Born in Charleston, Thompson graduated from the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel) in 1856 and was an instructor at the Arsenal Academy from 1858 to 1861. Leading a battalion of Citadel cadets on January 9, 1861, they fired the first shots of the American Civil War when they opened fire on the Union ship Star of the West which was entering Charleston's harbor. For the remainder of the war, he served as an instructor of the cadets at the Citadel Academy.[1]
At the end of hostilities in 1865, Thompson became the principal of Columbia Male Academy until 1880. In 1876, he was nominated by the state Democrats for the position of Superintendent of Education which he won upon the resolution of the controversial gubernatorial election in the favor of Wade Hampton and the Democrats. He was reelected in 1878 and 1880 without opposition. In 1882, Thompson lobbied for the presidency of South Carolina College. However, he emerged as a dark horse candidate for governor after the split of the state Democrats between John Bratton and John Doby Kennedy. After the second ballot at the nominating convention, both Bratton and Kennedy withdrew their names and Thompson became the Democratic candidate for the gubernatorial election of 1882.[2][3]
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