Thomas William Humes (April 22, 1815 – January 16, 1892) was an American clergyman and educator, active in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the latter half of the 19th century.

[2] Humes's father, a native of Armagh, Ireland,[2] began building the Lamar House Hotel in 1816, but died later that same year.

[2] He then entered the Princeton Theological Seminary intending to become a Presbyterian minister but left after deciding he could not take the Westminster Confession of Faith.

After he refused to acknowledge Confederate president Jefferson Davis's National Day of Prayer in mid-1861, he was finally forced to resign.

In June 1863, Humes prayed with dying Confederate Pleasant McClung, who had been mortally wounded in an attempted raid on the city by General William P.

"[4] In November 1863, Humes performed a funerary sermon for General Sanders, who had been mortally wounded by advancing Confederate forces in West Knoxville.

[5] Humes was named president of East Tennessee University in 1865, and almost immediately managed to secure an $18,500 (~$288,520 in 2023) federal grant to help restore the school's deteriorated campus, which had been occupied by both Union and Confederate armies during the war.

[2] During the late 1860s, he helped Knoxville obtain Peabody funding, which the city used to establish a public school system.

While Humes attempted to provide a dispassionate view of the war, he also hoped to justify the largely pro-Union sentiments of East Tennessee.