From the book, LINCOLN'S BIRTH COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR, by Ed Benningfield: THOMAS J. THOMPSON was born on February 18, 1842 and he died on September 1, 1904. He was a private in Company H., 13th Ky. Infantry, Union Army. He enrolled in October 1861 and was discharged in June 1862 at Columbia, Tennessee. He filed for a pension shortly after the war for a gun shot wound to his left hand. He farmed near Mt. Sherman after the war. He is buried in the Despain cemetery, east of Mt. Sherman.
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Thomas enrolled in the Union Army on Oct 26, 1861 and served as a Private in Company H, 13th Regiment of the Kentucky Infantry Volunteers. His company was in action at Shiloh, Tennessee on April 7, 1862. He accidentally shot himself through the wrist and after several weeks in the hospital in Nashville, Tennessee was disharged June 19, 1862.

He applied for a military pension July 28, 1864 in Greensburg in Green County. He said he had been shot in the left forearm on the 29th of March 1862 at Spring Hill camp in Tennessee, that his hand was useless and that the injury was permanent. He received $14 a month. During the Civil War, both sides used muskets. To load a musket, a soldier had to bite off the end of a paper cartridge, pour the powder down the barrel, ram the bullet down in with his ramrod, cock the hammer with his thumb, place a percussion cap on its nipple to ignite the powder and then aim and pull the trigger. It was safer for the soldier to load from entrenchments where he would not be visible to the charging enemey. If he was in the open he would load in the prone position. Early in the war surgeons realized that the preponderance of wounds in the hand or arm were the result of this loading in the prone position.

The names of the children of Thomas and Mary Ann Thompson were taken from his declaration to the Department of the Interior, when he applied for an increase in his Civil War Pension.

His nephew, Arvin Thompson recalled, "The last time I saw Uncle Tom, there was one or two hit by lightning out there and Dad and I went to the funeral. We met him at his house and he was as yellow as a pumpkin--he was wicked, cussed and everything. He was talking about his boys, said 'Neil, I tried to make something out of them. I sent them to college, they wouldn't go. It's that damned Bally in them.' I guess he was a pretty rough guy, cussed a lot."

Mary applied for a military pension April 27, 1905 in Brushy, Green County, Kentucky.

In the 1870 Green County census, Thomas and Mary A. are family 91 in the Brush Creek area of Green County. He is a farmer, age 27, and she is 26 years of age. Their children are: John W., 7; Jas. F., 5; Elizabeth F., 3; Mary S., 1; Lydia A., 6 months of age.

In the 1880 Green County census, Thomas is a farmer, age 38. His wife, Mary is 37. The children are: John W., 17; James F., 15; Mary Susan, 12; Lizzie, 11; Alice, 10; Dorcus Ann, 8; Abram, 11; Nancy, 5; Elijah, age 1 year.

In the 1900 Green County census, Thomas is head of household #255 in the Upper Brush Creek area near Dezarn. He is 58 years of age and has been married 38 years. His wife is Mary A., 57 and the mother of 11 living children. the children in the home are: Alice, 26; Samuel, 16; Albert, 15 years of age.

In 1910 Thomas has died and Mary is head of household #308 in the same area. She is 67 years of age and the mother of 11, all living. Her children still at home are: Samuel, 28; & Albert, 25.

In 1920 Mary is head of household, widowed, age 81. Her household is #227, next door to her son, Albert in Green County near Wards. Living with the aged woman is he grandson, Hubbard, age 16 years.

WILL OF THOMAS J. THOMPSON OF GREEN COUNTY, KENTUCKY:
14 May, 1904

My wife, Mary A. Thompson, whose maiden name was Mary A. Warren, gets all of my household furniture, wagons, buggies, machinery, farming implements, hay, corn, horses, cattle and hogs, namely three mares--one a sorrel roan, one a brown and one sorrel horse, one brown horse mule, three milk cows, two bull calves, one heifer calf, one and two year old bull, nineteen head of hogs, twelve of them about a year old, five barrows and seven sows, seven shoats, five of them sows and one barrow, two road wagons, two sets of harness for four horses, three log chains, one McCormack mower, one apple mill of Kentucky Buckeye, one corn sheller No. 14A, one new buggy and harness, two cribs of corn containing about 600 bushels, about 500 lbs of bacon, 50 lbs of lard, barrel of salt, three bureaus, two clocks, three trunks, one cooking stove, three men's saddles, two side saddles, eight white blankets, eight linsey quilts, 20 calico quilts, three worsted quilts, one safe, one cupboard, one press, one book case, two wash kettles, two horse plows, no. 13's, two double shovels, fouir white counterpanes, one note against James Thompson for $100, Abraham Thompson balance due on two notes of $150 each given March 1, 1903; the same for land. Also, $56 in LaRue County Deposit Bank for burial expenses. I appoint my wife as executor.
Thomas Thompson

Witnessed: C. T. Atherton, Ellet Carter, Lafayette Warren (Thomas died intestate as to the remainder of his property and left a large sum of money, notes and land. His children sued their mother in Green County Circuit Court for a distribution of this property. Their petition was dismissed and Mary was given a judgment for costs.)

William T. Smith relayed the following in his THOMPSON book: His nephew, Arvin Thompson, recalled, "The last time I saw Uncle Tom, there was one or two hit by lightning out there and Dad and I went to the funeral. We met him at his house and he was as yellow as a pumpkin --- he was wicked, cussed and everything. He was taling about his boys, said, "Neal, I tried to make something out of them, I sent them to college, they wouldn't go. It's that damned Bewley in them." I guess he was a pretty rough guy, cussed a lot.

(added by Russell Perkins, FAG #47213352)