George Henry Thomas Was Appointed a Major General in the Regular Army
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George Henry Thomas was appointed a major general in the During the Civil War, Rufus Ingalls was appointed a brevet major regular army and received a formal “Thanks of Congress” for his general in both the regular and volunteer Union forces. success in driving Confederate forces from Tennessee in 1864. (Library of Congress) (Library of Congress) P. G. T. (Pierre Gustave Toutant) Beauregard was one of only William Clarke Quantrill, in Confederate uniform, was not only seven “full” generals in the Confederate Army. a notorious Civil War guerrilla but a former civilian teamster, (National Archives) gambler, and camp cook with the Utah Expedition. (Kansas Historical Society.) APPENDIX A William P. MacKinnon ROOTED IN UTAH Civil War Strategy and Tactics, Generals and Guerrillas n addition to chapter 1, another way to illus- officers—Thomas and Ingalls—displayed Itrate the connection between the Utah and some nervousness over the “irregular” nature Civil Wars (and the impact of the former on of their communications; the more flamboy- the latter) is to probe the extent to which three ant Beauregard was unabashedly assertive. very prominent West Point–trained Civil War It may be helpful to provide a brief biogra- generals had earlier tried to influence pros- phy for each of these three officers, though it ecution of the Utah campaign. They did so will not do justice to their distinguished and by gratuitously sending long memos to their varied service careers. General George Henry military superiors or, in one case, to influen- Thomas (July 31, 1816–March 28, 1870) was tial politicians. These documents contained one of the Union army’s principal command- information about alternate approaches to the ers in the Western Theater and won Union Great Basin accompanied by strategic recom- victories across Kentucky and Tennessee. mendations for military action. All of these Because of his dogged, determined personality men—Major Generals George H. Thomas and and command style his nicknames included Rufus Ingalls of the Union Army and General “Slow Trot” as well as “Rock of Chickamauga.” Pierre G. T. Beauregard of the Confederate ser- He rose to major general, notwithstanding the vice—were valorous veterans of the Mexican doubts, if not prejudice, harbored by some War serving as mid-level U.S. Army officers northern politicians about his Virginia birth. during 1857–58, but in widely differing roles Union General Rufus Ingalls (August 23, and locations. Each attempted to influence 1818–January 15, 1893) began the Civil War the conduct of the Utah War for a variety of as a captain and ended the war as a brevet professional and personal reasons—a selfless major general; he is perhaps best remembered desire to contribute, anti-Mormon bias, and for his outstanding logistical skills. During unmistakable self-promotion. Two of the three the war he was quartermaster for the Army 386 APPENDIX A of Potomac under first McClellan and later the Confederacy’s most notorious guerrilla Grant; after the war he became the army’s as he scourged with impunity the Missouri- quartermaster general. Confederate General Kansas border and ranged from Kentucky to Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (May 28, Texas. To him falls responsibility for leading 1818–February 20, 1893) was known as “The the Civil War’s worst atrocity, the August 21, Little Napoleon.” He commanded the artillery 1863, raid on Lawrence, Kansas, a slaughter units that opened fire on Fort Sumter in April of 150 largely unarmed civilians even more 1861 and served in important command destructive than the Mountain Meadows positions in both the western and eastern Massacre in Utah six years earlier. theaters during the Civil War. He became one of only seven full generals in the Confederate GEORGE H. THOMAS Army, and while considered one of the keen- At the outbreak of the Utah War in the est minds in that service, he limited his effec- spring of 1857, Thomas was a thrice-brevet- tiveness with prickly and abrasive behavior ted, forty-one-year-old major serving at Fort that produced poor relations with President Mason, Texas, with the Second U.S. Cavalry.1 Jefferson Davis as well as a number of peer His was a regiment established two years and subordinate generals. earlier and led by an elite group of officers None of their reports have been published hand-picked by then Secretary of War Jeffer- and, because of space limitations, are only son Davis to include Colonel Albert Sidney excerpted here. Accordingly, this appendix Johnston as its commander and Lieutenant seeks to lay down “markers” by providing Colonel Robert E. Lee as its executive officer. scholars with a description of this material These were staffing appointments that served and where to find it. Armed with these memos the Second Cavalry well when Johnston, but and hindsight, it is possible to consider the not his regiment, was ordered north to lead linkages between the early strategic think- the Utah Expedition. ing of these three officers about a complex, On July 7, 1857, Thomas wrote to Colo- sprawling, multibrigade military campaign nel Samuel Cooper, the army’s adjutant gen- in Utah and about the campaign they would eral in Washington, to share his knowledge soon encounter on a more daunting scale in of the Colorado River acquired during a Tennessee and Virginia. previous posting to Fort Yuma, California. Turning from generals to lowlifes, this Because of Colonel Cooper’s proximity to appendix then explores the notion that some Secretary of War John B. Floyd, Davis’s suc- of the guerrillas nominally under Confeder- cessor, Major Thomas probably hoped that ate and Union command, if not control, also his unsolicited memo would reach Floyd honed the most atrocious of their tactical and would prove useful either to the pros- skills during the Utah War. It does so by ecution of the Utah War or to the ascent of focusing on a single, admittedly spectacular the Colorado River about to be undertaken case, that of William Clarke Quantrill (July by army First Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives, 31, 1837–June 6, 1865), a civilian Utah husband of the secretary’s niece. Thomas’s Expedition teamster, gambler, and camp cook tactic worked, and on September 2, during 1857–58. Later, Quantrill was easily 1857, after a delay attributable to Floyd’s ROOTED IN UTAH 387 prolonged struggle with medical problems, not only the most direct but the most the secretary sent this memo to Ives en route convenient and safest route to convey to the Gulf of California. At this juncture, supplies to the troops [to be] stationed the Ives Expedition and the Utah Expedition in Utah Territory. Such being my belief were separate undertakings. They became I recommended its exploration to the linked when word reached Washington in Commanding Officer of the Dept of the mid-November of Lot Smith’s devastat- Pacific in 1854. The Hamok-an Indi- ing raid on the Utah Expedition’s supply ans . say there is no stream of any trains, an upset and threat that forced the size emptying into the Colorado from Buchanan administration to consider rein- the west, but one which comes in from forcing Johnston from the Pacific Coast. In the east, about the size of the Gila, far late November, Floyd rushed orders west to above. This I understood, from their Ives reorienting his mission from an expedi- description of it, to be the Little Colo- tion of exploration and scientific discovery rado. It is inhabited on its south bank to one tasked with determining whether the by a tribe which they call Huallo-pay river would facilitate the insertion of large or pine woods people. The Huallo- bodies of troops and supplies into southern pays are now at war with their neigh- Utah Territory. It is difficult to believe that bours on the north side of this small Major Thomas’s earlier recommendations stream. These they call Havisoh-pays about the navigability of the Colorado River or Blue people, because their favor- and the attitudes of adjacent tribes did not ite color is blue. The Havisoh-pays enter the discussions in Washington during are represented as being wealthy in the third week of November 1857 on how horses, sheep & goats and have fre- best to redirect Ives’s expedition.2 quent intercourse with the whites.4 Judging from this circumstance and MAJ. GEORGE H. THOMAS, from the similarity of sound I think LETTER TO COL. SAMUEL COOPER, the Navahoes and Havisoh-pays are JulY 7, 18573 the same people. When asked if they Whilst stationed at Fort Yuma I made knew of the Pay-Utahs they informed repeated inquiries of the Indians living me that they were the next tribe above on the Colorado river above the post them on the West bank of the river. as to the navigability of that stream, If this [Indian] story be true they are and am of the opinion from what they well acquainted with the Colorado have told me, and from what I could as far north as the Pay-Utah country, learn from other sources, that small and from their account of the river I steamers can ascend it very nearly to believe it will be found to be navigable the point where the whites suppose to within one or two hundred miles of the Rio Vergen [sic] empties into it. Salt Lake City.5 Believing this informa- If upon examination the Colorado tion of some importance at this time I proves to be navigable [up to the con- have taken the liberty of communicat- fluence with the Rio Virgin], it will be ing it in this irregular manner.