Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. William Thompson (November 10, 1813 October 6, 1897), a lawyer, clerk, newspaperman, longtime Army officer, and Democrat, was the first person elected to Congress from Iowa''s 1st congressional district. His race for re-election in 1848 was the only Iowa U.S. House election to be revoted. After Thompson''s opponent, Whig candidate Daniel F. Miller, challenged Thompson''s apparent victory, Congress ordered his seat vacated and a special election conducted, which Thompson lost. He was a cavalry officer in the Union Army during the Civil War, and in the regular army for ten years thereafter. Thompson was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where he attended the common schools. He assisted his father to clear a farm in the dense forests of Ohio, and when twenty-one began to study law in the office of Columbus Delano.