Description:

M. Jeff. Thompson, Confederate "Swamp Fox" & Cavalryman, 3pp ALS Re: Louisiana Levee System

A 3pp autograph letter signed by Meriwether Jefferson Thompson (1826-1876) as "M. Jeff Thompson / Chief State Engineer" on the last page. Written aboard the steamer "Frank Pargoud" near Providence, Louisiana, in the northeast corner of the state about 50 miles upriver from Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 21, 1874. On cream blue-lined paper, the last page mounted on thicker stock. Expected wear including paper folds and light water stains affecting one edge of all three pages. Otherwise near fine and extremely legible. 7.875" x 9.75."

M. Jeff Thompson, a Confederate cavalry officer who had served in the Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas theaters during the Civil War, served as Louisiana's leading civil engineer after the war, focusing on drainage and water level control. In this letter addressed to Charles Clinton, Louisiana State Auditor, Thompson justified the appropriations request that he had recently made and which Clinton had evidently opposed. Thompson explained the need to maintain the 150 levees regulating 1,500 miles of waterways by writing in part: "The Levee system is the vital and most important by far in the State - and to trammel the Engineers is to cripple the whole system and possibly cost millions by [creating] crevasses…" This letter underscores the perennial concern of flooding in the region, and eerily anticipates the potential scale and intensity of damage seen during 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

M. Jeff. Thompson was nicknamed the "Swamp Fox" and his troops "Swamp Rats" because of their ferocious defense of the marshy southeastern corner of Missouri during the early Civil War. Thompson was nationally recognized after his involvement in two high-profile wartime events: when he cut down the American flag from a Missouri post office in May 1861; and when he countermanded Union General John C. Fremont's slavery abolition proclamation in Missouri later in 1861.

In an interesting side note, Thompson's correspondent Charles Clinton was named in numerous lawsuits and accused of criminal charges throughout the 1870s. In one injunction filed against Clinton in December 1872, the sitting State Auditor claimed he feared Clinton would break into his office and steal official paperwork; his concerns later proved entirely justified!

The "Frank Pargoud" was a two-funnel sidewheel steamer named after an upstate Louisiana planter and built in 1858. During its decades of service on the Mississippi River, the "Pargoud" operated as a weekly packet, sailing between New Orleans and St. Louis, Memphis, and Vicksburg.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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