M. Jeff Thompson

Brigadier-General M. Jeff Thompson (January 22, 1826 – September 5, 1876), nicknamed "Swamp Fox," was a senior officer of the Missouri State Guard who commanded cavalry in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. The () was named after him.

Early life and career

Meriwether Jefferson Thompson was born in Jefferson County, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), into a family with a strong military tradition on both sides. He received basic training in military tactics in Charleston, South Carolina, but was not appointed to a military academy. Following his education, he found employment as a store clerk in a few Virginia and Pennsylvania towns. He moved to Liberty, Missouri, in 1847 and St. Joseph the following year, beginning as a store clerk before taking up surveying and serving as the city engineer. He later supervised the construction of the western branch of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. He married Emma Catherine Hays in 1848. He served as the seventh Mayor of St. Joseph, Missouri from 1857 to 1860. He presided over the ceremony inaugurating the first ride of the Pony Express on April 3, 1860. He gained national attention in May, 1861, when he cut down a United States flag from the St. Joseph Post Office flag pole and threw it down to an angry crowd of southern sympathizers who shredded it to pieces.

American Civil War

Thompson was a lieutenant-colonel in the Missouri state militia at the outbreak of the Civil War. On July 25, 1861, he was appointed brigadier-general of the 1st Division, Missouri State Guard. He commanded the First Military District of Missouri, which covered the swampy southeastern quarter of the state from St. Louis to the Mississippi River. Thompson's battalion soon became known as the "Swamp Rats" for their exploits. He gained renown as the "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy." Although Thompson frequently petitioned for the Confederate rank of brigadier-general it was never granted. His brigadier rank came from his Missouri State Guard service.

When Union Major-General John C. Fremont issued an emancipation proclamation purporting to free the slaves in Missouri, Thompson declared a counter-proclamation and his force of 3,000 soldiers began raiding Union positions near the border in October. On October 15, 1861, Thompson led a cavalry attack on the Iron Mountain Railroad bridge over the Big River near Blackwell in Jefferson County. After successfully burning the bridge, Thompson retreated to join his infantry in Fredericktown. Soon afterwards, he was defeated at the Battle of Fredericktown and withdrew, leaving southeastern Missouri in Union control.

After briefly commanding rams in the Confederate riverine fleet in 1862, Thompson was reassigned to the Trans-Mississippi region. There, he engaged in a number of battles before returning to Arkansas in 1863 to accompany Gen. John S. Marmaduke on his raid into Missouri. Thompson was captured in August in Arkansas, and spent time in St. Louis' Gratiot Military Prison, as well as at the Fort Delaware and Johnson's Island prisoner-of-war camps ("Poor old Jeff, how my heart went out to him; he a prisoner and his devoted wife in a madhouse", Major Lamar Fontaine wrote later).

Eventually, he was exchanged in 1864 for a Union general. Later that year, Thompson participated in Major-General Sterling Price's Missouri expedition, taking command of "Jo" Shelby's famed "Iron Brigade" when Shelby became division commander. He served competently in this role.

In March 1865, Thompson was appointed commander of the Northern Sub-District of Arkansas. He agreed to surrender his command at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas on May 11, 1865.Howerton, Bryan R. "Re: Jacksonport 1865 surrender list?", Arkansas in the Civil War Message Board, Posted 1 January 2004, Accessed 1 January 2012, http://history-sites.com/mb/cw/arcwmb/archive_index.cgi?noframes;read=6006 A Brief History of the 45th Arkansas Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A., by James Logan Morgan; The Stream of History, Volume 16, Part 4 (Oct. 1978). Page 3. Accessed 6 January 2012, http://jackson.sdlhost.com/digital/3/237/3/2.pdf

Later life

After the American Civil War, Thompson moved to New Orleans, where he returned to civil engineering. He designed a program for improving the Louisiana swamps, a job that eventually destroyed his health. He returned to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1876 where he succumbed to tuberculosis.Filbert, Preston, ''The Half not Told; the Civil War in a Frontier Town'', Stackpole Books, page 166 He is buried in Mount Mora Cemetery in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Honors

In early 1862 at New Orleans, a side-wheel river steamer was converted to a " Cottonclad" ram and named after Thompson. The CSS ''General M. Jeff. Thompson'' was sent up the Mississippi that April to join the River Defense Fleet in Tennessee waters, seeing its first action at Plum Point Bend. On June the 6th, after being set afire by gunfire at Memphis, the ''General M. Jeff. Thompson'' ran aground and soon blew up.

See also

* List of acting Confederate generals
* List of people from West Virginia

References

Sources

* Allardice, Bruce S.'' More Generals in Gray.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995. .
* Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. .
* Filbert, Preston, ''The Half not Told; the Civil War in a Frontier Town''. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001. .
* Howerton, Bryan R
"Re: Jacksonport 1865 surrender list?"
Arkansas in the Civil War Message Board, Posted 1 January 2004. Accessed 1 January 2012,
* Morgan, James Logan
''A Brief History of the 45th Arkansas Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A.''
The Stream of History, Volume 16, Part 4 (Oct. 1978). Accessed 6 January 2012.
* Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. .
* Silkenat, David. ''Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. .
*

External links

Official

M. Jeff Thompson papers, 1848-1959
at the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library

M. Jeff Thompson papers, 1860-1940
at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library

M. Jeff Thompson papers, 1854-1935
at The State Historical Society of Missouri

Patent Model for Rule for Describing Polygonal Forms Invented by M. Jeff Thompson
at the National Museum of American History
Other

M. Jeff Thompson
at the ''Encyclopedia of Arkansas''
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M. Jeff Thompson
at The Political Graveyard
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, M. Jeff
1826 births
1876 deaths
19th-century American businesspeople
19th-century American engineers
19th-century American inventors
19th-century American politicians
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
American Civil War prisoners of war
American patent holders
Burials in Missouri
Cavalry commanders
Confederate militia generals
Tuberculosis deaths in Missouri
Mayors of places in Missouri
Politicians from St. Joseph, Missouri
Military personnel from West Virginia
Missouri State Guard
People from Jefferson County, West Virginia
People of Missouri in the American Civil War