Kate Brownlee Sherwood, a poet and journalist of Toledo, Ohio, who
has written a number of successful war lyrics and memorial poems,
was born in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1841.
The battle of Chickamauga (Tennessee) was fought on the 19th and 20th of
September, 1863. General George Henry Thomas, “the rock of Chickamauga,”
who saved the day for the Federal forces, and made the Confederate
victory a barren one, was a Virginian by birth (1816). He served in
Florida and Mexico. It was he who was in command at Mission Ridge, and
who overthrew the last Confederate army in the southwest. He was also in
the Atlanta campaign. It has been said of him that he was the beau-ideal
of a soldier and a gentleman. Among Federal generals he ranks after
Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. He was in command of the military division
of the Pacific when he died at San Francisco, March 28, 1870. The
sobriquet “Pap” was spontaneously given Thomas by the soldiers of his
command on account of the fatherly interest he took in them.
=l. 5.= =Hooker= (Joseph, 1814-1879), a distinguished Union general, who was
nicknamed “Fighting Joe” by the soldiers for his courage under fire. He
participated in some of the most important battles of the Rebellion, and
was at one time in command of the Army of the Potomac.
=l. 33.= =Bragg= (Braxton, 1817-1876), a well-known rebel general who was in
command of the Confederate forces at Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and
Chattanooga.
=l. 42.= =Steedman= (James Barrett, 1818-1883), a Pennsylvanian who was
public printer at Washington during Buchanan’s administration. He was in
command of the first division of the reserve corps of the Army of the
Cumberland at Chickamauga, and reënforced Thomas at the most critical
moment in the battle.