THOMPSON, Merriwether Jeff, soldier, born in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 22 January, 1826; died in St. Joseph, Missouri, in July, 1876. He was educated in the common schools, was mayor of the city of St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1859, and was appointed brigadier-general in the Missouri state guards early in 1861, and in the Confederate army in October of that year. He was a most successful scout and partisan officer, and achieved frequent successes by strategy and daring against greatly superior forces. He was held in high regard by General Sterling Price and General Leonidas Polk, under both of whom he served He recruited his command personally, and, as a rule, clothed, armed, and subsisted them without expense to the Confederate government. He was the inventor of a hemp-break, which is now in general use, and an improved pistol-lock. He surveyed, as civil engineer, the greater part of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad and parts of the Kansas and Nebraska road.