E. Thomas
(1843 - 1873)
Home State: District Of Columbia
Command Billet: Battery Commander
Branch of Service: Artillery
Unit: 4th United States Artillery, Batteries A and C
see his Battle Report
Before Antietam
Son of US Army Colonel (soon Brigadier General) Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General of the Army, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 4th Artillery on 9 April 1861 and promoted to First Lieutenant on 14 May, then not yet 18 years old.
On the Campaign
He commanded the combined Batteries A and C, 4th United States Artillery in Maryland, Captain G. W. Hazzard having been mortally wounded in action at White Oak Swamp on 30 June 1862.
The rest of the War
Batteries A and C were again independent after October 1862 and Thomas commanded C. He was honored by brevet to Captain 13 December 1862 for gallantry at Fredericksburg and to Major on 3 July 1863 for Gettysburg. He was promoted to Captain on 31 August 1864.
After the War
He continued in US Army service and was killed in combat with the Modoc Indians at the Lava Beds, CA in 1873 at age 29. Originally buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC, he was removed to Arlington in 1899.
More on the Web
He was photographed with 5 other artillery officers immediately after Antietam (now in the Library of Congress), source of the picture above. See more about that photo and Lt Thomas in a blog post over on behind AotW.
Birth
08/29/1843; Georgetown, DC
Death
04/26/1873; Canby Cross, CA; burial in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 953 [AotW citation 20724]