Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/212

 174 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS and justifies the great influence he wielded in its counsels. Before the battle of Chickamauga (June 24, 1863) Gen. Rosecrans asked the written opinion of seventeen of his generals on the advisability of an immediate advance. All others opposed it, but Garfield advised it, and his arguments were so con vincing, though pressed without passion or preju dice, that Rosecrans determined to seek an engage ment. Gen. Garfield wrote out all the orders of that fateful day (September 19), excepting one and that one was the blunder that lost the day. Garfield volunteered to take the news of the defeat on the right to Gen. George H. Thomas, who held the left of the line. It was a bold ride, under con stant fire, but he reached Thomas and gave the information that saved the Army of the Cumber land. For this action he was made a major- general, September 19, 1863, promoted for gal lantry on a field that was lost. With a military future so bright before him, Garfield, always un selfish, yielded his own ambition to Mr. Lincoln s urgent request, and on December 3, 1863, resigned his commission, and hastened to Washington to sit in congress, to which he had been chosen fifteen months before, as the successor to Joshua R. Giddings. In the mean time Thomas had received command of the Army of the Cumberland, had reorganized it, and had asked Garfield to take