Sgt. Caleb Johnson Thompson
Civil War Veteran 17th Indiana Infantry Regiment (Mounted), Co. I / Wilder’s Lightning Brigade
This is a photo of my Great Grand Uncle Caleb Johnson Thompson (1839-1922) with his grandson Caleb James Thompson, taken some time prior to 1910. Uncle Caleb was prosperous farmer from Hamilton Twp., Sullivan County, Indiana where he was born and died on the family farm southwest of the town of Shelburn.
Sullivan County was settled in the late 1810s by many families from the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, along with several northern states. The county was strongly Democratic, and few were in sympathy with Abraham Lincoln and the Union. However, news of the attack and surrender of Fort Sumpter on April 12, 1861 generated great excitement over the entire county. An enthusiastic recruitment rally was held on 23rd of April at the courthouse square which quickly raised an entire company. Among those volunteers were Caleb, his older brother Zadoc and their father James Washington Thompson.
The new recruits were transferred to Indianapolis where they requested three months service, but were denied. They then asked for one year service, which was the term for which they had been organized, but they were again denied. The company then returned to Sullivan, and reorganized for three years and were mustered in on June 12, 1861 as Co. I, 17th Indiana Infantry Regiment. (from Goodspeed 1884 History of Sullivan County, pg. 571-576)
Caleb's father James Washington Thompson was selected as the Company Sergeant, but had to be discharged in September 1861 for disability. Brothers Caleb and Zadoc served as Infantry in 1861 and 1862; but in February 1863 the Regiment became part of [Wilder's Mounted Brigade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Brigade), Army of the Cumberland.
As the end of their enlistment approached the Regiment reenlisted on January 4, 1864. Veterans were on furlough from January 22 to April 2. While on furlough, brother Zadoc returned to their parent’s farm, unaware that he had been infected with smallpox. He died at his family’s farm on 15 Feb 1864. Tragically, he unwittingly infected his family members and over the next 8 weeks smallpox took his father and five younger sisters. All seven are buried in a row at the Prairie Creek Cemetery in Vigo County. Two other brothers, including my great grandfather, were serving in other regiments and were spared. Caleb remained with the 17th Regiment until it mustered out August 8, 1865.
Caleb was injured several times in battle, and wore a glass eye and had a musket ball lodged behind his ear. My grandfather, Caleb’s nephew, grew up in the same community and would relate stories about how Caleb would tease the youngin’s by popping out his eye or by getting the kids to roll the ball around under his skin.
(Caleb James Thompson was the son of William Porter Thompson (1881-1967) who moved to Sulphur Springs, Hopkins Co., TX before 1900.)
