The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1907-12-06
TUpELo, MISSISSIPPI FRIDAY. DECEMBER g. 1907.
Jerre Thompson.
BY COL. w. L. CLAYTON.

The subject of this article, Jer-
.emiah Alexander Thompson, was
born in Marion county, Alabama,
on Oct. 81, 1884. being the only
child of Alfred and Alley Eslan
Thompson. But when / first
knew them, father and son, they
had caught the inspiration,
Westward the course of EN-
pire takes its Wav," and had
moved from the old Ala bama
home into old Itawanbs county,
Mississippi, and were settled in
the eastern part of that county
on Bull Mountain. 1t was many
years ago. $ zee saw Alfred and
and Jerre Thompson. / have
heard Jerre say when he first
heard me at the bar I. old Full
ton, and my bosJ recollection
serves me that it was in the de
Tense of John Best for the killing
of Aycock, and if so, it was at
March term of the Circuit Court
at Fulton in 1859, the term at
which / was admitted to the bar.
He was somewhat older than L,
but | knew him through all the
years of his young manhood from
the day we met there in Fulton,
though he was a married man
and | was not, he having carried
his bride, Miss Mary Jane Wal
den, to the hymeneal altar on
July 81, 1853, when he was not
quite nineteen. When Fulton
was in its pristine glory, Jerre
Thompson was one of it's con-
stant court attendants, always
having an inclination to see the
judge and hear causes tried.
Jerre attended the "old field"
schools, and learned to write a
good hand and became proficient
in figures, so much so that the
back-tax gatherers We're never
able to figure him out of any,
thing; when the figuring had
been gone over time and again,
it was always found that Jerre
was right, and the revenue cut
ter" had to go away without any
money for his trouble in looking
over the tax books during his in
cumbency of the officetof sheriff
If my memory serves me right,
he taught school awhile before
the war. When the war cry rang
through the land in 1861, Jerre
Thompson shouldered his gun
and marched off 70 the defense
of what we believed to be our
right PRINCIPLES. 1sall then be
lieved that unless we fought for
those principles, wreck and ruin
would befall our dear Southland,
and Jerre Thompson went as a
private soldier to fight fer his
native land, having joined Com
pany /. of End Miss. Cavalry, and
remained through the war at his
post as a faithful sentinel on the
walls. He was in the battles of
Iuka, Corinth. Holly Springs and
the seige of Vicksburg, and pas
sed through the trying scenes of
the Georgia campaign, and was
finally paroled at Columbus, Miss.
He was a man of strong convic-
tions, rather blunt in his expires
sions, having courage to do that
which was right. He was intense
ly Southern in his feelings, and
no man thought more of the old
Confederate soldier than he.
Whenever there was a gathering
of the old Confederate soldiers,
Jerre Thompson was one of them
unless hindered by. some cause
over which he had no control, and
was also a great friend to the
cause of the private soldier. l
remember very we'll when we
held memorial services after the
death Of Gen. Gordon, after all
the others had spoken, l took
the stand and presented the
thought that it was the private
soldier that enables the generals
to win the renown they had, and
| know after we came out Of the
church, Jerre congratulated me
very highly, and said that /
struck the keynote of all success
by the officers. For the last sew
eral years he has been delighted
to attend all the re unions Of the
old Confederate soldiers, and his
heart was full and his mind de-
lighted while mingling in the
company of the boys in gray"
And after having attended the
last reunion at Richmond, Va,
he went down to Fortress Mon
roe, and when he stood before
the prison in which Jeff ferson Da-
Wis was shackled, and memory
went back to that grand old
man, suffering thus innocently,
tears of sympathy trickled down
his cheek. When you touched q
soldier of the Southland. you
touched Jerre Thompson. Candol
also compels me to say that he
never became very we'll recon.
ciled to the idea of the minglina
of the Rllla with the Grau H