NOTE: There is another memorial for Rev. Thompson on Find a Grave having him buried at The Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn (see memorial #187602821). It is unknown which memorial is correct. (courtesy of Colonel, 187602821 ) His wife, however, is buried here. (ESS)

Alexander was "interim" chaplain for the 17th Connecticut regiment during the Civil War. He spoke at many patriotic events in Connecticut in those years. Here is the bio:

1822 October 16 Born, New York City
1842 Graduated, New York University
1842-1845 Student, Princeton Theological Seminary
1845 Assistant, Reformed Church of America, Brooklyn
1845 Assistant, 8th Street Presbyterian Church, New York City
1846 January 14 Ordained, Presbytery of Elizabethtown
1846-1847 Pastor, First Church, Morristown, New Jersey
1847-1848 Missionary, Bedford, New York
1848-1851 Pastor, Reformed Church of America, Tompkinsville
1851-1859 Pastor, Dutch Reformed Church, Stapleton, Staten Island
1859-1862 Pastor, South Congregational Church, Bridgeport, Connecticut
1862-1873 Pastor, 21st Street Reformed Church of America, New York City
1863-1865 Chaplain, New England Hospital, New York City
1865 Awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity, New York University
1873-1890 Chaplain, Roosevelt Hospital, New York University
1873-1884 Pastor, North Reformed Church of America, Brooklyn, New York
1889 October 22 Delivered the main oration at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield monument for the 17th Regiment
1895 February 7 Died, Summit, New Jersey

The following is from Col. William H. Noble's history of the 17th Connecticut Regiment:

"The regiment had no chaplain at its organization, but the Rev. Alexander R. Thomson, D.D., of the Second Congregational Church of Bridgeport, while the regiment was in camp, filled the place of two or three chaplains, procured them a chapel tent and a library of five hundred volumes, and was most active in every work to promote the interests, spiritual and temporal, of the regiment. He would have gone out with the regiment as its chaplain could he have obtained leave of absence from his congregation; he afterwards visited them at Baltimore, and held there their first divine service and a grand temperance-meeting. The regiment, from its colonel down, reveres and loves him."

(Information provided by Rob A and Bob R)