[1] He spent the winter of 1861–1862 in Detroit, after which the regiment was disbanded and Thompson returned to Lancaster.

[1] He unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1876,[4] and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention from Michigan in both 1876 and 1880.

[5][6] He ran for mayor of Detroit on the Republican ticket twice more, winning both times and serving from 1880 to 1883.

Campau had warned Thompson just prior to the fight that "he must not talk about his wife hereafter in barrooms and other public places, as he had been doing.

"[10] Thompson died on July 20, 1904, in Yonkers, New York,[11] of injuries received after being knocked down by a bicycle.