George Thomas was one of the Civil War's most prominent Southern Unionists, known for his heroic leadership at Mill Springs, Chickamauga, and Nashville. A slave owner before the war, he commanded African American soldiers at the Battle of Nashville and the experience transformed him into a stalwart defender of Civil Rights. During Reconstruction, he led the fight against the Ku Klux Klan as the commander of U.S. army troops in Kentucky and Tennessee.