Slow, deliberate, and highly successful in war, General George Thomas nevertheless has never received the accolades he deserves. He shunned self-promotion and even refused military promotion when he felt it was unjustified. But he saved a great Union army at Chickamauga and was highly-respected by his peers. On January 18, 1862, he defeated Confederate Brig. Gens. George B. Crittenden and Felix Zollicoffer at Mill Springs, gaining the first important Union victory in the war. One of the charms of this book is that it was written by Colonel Donn Piatt. A former diplomat, a campaigner for Lincoln with whom he rode to Chicago after the 1860 election, gadfly, and friend of the powerful, Piatt spent the last years of the 19th century as a popular author. Considered a wit, Piatt told Rutherford Hayes (future president) that when shells were whistling around them at Bull Run he had tried to remember his prayers but could only recall "Oh Lord, for these and all thy other mercies, we desire to be thankful."