Samuel Russell Thomas (April 27, 1840 – January 11, 1903)[1] was an American capitalist and Union Army general during the U.S. Civil War.
[1] After limited schooling in Marietta, he began his career as a junior clerk with the Keystone Iron Company in Jackson, Ohio, where he learned the engineering of mining.
[1] An ardent Republican upon the forming of the party,[3] Thomas enlisted during the U.S. Civil War as a Second Lieutenant in the 27th Ohio Infantry of the Union Army in July 1861.
Thomas mostly participated in the south and west under Grant and Sherman during the War, including at the Battles of Pittsburg Landing, Chattanooga and Vicksburg.
[1] After the war, he moved to Zanesville, Ohio, and entered the industrial sector, first as a pig iron and railroad supplies manufacturer.