Old Blucher Thompson Charges the Round Forest at Stones River

After Major John Clarke Thompson of the 44th Mississippi lost his life on the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga, he was remembered in many ways. His immediate commander Colonel J.H. Sharp called Thompson “fearless among the fearless” while General Patton Anderson recalled Thompson as a “man of education and position at home, of an age far beyond that prescribed by the laws of the land for involuntary service.”

Thompson, born in 1805 in Georgia, had by 1860 moved near Hernando in DeSoto County, Mississippi where he had built up a substantial plantation and developed a reputation as an astute attorney. In the secession crisis that followed Abraham Lincoln’s election in November of that year, Thompson “did not hesitate to avow himself a secessionist” and following the outbreak of war, volunteered as a private soldier in Co. D of Blythe’s Mississippi regiment along with his eldest son Fleming. “When asked why he enlisted at his age (56), he replied that he had talked and voted for secession and felt he ought to fight for the cause,” one of his comrades later remembered.

Due to his advanced age, the men took to calling John “Judge” Thompson. Later his bravery would earn him the more enduring nickname of “Blucher” Thompson.  


Major John Clarke Thompson lived the slogan of "Victory or Death," losing his life while trying to rally his regiment on Snodgrass Hill on the second day of Chickamauga. Thompson started the war as a private in the ranks of Co. D of Blythe's Mississippi regiment but was elected major to fill a leadership void caused by the heavy losses at Shiloh. Nearly 60 years old, Thompson led his regiment through several hard fights earning the nickname of "Blucher" Thompson. 

Blythe’s Mississippians took part in the fighting at Belmont and Shiloh, losing heavily in the latter battle where Thompson was also severely wounded. In the reorganization of the regiment which followed Shiloh, Thompson was unanimously elected captain of Co. D and then selected (again by election) to become the major of the regiment. He proved a popular officer even though he was more than twice the age of most of his companions. “As an officer he ruled without harshness and obeyed without murmuring and whether on the march, in the camp, or upon the field of battle, he ever had a hand to give and a heart to feel for the distressed,” his obituary stated.

Thompson’s bravery on the field was legendary, and his men took to calling him “Blucher” Thompson. “He was the very impersonation of courage and daring,” his obituary continued. One thing that Thompson was not was a schooled soldier; one of his men later wrote that Thompson was “as brave a man as ever lived but whose brain had been shriveled by age and bust-head; he was nearly 70 years of age and had drank all his life.” While the soldier was off a bit on Thompson’s age, it was noted on Thompson’s August 1863 efficiency report that the inspector felt that Thompson was “incompetent and inefficient but gallant and deserving.”

A good case in point that illustrates this occurred on December 31, 1862, when Thompson led his regiment into action at Stones River. One of his veterans, writing an article for the Alabama Soldier newspaper in 1892, provided the following description of how this attack went down.


Blythe's Mississippians approached to within about 100 yards of the Round Forest before Federal artillery fire halted their advance. A small turn off with a marker denoting this point as the furthest extent of Chalmers' advance in located along the old Nashville Pike. The Blythe's would have advanced along the railroad to the right of the picture but halted at about this point. 

It’s worth noting that a few days before, the Blythe regiment had been quarantined due to a smallpox outbreak. While still in quarantine, the regiment had been ordered on December 26th to turn in its weapons which were distributed to the other regiments of the brigade. But on the 28th, the decision was made to put Blythe’s men back on active duty and they “were furnished with refuse guns that had been turned over to the brigade ordnance officer. Some of the guns being bent, some without locks, some when cocked could not be pulled down, some whose hammers had to be carried in the men’s pockets until time to commence firing, while others were so fouled as to render them impossible to ram home the cartridge,” Major Thompson later reported. Many of the guns lacked ramrods and only one had a bayonet. “Even of these poor arms there was not a sufficiency and after every exertion on my part to procure arms, only one half of the regiment moved out with no resemblance to a gun than such sticks as they could gather.”

Thus armed, Blythe’s regiment (later renamed the 44th Mississippi) as part of General James Chalmers’ brigade went into the fight along the Nashville Pike late in the morning of the 31st and by early afternoon the Mississippians were pinned down by Federal artillery fire emanating from the Round Forest. Our soldier correspondent takes up the story: 

“At a certain point in the battle, the grape from one of the Federal batteries began to whistling with disgusting frequency and in disturbing proximity to the boys and the gallant major,” the soldier wrote. “He turned to his adjutant Charlie Odom and inquired where they came from. Being told that they came from a Yankee battery just upon a wooded knoll not far away, he inquired in some excitement, “Why in the hell don’t they capture the damned thing?” The reply being that “the little thing can’t be did” as several brigades had already been torn to pieces in the effort and all had failed. The old hero’s face flushed and raising himself in his stirrups, he yelled, “The Blythe can take it. Attention! Form line, and forward charge!”

“The men obeyed as they had always done until they and the major found themselves in an old cotton field 100 yards from the battery exposed to such a hail of grape and canister as they had never seen or felt before,” our correspondent continued. “Old Blucher saw the folly of any further movement in that direction, called a halt, and ordered the men to lay down.”


This map, showing the positions of both armies at dawn on December 31, 1862, shows the close conjunction of Stones River, the railroad, the Nashville Pike, and the Cowan House. By 10 o'clock that morning, Hazen's and Wagner's brigades had shifted to their left, covering the Round Forest and the ford shown on the map. The Blythe's advanced on the extreme right of Chalmers' brigade, marching in between the Pike and the railroad to a point about even with the Cowan House. Today, the national park owns a portion of this land; Prentice Alsup Heating & Air Conditioning and the 84 Lumber Yard own the rest of the ground. Visitors can walk a portion of  the approach march of Blythe's regiment by walking along either the Stones River Greenway which parallels the river from the General Bragg Trailhead to the Broad Street Trailhead. The Greenway sidewalk which goes along College St. (old Tennessee 41 or the Nashville Pike) from the General Bragg Trailhead would be an alternative. 

“Having got there, the question was how to get away,” the soldier explained. “The men were being killed by the score. The ridges afforded scarcely any protection and to remain there long meant the utter destruction of the command. In vain, the old hero searched his memory for the command by which a well-drilled regiment could be taken out of such a desperate pickle.”

“At last, in despair, he turned to the adjutant and exclaimed, “Charlie, damn the military evolutions, I could never think of the word of command at the right time. Then, turning to the regiment as they lay sprawled on the ground, he shouted, “About face men and run like hell or you’ll all be killed in a minute!” This order was obeyed like all the others, without comment or criticism, and to his credit let it be said as in every other retreat the Blythe regiment made while he lived, the brave old Major Thompson brought up the rear.”

Major Thompson survived Stones River but met his end nine months later on Snodgrass Hill. “At Chickamauga, his regiment as well as his brigade was ordered to retreat. Not hearing this order (being in the advance of the line), Thompson supposed they were showing the white feather and immediately began rallying them with exclamations of surprise and mortification when a bullet passed through his head, killing him instantly,” his obituary noted.

“That night, a squad of his devoted comrades, of which I was one, carried the brave old body to the rear,” W.H. Lee of the 44th Mississippi wrote in 1905. “We made a rude coffin of boards torn from Lee & Gordon’s Mill and reverently committed his body to rest with a few words from our chaplain. Peace to his ashes; he has surely gone to Valhalla." And so ended the military career of "Old Blucher" Thompson. 

Sources:

“Battle of Murfreesborough,” Western Veteran (Kansas), October 12, 1892, pg. 7

“Major John C. Thompson of Mississippi,” by W.H. Lee, 44th Mississippi, Confederate Veteran, November 1908, pg. 585

Major John C. Thompson, Combined Military Service Record, Fold3.com

Ancestry.com entry for John Clarke Thompson (1805-1863)

Obituary for Major John C. Thompson, Memphis Daily Appeal (Tennessee), December 7, 1863, pg. 2

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