William G. Thompson

William Gillon Thompson (July 23, 1842 – July 20, 1904) was a Union Army officer, lawyer, politician, and the mayor of Detroit, Michigan. He also founded Detroit's first major league baseball team. Early life William G. Thompson was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on July 23, 1842. He was educated at Amherst College. In 1861, sparked to enlist by the Civil War, he joined the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry. When his enlistment was over, he moved at the request of his mother to Toledo, Ohio, but then enlisted in a lancer regiment there as a first lieutenant. He spent the winter of 1861–62 in Detroit, after which the regiment was disbanded and Thompson returned to Lancaster. He was later appointed aide de camp as a second lieutenant in the 6th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, and was severely wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville, earning a promotion to first lieutenant for gallantry on the battlefield. Thompson was a companion of the Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society of officers who served in the Union armed forces and their descendants. Law and politics After his unit was mustered out in 1864, Thompson studied law in New York City, then moved to Detroit to join the law firm of D. B. and H. M. Duffield. He was admitted to the bar in 1867. He had varied business interests, building the Ste. Claire Hotel on Campus Martius in 1879 and founding Detroit's first major league baseball team, the Detroit Wolverines, in 1881.