Established by Congress in 1887, Fort Thomas Army Post was constructed at a cost of $3,500,000 on about 111 acres whose jurisdiction was ceded to the U. S. by the Kentucky Legislature in 1888, and the post was designated Fort Thomas in 1890. Its first commander was Col. Melville Cochran, and its first garrison consisted of two 6th Infantry companies; later, parts of the 2, 3, 4, 9, and 10th Infantry Regiments were stationed there. The site is now a V. A. hospital. The post was named for Gen. George Henry Thomas, the Rock of Chickamauga, who was born in Virginia in 1816, graduated from West Point, served in Indian campaigns and the Mexican War, and in the Civil War successfully led Federal forces in many principal engagements from Mill Springs, Kentucky, in January 1862 to Nashville, Tennessee, in December 1864. He was rated one of the four top Union generals and was Pacific Div. Commander at his death in 1870.