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THOMAS

THOMPSON

sent Schofield to check Hood's advance, resulting in the hard-fought battle of Franklin. When Hood appeared before Nashville, Thomas delayed to attack him, taking time to organize and equip the detachments which had come to him from different points. Fault was found with him for his slowness to act; but when he finally attacked and routed Hood's army on Dec. 16, 1864, winning one of the most important victories of the war, his wisdom and sagacity were fully vindicated. Pie received the thanks of President Lincoln and of Congress, was promoted to be major-general in the regular army and received a gold medal from Tennessee. After the war General Thomas was in charge of several military districts. He declined the rank of lieutenant-general which was offered him, saying that he had done nothing since the war to merit promotion. He died at San Francisco, March 28, 1870.

No officer in the Civil War inspired in his men a greater measure of enthusiasm and personal affection than "Old Pap" Thomas, as he was affectionately called by his devoted army. As a commander he demonstrated qualities of the highest order, and will stand as one of the foremost figures in the history of the Civil War.

Thomas, Theodore* American orchestra-leader and conductor of the Chicago orchestra, was born at Esens, Hannover, Germany, Oct. ii, 1835, and came to the United States in 1845. He studied music assiduously and made his debut as a solo violinist, afterward taking part in concerts and on tours in various parts of the country. In 1864 he inaugurated orchestral concerts, and three years later organized the Thomas orchestra. He subsequently became conductor of the Brooklyn and New York Philharmonic Societies, and on his removal in 1891 to Chicago he became conductor of an orchestra there and was musical director of the Columbian Exposition in 1893. He conducted notable musical festivals at Cincinnati in successive years, as also at New York and Chicago, and did much to further the interests of music in America and develop public taste for it. He died on Jan. 4, 1905.

Thom'asville, Qa., a city, the seat of Thomas County, on the Atlantic Coast and Atl. and Birm. railways, about 200 miles southwest of Savannah. It is an attractive winter-resort, with several large hotels, and is in an elevated, picturesque region, producing varied fruits, including figs, melons and grapes; while cotton, and tobacco are local staples. Its industries embrace cotton-compresses, carriage-works, planing-mills, creameries, a basket-factory and lumber-mills. It owns and operates its own waterworks and electric-light plant, and has a city hospital and a public library, several educational institutions, including South

Georgia College, Yoning Female College, and the Vashti Home for Girls. Population 6,727.

Thomp'son, Sir Benjamin, better known as Count Rumford, a brilliant engineer, statesman and soldier, born at Woburn, in Massachusetts, 1753; died at Auteuil, a suburb of Paris, in 1814. He appears to have been well-educated in spite of the fact that he largely was self-educated. Being an English sympathizer, he went to England at the outbreak of the American Revolution. Here he rapidly advanced in the state department. In 1779 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society. At the invitation of a Bavarian prince he went to Munich in 1783, where he remained for ii years as minister of war and minister of police. During this period, while superintending the construction of cannon at the arsenal, he made a series of experiments which led him to think that heat is not an imponderable fluid, but a form of energy. He, therefore, is justly called one of the founders of the mechanical theory of heat. At Munich he was made Count Rumford. He and Sir Joseph Banks took part in the establishment of the Royal Institution in London. Rumford's second wife was the widow of Lavoisier, the distinguished chemist.

Thompson, Launt, an American sculptor, was born in Ireland in 1833, but was brought up in Albany, N. Y. He was nine years in Palmer's studio in Albany, where his bust of Little Nell made him well-known. A statue of General Winfield Scott, at the soldiers' home near Washington, a soldier's monument at Pittsfield, Mass., a colossal statue of Napoleon and a statue of the first president of Yale on the college grounds are some of his larger works. He died at Middletown, N. Y., Sept. 26, 1894.

Thompson, Richard Wigginton, an American politician and ex-secretary of the United States navy, was born in Culpeper County, Va., June 9, 1809, and died at Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 9, 1900. When a young man, he was a clerk in Louisville, Ky., but afterwards moved to Lawrence County, Ind., where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1834 he became member of the state legislature and later of the senate, acting for a time as presidetit of the senate and lieutenant-governor. In 1841 he was elected to Congress, serving for several terms, and for a time was judge of the fifth Indiana circuit. In 1877 he entered Hayes' cabinet as secretary of the navy, and became chairman of the American Committee of the [French] Panama Canal Company. He wrote History of the Tariff, The Papacy *and the Civil Power, Footprints of the Jesuits and Personal Recollections of Sixteen P*esi-dents.