F. A. Harris, remembering his Carlisle school teacher Thompson Spottswood, wrote:
“I could stand over his grave today and weep tears of friendship. He was one of the kindest men, and for one year disciplined that bad, bad school without resorting to the rod once. We learned much under his tuition and as a model school teacher I would today place him in the foremost rank. Poor fellow! He was a brave soldier in the late war and afterward died in one of the Western states a wreck.”1
Charles H. Leeds, Class of 1859, also wrote about his teacher, Mr. Spottswood.
“(On) August 15, 1854, we were transferred to No. 14, in Education Hall, taught by Mr. Thompson Spottswood, son of that quiet, unobtrusive citizen, Mr. “Tommy” Spottswood, who with his most excellent family resided on the north side of Pomfret Street….Mr. Spottswood, familiarly known as “Thomps” in the community, was not only a model teacher, but universally popular with the boys…Shortly thereafter, and to the regret of the scholars, Mr. Spottswood severed his connection with No. 14 and took up his chosen profession, dentistry. In the closing hours we presented him with a handsome set of books. Doctor Spottswood subsequently removed to Dubuque, Iowa and gained a lucrative practice.2 At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the First Iowa Regiment, speedily attained the rank of First Lieutenant, but died in service…”3
The Dubuque Times announced the death of Thomspon Spottswood, a Second Lieutenant in Company F (Capt. Horr’s Company) 21st regiment, Iowa infantry, in its edition of September 18, 1862.
“He was taken about a week ago, while at Camp Franklin, with the measles. This disease was in a fair way of being conquered, when he was taken with congestion of the brain, and this resulted fatally. He was a young man, much liked by his friends, and his sudden death will be a shock to his associates. He was a member of company I, in the immortal First Iowa infantry…He was very popular with his men, and his loss will be felt very much in his company. He died at his uncle’s, in the country, at 4 A.M. yesterday.”
The Davenport Daily Gazette reported on September 19, 1862:
“A telegram having been received by the members of the Twenty-First regiment, which encamped at Rock Island, announcing the death of Lieut. T. A. Spottswood, at Dubuque, where he had been left sick with measles, a meeting of the commissioned officers was held on the steamboat Henry Clay yesterday, September 18th, at one o’clock P. M., to express their feelings regarding the event. After appropriate addresses by Lt. Col. G. W. Dunlap, Gen. N. B. Baker, Rev. Mr. Sloane, Chaplain, and others,” they were named to head a committee for resolutions to be published.
Thompson Spottswood is buried in Linwood Cemetery at Dubuque, Iowa.
