What was the real name of the swamp fox?
Meriwether Jeff Thompson (1826-1876), a Virginian with a strong military tradition on both sides of his family, moved to Missouri in 1847 and settled in St. Joseph where he served as city engineer and then as supervisor of the construction of the western branch of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Following the completion of the railroad in 1859, he was elected mayor of St. Joseph, and presided over the ceremony launching the first ride of the Pony Express on April 3, 1860. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Thompson was appointed commander of the First Military District of Missouri, which covered the territory from St. Louis to the southern tip of the state along the Mississippi River, encompassing most of the swampy southeastern quarter of Missouri. His brashness, clever maneuvering and boastful proclamations in the first year of the war earned him the nickname, “Swamp Fox,” echoing the exploits of that other “Swamp Fox,” Francis Marion, who gained his fame in the Carolina swamps
