Editing Jacob Thompson (section)

===Alignment with Confederacy===
While still serving as Interior Secretary, Thompson was appointed by the state of Mississippi as a "secession commissioner" to North Carolina and tasked to convince that state to secede from the Union in the wake of the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 presidential election]]. On December 17, he passed through [[Baltimore]] on the way to North Carolina. "Secretary Thompson has entered openly into the secession service, while professing still to serve the Federal authority," the ''[[New York Times]]'' reported on December 20.{{sfn|Dew|2001|p=30}} The next day, Thompson met with Governor [[John W. Ellis]] in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]]. He wrote an open letter to Ellis which was published in the ''Raileigh State Journal'' on December 20. Thompson wrote that the South faced "common humiliation and ruin" if it remained in the Union. He warned that a Northern "majority trained from infancy to hate our people and their institutions" would overthrow slavery. The result would be "the subjugation of our people."{{sfn|Dew|2001|pp=31-32}}

Thompson resigned as Interior Secretary in January 1861. When he resigned, [[Horace Greeley]]'s ''New-York Daily Tribune'' denounced him as "a traitor", remarking, "Undertaking to overthrow the Government of which you are a sworn minister may be in accordance with the ideas of cotton-growing chivalry, but to common men cannot be made to appear creditable."<ref>''New-York Daily Tribune'', January 9, 1861, p. 4.</ref>

Thompson became [[Inspector General]] of the [[Confederate States Army]]. Though not a military man, Thompson later joined the army as an officer and served as an aide to General [[P.G.T. Beauregard]] at the [[Battle of Shiloh]].{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}

He attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and was present at several other battles in the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|Western Theater]] of the war, including Corinth, Vicksburg, and Tupelo.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}