Missouri swamp fox

By the time the railroad was finished in , Thompson had become its president, a colonel in the militia, the head of another railroad and of the local gas works, and the mayor of St.

Surviving photographs suggest his charismatic, energetic, and presumably capable personality, which some chroniclers of his military career have compared to George Custer's. While he was ascending to all of these leadership positions, Thompson somehow found time to develop a number of inventions.

His interest in West Point and VMI, which emphasized training in military engineering, suggests an aptitude for mathematics and its practical applications. He further educated himself in these subjects during his railroad work.

This object—apparently the only invention Thompson ever patented—indicates that he was dissatisfied with existing tools for making the detailed scale drawings that were necessary in all facets of operating a railroad, including surveying routes and maintaining engines and other machines.

The ability to draw regular polygons with various numbers of sides at various ratios was also valuable in a number of engineering and military applications. Sectors were also employed for this activity.

Thompson envisioned selling the instrument to other machinists and engineers, but there is no evidence that it was ever successfully manufactured. The patent model may be the only example of his invention that still exists. However, Thompson was too occupied with major events in American history to bemoan the failure of this device. Joseph was then very significant as a jumping-off point for wagon trains and gold-seekers. On April 3, , Mayor Thompson was called upon to open the Pony Express and evoked the spirit of manifest destiny in his address:.

More than that, I say that the wilderness which lies between us and that El Dorado will soon blossom as the rose. The state of Missouri also spanned the fault lines that cracked open when the Civil War began the next year.

Thompson's sympathies lay with the Confederacy, and after the attack on Fort Sumter, he tore the Union flag down from the city's post office, an act that may have influenced President Lincoln to send the transcontinental railroad through Omaha, Nebraska, instead of through St.

Thompson eventually joined the Missouri State Guard where the successful skirmishes he led resulted in the nickname "Swamp Fox of Missouri. Thompson's career took one more uniquely American turn, as he was among the earlier Southerners who declared loyalty to the Union after the war and thus received an appointment as Surveyor General and Chief State Engineer of Louisiana.

It is in Pocahontas in Randolph County Arkansas. Click or scan to see this page online. By Pubic domain John L. Gihon , Click on the ad for more information. Thompson was able to withdraw, but the engagement was a Union victory, and consolidated Federal control of southeastern Missouri. Thompson's troops caught the attention of Union Brig. Francois River.

Grant was to dispatch troops on 03 November to capture Thompson's force near the Arkansas border. Plummer were to leave Cape Girardeau and under Col. Richard Oglesby from Bird's Point. These troops were diverted to meet a greater Confederate threat at Belmont, Missouri as Grant considered Thompson's troops to be ineffective as a fighting force after Frederickstown. It was fairly common to have Army personnel on board ships as gun crews. He commanded enough respect on the field and on the river that a converted sidewheel steamer was outfitted as a "cottonclad ram" and renamed the CSS General Jeff Thompson.

Pillow on 10 May Bragg, was going to try to clear them out. The CSS Bragg hit the ironclad with a gun volley, but her tiller rope was fouled and she was effectively out of action. The Confederates had to withdraw as their ships needed deeper water to reach the other Union ships.

Their presence did hold off Federal forces long enough to allow Ft. Pillow to be evacuated by 01 June, then the Confederate flotilla headed down to Memphis for refueling and resupply. A lack of fuel meant that the Confederate force could not withdraw, but chose to fight it out on 06 June Early in the fight, the Jeff Thompson was hit heavily by Union guns, caught fire and began to sink.

After the crew abandoned ship, she burned to waterline and her magazine caught fire and exploded, sending debris high into the sky. Only one of the Confederate ships would escape.

The CSS Gen. Van Dorn was able to head south and find refuge in the Yazoo River. The rest were destroyed or captured. For this, he was revered by the pro-secession citizens of Missouri, and reviled by those standing with the Union. Though receiving a military education as a young man, he was denied admission into both West Point and the Virginia Military Institute.

Moving to St. Joseph, Missouri, Thompson engaged in survey work for a railroad and eventually rose to become city engineer. In he was elected mayor. Joseph to the cheers of a large pro-secession crowd. Thompson made such trouble for federal forces in the area that operations to subdue his activities were stymied for months. By the late summer of , he won the grudging admiration of his opponents, including Colonel Ulysses S. Thompson counterattacked While Thompson was literally making a name for himself in southeastern Missouri, the federal department commander, Major General John C.

Ringing proclamations, adept guerrilla raids, and a flashy nickname were not enough against the ever increasing number of federal forces in the southeast Missouri swamps. When Thompson burned an important railroad bridge at Iron Mountain on October 17, , Union forces pursued him to Fredricktown in southeastern Missouri, where, on October 21, he suffered his first defeat.