does not seem probable that one such man as James B. Steedman
could have exerted such a powerful and baneful influence over
General George H. Thomas as that which now appears to have governed
his action. There must, it would seem, have been some others, as
Steedman asserted. If so, it is time for them, if living, to come
to the front and claim their share in the work of falsifying history,
of poisoning the mind and heart of their great and noble commander,
causing his untimely death, and endangering his great reputation
as a man of honor, truth, and justice.

THEIR FALSITY CONDEMNED BY GENERAL GRANT

The complete refutation by General Grant of the falsehood ended
the hostility which had been shown toward me during all that time,
and gradually led to a general recognition of the truth, which had
always been known and maintained by the most ardent friends of
General Thomas, like the late General J. S. Fullerton and General
H. V. Boynton, and the staff officers and the relatives of the
general himself. Finally, when it was proposed in Congress to
recognize my past services by promotion to the grade of lieutenant-
general on the eve of my retirement from active service, not a
voice in opposition was heard from the old Army of the Cumberland;
and when we met, for the first time in many years, by their cordial
invitation, on the historic fields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga,
to dedicate those grounds as sacred to the memory of the Army of
the Cumberland and its great commander, we met again as brother
soldiers, without any trace of the bitterness which malicious
slander had for so many years sunk deep into our hearts.

For my part, I had for many years before refused to believe that
my old commander, whom I had so faithfully served and so highly
respected, could possibly have done me in his own mind and heart
the grievous wrong which he appeared to have done. Not long after
his death, and many years before the public refutation of the
slander which he was said to have accepted and believed, I put on
record my deliberate opinion that of General Thomas's character as
a man and a soldier his warmest eulogists had not spoken too highly.
And now, no matter what injustice General Thomas may have done me
under the malign influence which surrounded him, I refuse to alter
that deliberate judgment. He is to me in memory the same noble
old soldier and commander that he was when he intrusted t