General George Thomas was in big trouble.
Through the roar of cannon smoke and musket fire, this commanding officer saw a desperate situation. Throughout this day, everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong. The enemy had pressed his men on all sides, units on his flanks had withdrawn due to a break in the army’s lines and now enemy soldiers were pressing him with rifle fire and artillery.
It seemed that things couldn’t get much worse, Thomas had even been tasked with holding off the enemy long enough for the rest of the retreating army to withdraw safely. And his men were paying a terrible price. Now, Thomas looked towards his only route of escape and saw a cloud of dust rising from the tree tops. His eyes strained to see what mass of men could be causing this display, was it reinforcements? Or had the enemy surrounded him?
