Armistead “A.T.” Thompson
Born 1838
Died November 23, 1846
Place of Birth: Fairfax County, Virginia
Buried: Thompson Family Cemetery, Merrifield, Virginia
How Died: Inflammation of lungs, typhoid fever
Military Service: Confederacy
Military ranks held: Private, Corporal, Sergeant
Unit: Company G, 8th Virginia
Battles/engagements: Gaines Mill, Gettysburg
Schoolteacher Armistead Thompson (age 23) voted for secession at Fairfax Courthouse. He enlisted as a Private at Dranesville on June 22, 1861.
Armistead was wounded at Gaines Mill, near Richmond, on June 27, 1862 and subsequently captured. He was paroled in July 1862 near Warrenton on July 4, 1863. He was captured again during the Battle of Gettysburg and sent to prison at Fort Delaware. At an unknown date, he was transferred to the prison at Point Lookout, Maryland.
After seventeen months of imprisonment, Armistead died at the age of 27 and was buried in lot 656 at the prison. In the 1880s, Armistead’s father retrieved his son’s remains and had them interred in the family cemetery.
Sources:
1. Brothers and Cousins: Confederate Soldiers and Sailors of Fairfax County, VA, compiled by William Page Johnson, II
2. Fairfax County in 1860; A Collective Biography, by Edith Sprouse
3. The Washington Post, John Kelly’s “Washington,” March 12, 2011
4. fold3 (formerly footnote.com)
Larger image of marker
Researched and written by Mary Lipsey
