Lorenzo Thomas (October 26, 1804 – March 2, 1875) was a career United States Army officer who was Adjutant General of the Army at the beginning of the American Civil War. After the war, he was appointed temporary Secretary of War by U.S. President Andrew Johnson, precipitating Johnson’s impeachment.
Just before the start of the Civil War, Thomas was promoted to colonel and adjutant general of the U.S. Army on March 7, 1861. On August 10, 1861, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Thomas a brigadier general in the regular army, to rank from August 3, 1861, the date Lincoln sent the nomination to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.[1] The Senate confirmed the appointment on August 5, 1861. Camp Thomas, a Regular Army training base in Columbus, Ohio, was named in his honor in July 1861. He held the position of adjutant general until he retired in 1869, except for a special assignment to recruit African-American troops in the Military Division of the Mississippi from 1863 to 1865.
Thomas did not get along well with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and this assignment outside of Washington, D.C., was considered a form of banishment. Many historians have claimed Thomas was banished in disgrace after conspiring to defame Union General William T. Sherman as insane. Thomas was replaced by Maj. Gen. Edward D. Townsend as Adjutant General, who would serve until 1880. (Read more at Wikipedia)
Image information at Library of Congress:
Title: Gen. Lorenzo Thomas
Date Created/Published: [between 1860 and 1870]
Medium: 1 negative: glass, wet collodion.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-cwpb-07207 (digital file from original neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: LC-B813- 6484 A [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes:
….Credit line: Civil war photographs, 1861-1865, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
….General information about Civil war photographs is available at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.cwp
….Forms part of: Civil war photographs, 1861-1865 (Library of Congress).
….Title from Civil War caption books.
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Mike’s notes:
Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject