Hugh Smith Thompson

Born in Charleston, Thompson graduated from the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel) in 1856 and was an instructor at the Arsenal Academy from 1858 to 1861. Leading a battalion of Citadel cadets on January 9, 1861, they fired the first shots of the American Civil War when they opened fire on the Union ship Star of the West which was entering Charleston's harbor. For the remainder of the war, he served as an instructor of the cadets at the Citadel Academy.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Hugh Smith Thompson|url=https://www.nga.org/governor/hugh-smith-thompson/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920015500/https://www.nga.org/governor/hugh-smith-thompson/|archive-date=September 20, 2020|access-date=2021-02-12|website=National Governors Association}}

At the end of hostilities in 1865, Thompson became the principal of Columbia Male Academy until 1880. In 1876, he was nominated by the state Democrats for the position of Superintendent of Education which he won upon the resolution of the controversial gubernatorial election in the favor of Wade Hampton and the Democrats. He was reelected in 1878 and 1880 without opposition. In 1882, Thompson lobbied for the presidency of South Carolina College. However, he emerged as a dark horse candidate for governor after the split of the state Democrats between John Bratton and John Doby Kennedy. After the second ballot at the nominating convention, both Bratton and Kennedy withdrew their names and Thompson became the Democratic candidate for the gubernatorial election of 1882.{{Cite journal|last=|first=|title=Necrology: Hugh Smith Thompson|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27575091|journal=The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine|year=1905|volume=6|issue=1|pages=44–46|jstor=27575091}}{{Cite book|last=|first=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=90ITAAAAYAAJ|title=The South Carolina Encyclopedia|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|year=2006|isbn=9781570035982|editor-last=Edgar|editor-first=Walter|location=|pages=}}

Thompson easily won the general election against J. Hendrix McLane and became the 81st governor of South Carolina. He was reelected without opposition in the gubernatorial election of 1884. His time as governor was marked by the stability of the state, and unity within the Democratic party. Upon being appointed in 1886 by President Grover Cleveland to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Thompson resigned as governor. In 1889, he became the commissioner of the U.S. Civil Service Commission after appointment by President Benjamin Harrison. He retired from public service in 1892, and for over a decade was the comptroller of the New York Life Insurance Company.

On November 20, 1904, Thompson died in New York City and was buried at Trinity Episcopal churchyard in Columbia.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=South Carolina Governor – Hugh Smith Thompson – 1882–1886|url=https://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/thompson.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829214559/http://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/thompson.html|archive-date=August 29, 2017|access-date=2021-02-12|website=www.sciway.net}}

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Category:1836 births

Category:1904 deaths

Category:19th-century South Carolina politicians

Category:19th-century American educators

Category:Politicians from Charleston, South Carolina

Category:The Citadel alumni

Category:The Citadel faculty

Category:Democratic Party governors of South Carolina

Category:University of South Carolina trustees

Category:South Carolina superintendents of education

Category:People of South Carolina in the American Civil War