Gen William Thompson

• BIRTH 5 Jul 1736 Ireland
• DEATH 3 Sep 1781 (aged 45) Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, USA
• BURIAL Old Graveyard, Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, USA Show Map GPS-Latitude: 40.1976600, Longitude: -77.1881259
• MEMORIAL ID 5773893 Photos by Geoff Walden, Bio by: William Bjornstad

William Thompson (July 5, 1736 – September 3, 1781) was a soldier from Pennsylvania and a American Revolutionary War Brigadier General. After emigrating to Carlisle, Pennsylvania from the British Colonial America and Ireland, he served as a Captain in the Kittanning Expedition of the British Province of Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War (or Seven Years War). After the American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, he became a colonel of a rifle battalion in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment (the first colonel commissioned in the Continental Army) and sent to the British Colony of Massachusetts to aid in the defense of Boston.

In November 1775 his forces repelled an attempted landing by British troops and he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. The following June he was sent to Canada to reinforce American troops there and was captured by the British during an attack at Trois-Rivieres in Quebec. He was paroled but remained a captive for four years before finally being exchanged for Hessian Army officer Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel in 1780. He then returned to his home near Carlisle, Pennsylvania where he died at the age of 45.

Spouse
Catharine Ross Thompson 1739–1808 (m. 1762)

Children
Mary Thompson Read 1762–1815
George Thompson 1763–1807
William Thompson 1769–1830
Catharine Thompson Orbison 1770–1811
James Thompson 1772–1773
Juliana Thompson Holmes 1774–1798

Notes

Thompson Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City was named after General Thompson.

References

[1] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5773893/william-thompson

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thompson_%28general%29

[3] https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-1-75687212-4-2627/willia... MyHeritage Family Trees] - SmartCopy: Oct 24 2016, 3:43:35 UTC

[4] DAR Ancestor #: A114648

Additional Data

After news of the Battle of Bunker Hill reached Pennsylvania in 1775, Thompson was appointed colonel of a rifle battalion and was sent to Massachusetts to help in the defense of Boston. His unit was known as Thompson's Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion, or the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment. After Thompson's company of Pennsylvania sharpshooters drove back a British landing-party on November 9, 1775, he was made a brigadier-general, to the displeasure of George Washington, who had reservations about Thompson's abilities.

Sent to reinforce American troops in Canada, Thompson was captured during an attack on the enemy at Trois-Rivières in Quebec on June 8, 1776. He was paroled, but not exchanged for four years, and so he could not reenter military service. Thompson blamed Congressman Thomas McKean for hindering his exchange; his criticism became so harsh that he was censured by Congress. McKean successfully sued Thompson for libel. After finally being exchanged for Baron Riedesel, Thompson died at his home near Carlisle.