of Reviews, 1911.     		Robert Hurst
    USS General Thomas
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 28 March 2023