Rank: Major
Unit: C Co, 2d Cavalry
Enlisted: April 1861
Commissioned: 1863
Date of birth: 25 July 1838
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Campaign: Plains Indian War (post Civil War)
Died: 19 July 1876
Age at death: 37
Cause of death: Suicide (terminally ill from disease of the kidneys)
Location of fatality: Big Horn County, Montana
Place of interment: Thompson Memorial Cemetery in New Hope, Pennsylvania
Click to open a new window to view Soldier’s grave site on the Find A Grave website.
Note: Biography from Find A Grave
Lewis Tappan Thompson was born and raised in Philadelphia. Educated for a business career, at the outbreak of the Civil War he was a cashier and bookkeeper for P. Waples and Co. of Philadelphia. On 4 May 1861, he set out for Washington D.C. where he enlisted with his brother James G. in A Co. 71st Reg. New York Volunteers. Because of delicate health, he was selected to remain in Washington to guard the Navy Yard. He protested so strongly that his superiors allowed him to go to the front with the regiment, with which he served until it was mustered out.
Appointed aide on the staff of Gen. John C. Fremont with the rank of Lt, he went on duty in Mo. When Fremont was deprived of his command, “Tompy” joined Gen. Lane’s command as a volunteer and served for a time as Adjutant General of Lane’s Brigade.
Subsequently appointed Captain of a Company in the Third Kansas Cavalry, he passed through hard service of border warfare in the winter of 1861-62. For signal bravery and generalship on an expedition into Missouri for forage, Gen. Lane recommended a promotion and Tompy received an appointment of Lt. in the Second Cavalry.
He participated in the campaign leading up to and including the battle of Pea Ridge. In June 1862 he joined C Co. Second US Cavalry. He received a brevet of Captain for distinguished service at Middleboro.
His capture at Gettysburg occurred 2 July 1862 while serving as Inspector General of Merrit’s Brigade, tricked by a detachment of Confederates in U.S. uniforms.
He remained in the infamous Libby Prison until June 1864 when he was transferred to Macon, GA. and in July to Charleston, S.C. As mentioned earlier, his brother-in-law, Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton, Military Governor of South Carolina arranged a special parole.
{Friendships continued even though there was a division of North and South during the Civil War. One such, was the relationship of Gen. Hardee and Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton.}
Hardee had been the commandant of cadets at West Point before the war and Gen. Saxton’s commander. Three years later, in 1864, after driving Gen. Hardee (now in the Confederacy) out of his headquarters in Charleston, Brig. Gen. Saxton wrote to him and said, “my brother-in-law, Captain Lewis Thompson, 2nd Cavalry, was slowly dying in the Charleston prison, and that I had one of his staff officers, of the same rank, in my camp. He responded promptly and cordially, and the two officers were exchanged, and the life of ONE brave officer was saved.” – [The Reminiscences of a Quartermaster by Brig Rufus Saxton (pg4)]
Lewis received the Brevet rank of Major 25 Sep 1865. (Brevet is an honorary rank they are called, but not a paid rank)
In the fall of 1875, Major Thompson spent six month with his brother James G. in Columbia, South Carolina, but rejoined his company at Fort Ellis, Montana in 1876. He asked to be released from the military but they refused. His surgeon reported him unable to endure the campaign against the Sioux, and he was offered a desk job. Upset, he begged his superiors to allow him to go with his company. They agreed.
He was with Gen. Gibbon when they reached the Custer battlefield and witnessed the aftermath of the massacre that had occured. He helped bury Custer and his troops. Three weeks later Tompy was stricken ill and carried on a litter behind a mule as the troops went in pursuit of the Sioux.
One morning at a camp, one and a half miles from the mouth of the Bighorn River, he committed suicide.
The Freeman Journal – “Maj. Thompson committed suicide at 6AM by shooting himself through the heart with a cal. .44 Colt’s revolver. He had been suffering for some days with disease of the kidneys, attended with great pain and was, I suppose, unable to bear it longer. Poor Tompy! He was a gentle, genial man, a thorough gentleman. He was buried at 6:30 pm. All the officers and men attended. General Gibbon made a few appropriate remarks. 1st LT. Edward McGuire read the service.” Rocks were piled on his grave to keep the varmits away.
A year later, “Tompy’s” body was removed by his brother, James G. and brother-in-law Rufus Saxton and transported by train to the Thompson Memorial Church Cemetery in Bucks County, Pa. He was laid to rest near his parents and other members of his family. He never married.