Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1289

Rh service of its members of that era in the battle of Craney Island in 1814. Lieutenant Thompson went into service by order of Governor Letcher, April 20, 1861, and was on duty that night when the navy yard was fired. He served at the Naval hospital grounds and then at Hoffler's creek, until early in 1862, when his battery was ordered to South Mills to repel the Federal advance from Roanoke island. On the Pasquotank river, May 2d, in command of one division of the battery, he had a spirited engagement with two Federal gunboats which were damaged considerably and compelled to drop down the river. In the latter part of the same month the battery reached Richmond and became part of the army of Northern Virginia, attached to the division of General Anderson. They were in action at the beginning of the Seven Days' battles, and at Malvern Hill behaved with distinguished gallantry, maintaining a fire against nearly one hundred Federal guns, for two hours. Lieutenant Thompson was one of the last to leave the position, and was specially commended for bravery in the report of Captain Grimes. He was subsequently in the fight at Warrenton Springs, and at Second Manassas participated in the advance of Mahone's brigade against the left wing of Pope's army. He took part in the fight against McClellan's army at Crampton's Gap, and then moving rapidly by way of Harper's Ferry to the battlefield of Sharpsburg, commanded the battery in the bloody engagement of September 17th, in which Captain Grimes was killed. Lieutenant Thompson then continued in command of the battery until at Winchester, in the fall of 1862, upon the reorganization of the artillery, the Portsmouth company was divided, part being assigned to Huger's battery and part to Moorman's. Captain Thompson was then ordered to Richmond and assigned to duty for a short time at the camp of paroled prisoners, after which he was detailed to take charge of the exchange of prisoners at City point. Just before the landing of Butler's forces at that point, he was detached and ordered to Richmond, and was promoted to the rank of captain and assistant adjutant-general. He was assigned to duty as assistant provost marshal under Maj. Isaac Carrington, in the department of General Winder, and he continued in these duties until the close of the war, making his headquarters at Richmond, and serving at various points in Mississippi and Georgia, and other Southern States. Being in Danville at the time of the surrender at Appomattox, he went into North Carolina and attempted to join the army under Johnston, but was captured by a Federal party on crossing the Catawba river. Giving his parole he was permitted to proceed and he made his way to Augusta before returning to Virginia. Since the war he has been engaged in shipbuilding work, and for some time he has been in charge of the rigger department of the navy yard at Portsmouth. He has served upon the city council, and as health inspector of the city, and is a valued member of Stonewall camp, Confederate Veterans.

Lieutenant Joseph L. Thompson, lieutenant of artillery in the army of Northern Virginia, was born in Fluvanna, Va., in 1840. In 1854 he made his home at Lynchburg and there enlisted on April 21, 1861, as a private in Latham's battery, afterward known as Dearing's, and still later as Blunt and Dickerson's battery. At the reorganization in 1862, he was elected second lieutenant, was