John T. Thompson
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John Taliaferro () (anglicized to "Tolliver"http://www.nfatoys.com/tsmg/web/genthomp.htm John T. Thompson; A Brief History) Thompson (December 31, 1860 – June 21, 1940) was a
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
officer best remembered as the inventor of the
Thompson submachine gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun, invented by United Sta ...
.


Early life

Born on December 31, 1860, in
Newport, Kentucky Newport is a home rule-class city at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers in Campbell County, Kentucky. The population was 15,273 at the 2010 census. Historically, it was one of four county seats of Campbell County. Newport is a majo ...
, Thompson grew up on a succession of Army posts and had decided on the military as a career by the age of sixteen. His father was Lt. Col. James Thompson, his mother was Maria
Taliaferro Taliaferro ( ), also spelled Talliaferro, Tagliaferro, Talifero, or Taliferro and sometimes anglicised to Tellifero, Tolliver or Toliver, is a prominent family in eastern Virginia and Maryland. The Taliaferros (originally , which means "ironcut ...
. He attended
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...
and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After a year of class, in 1877, he gained an appointment to the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
(USMA) at
West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...
, graduating in 1882. Among his fellow classmates there were several men who would, like Thompson himself, eventually attain the rank of
general officer A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...
, such as
Adelbert Cronkhite Adelbert Cronkhite (January 6, 1861June 15, 1937) was a career officer in the United States Army. He was notable for his command of the 80th Division (United States), 80th Division during World War I. He also served as interim commander of IX Cor ...
,
Henry Tureman Allen Major General Henry Tureman Allen (April 13, 1859 – August 29, 1930) was a senior United States Army officer known for exploring the Copper River in Alaska in 1885 along with the Tanana and Koyukuk rivers by transversing of wilderness. His tr ...
,
Richard Whitehead Young Richard Whitehead Young (April 19, 1858 – December 27, 1919) was a U.S. Army brigadier general and an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines during the time that the Philippines was a U.S. Territory. Young was born in Salt ...
,
Edward Alexander Millar Edward Alexander Millar (June 25, 1860 – January 31, 1934) was a United States Army officer whose career included service in the Spanish–American War and World War I. He attained the rank of brigadier general, and was notable for his World W ...
,
Charles Treat Charles Gould Treat (December 30, 1859 – October 11, 1941) was a major general in the United States Army. Biography Charles Gould Treat was born in Dexter, Maine, on December 30, 1859, and was a direct descendant of Governor Robert Treat. H ...
, Lansing Hoskins Beach, William H. Sage, Edward Burr, Thomas Buchanan Dugan, Benjamin Alvord Jr., William Herbert Allaire Jr. and
George W. McIver Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General George Willcox McIver (February 22, 1858 – May 9, 1947) was a United States Army officer who served as acting Chief of the National Guard Bureau, Chief of the Militia Bureau and commanded the ...
. His first duty station was at
Newport Barracks Newport Barracks was a military barracks on the Ohio River, across from Cincinnati, Ohio in Newport, Kentucky. It was operational from 1803 until 1894. History In 1803, James Taylor Jr. solicited the help of his cousin, James Madison, who was th ...
(near in his birthplace of Newport, Kentucky), where he was assigned to the 2nd Artillery as a second lieutenant. He then attended engineering and artillery schools and was finally assigned to the Army's Ordnance Department in 1890, where he spent the rest of his military career. During this period he began his specialization in small arms.


Spanish–American War

With the beginning of the
Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...
, Thompson was promoted to
lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
and sent to
Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
as Chief Ordnance Officer for the commander of the
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n campaign, General
William R. Shafter William Rufus Shafter (October 16, 1835 – November 12, 1906) was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War who received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbyto ...
. While the rest of the Army was plagued with logistical problems, Thompson managed ordnance supply operations to Cuba efficiently. More than 18,000 tons of munitions were transferred to the battlefield from his Tampa command without any accidents. Thompson was promoted to colonel, the youngest such in the Army at the time. It was also this war that offered Thompson his first exposure to automatic weapons. At the request of Lt. John H. Parker, Thompson arranged for the informal formation of a
Gatling gun The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon. The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyc ...
unit, with fifteen weapons and a generous supply of ammunition, all shipped to Cuba on Thompson's sole authority. This unit later played a significant role in the
Battle of San Juan Hill The Battle of San Juan Hill, also known as the Battle for the San Juan Heights, was a major battle of the Spanish–American War fought between an American force under the command of William Rufus Shafter and Joseph Wheeler against a Spanish fo ...
. After the war, Thompson was appointed the chief of the Small Arms Division for the Ordnance Department. While in this position he supervised the development of the
M1903 Springfield rifle The M1903 Springfield, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber .30-06, Model 1903, is an American five-round magazine-fed, bolt-action service repeating rifle, used primarily during the first half of the 20th century. The M1903 was first u ...
and chaired the ordnance board that approved the
M1911 The M1911 (Colt 1911 or Colt Government) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal U.S. military designation as of 1940 was ''Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911'' for th ...
pistol. For the latter, he devised unusual tests involving firing the weapon at donated human cadavers and live cattle to assess ammunition effectiveness.


World War I

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
began in Europe in 1914, and Thompson was sympathetic to the
Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
cause. Since the U.S. did not immediately enter the war, and because he recognized a significant need for small arms in Europe (as well as an opportunity to make a substantial profit), Thompson retired from the Army in November of that year and took a job as Chief Engineer of the
Remington Arms Company Remington Arms Company, LLC was an American firearms manufacturer, manufacturer of firearms and ammunition, now broken into two companies, each bearing the Remington name. The firearms manufacturer is ''Remington Arms''. The ammunition business ...
. While with the company he supervised the construction of the
Eddystone Arsenal Eddystone Arsenal was a Baldwin Locomotive Works subsidiary located in Eddystone, Pennsylvania that produced military hardware for the Allies of World War I. As orders from combatants exceeded the production capacity of Baldwin's Philadelphia factor ...
in
Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is ...
, at that time the largest small arms plant in the world. It manufactured Pattern 1914 Enfield rifles for
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
forces, and
Mosin–Nagant The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, bolt-action, internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891 and informally in Russia and former Soviet Union as Mosin's rifle ( ru , винтовка Мосина, ISO 9: ) ...
rifles for
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. The introduction of
trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became a ...
in the First World War changed tactics substantially, and by 1916 Thompson was experimenting again with automatic small arms, this time attempting to design a weapon that troops could use to clear an enemy trench—what he called a "trench broom." Thompson studied several designs and was impressed with a delayed-blowback breech system designed by John Blish, a commander in the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. With Blish as a partner, Thompson obtained the necessary venture capital to form the
Auto-Ordnance Company Auto-Ordnance is a U.S. arms development firm founded by retired Colonel John T. Thompson of the United States Army Ordnance Department in 1916. Auto-Ordnance is best known for the Thompson submachine gun, used as a military weapon by the Allied ...
, and began working on the design of what eventually became the
Thompson submachine gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun, invented by United Sta ...
.http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/background.htm#test The Thompson-LaGarde Cadaver Tests When the United States finally entered the war in 1917, Thompson returned to the Army and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He served as Director of Arsenals throughout the remainder of the war, in which capacity he supervised all small-arms production for the Army. For this service he was awarded the
Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a high award of a nation. Examples include: *Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) (established 1991), awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action * Distinguishe ...
. He retired again after the war, in December 1918, and resumed work perfecting the "Tommy Gun." Thompson originally pursued the Autorifle concept: a rifle utilizing the Blish principle delayed-blowback action to avoid the complexity of recoil-operated and gas-operated actions. Testing found that the military issue .30-06 cartridge was too powerful to work satisfactorily using the Blish system. Thompson eventually decided to use the same .45
caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
ammunition in the Thompson submachine gun that he had vetted for use in the M1911 while in the Army. The weapon was patented in 1920, but the major source for contracts had ended with the armistice. Thompson, therefore, marketed the weapon to civilian law enforcement agencies, who bought it in respectable quantities. However, by 1928, low sales had led the company to the financial crisis, and Thompson was replaced as head of the Auto-Ordnance Company.


Personal

Thompson married Juliet Estelle Hagans. Their son Marcellus Hagans Thompson was a 1906 West Point graduate who retired from the Army in 1919 as a
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
to join his father's automatic weapons business.


Death

Thompson died at the age of 79 on June 21, 1940, and is buried on the grounds of the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
in
West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...
. Shortly after his death, the looming entry of the U.S. into
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
prompted the Army to order the Thompson submachine gun in large quantities, and it was used extensively during that conflict in both original and modified versions.


See also

* ''Tommy Gun'' (book)


References


External links


The Thompson-LaGarde Cadaver Tests
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, John T. 1860 births 1940 deaths American military personnel of the Spanish–American War Firearm designers United States Army generals People from Newport, Kentucky United States Military Academy alumni Indiana University alumni Burials at West Point Cemetery Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) United States Army generals of World War I