1. Jacob Thompson was the United States Secretary of the Interior, who resigned on the outbreak of the American Civil War and became the Inspector General of the Confederate States Army.
18 Facts About Jacob Thompson
1. 2.
Jacob Thompson was admitted to the bar in 1834 and established a law practice in Pontotoc, Mississippi in 1837, and made an unsuccessful bid to become the state attorney general.
3.
Jacob Thompson was appointed to the United States Senate in 1845 but never received the commission, and the seat went to Joseph W Chalmers.
4.
Jacob Thompson was the chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs in the 29th Congress.
5.
Jacob Thompson lost reelection to the 32nd Congress and went back to practicing law in Mississippi.
6.
Jacob Thompson lost the 1855 senate election to Jefferson Davis, but in 1857, newly elected President James Buchanan appointed Jacob Thompson United States Secretary of the Interior from 1857 to 1861.
7.
Jacob Thompson denounced Republicans in the North who spoke of the slavery issue as an "irrepressible conflict" and Southern extremists who favored reopening the Atlantic slave trade.
8.
The next day, Thompson met with Governor John W Ellis in Raleigh.
9.
Jacob Thompson wrote that the South faced "common humiliation and ruin" if it remained in the Union.
10.
Jacob Thompson warned that a Northern "majority trained from infancy to hate our people and their institutions" would overthrow slavery.
11.
Jacob Thompson attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and was present at several other battles in the Western Theater of the war, including Corinth, Vicksburg, and Tupelo.
12.
Jacob Thompson appears to have been the leader of Confederate Secret Service operations in Canada.
13.
Jacob Thompson arranged the purchase of a steamer, with the intention of arming it to harass shipping in the Great Lakes.
14.
On June 13,1864, Jacob Thompson met with former New York Governor Washington Hunt at Niagara Falls.
15.
Jacob Thompson gave Benjamin Wood, the owner of the New York Daily News, money to purchase arms.
16.
Jacob Thompson eventually came home and settled in Memphis, Tennessee, to manage his extensive holdings.
17.
Jacob Thompson was later appointed to the board of the University of the South at Sewanee and was a great benefactor of it.
18.
Jacob Thompson died in Memphis, Tennessee and was interred in Elmwood Cemetery.