I've heard that and read it in books. That has been the narrative handed down for many years. However, it isn't exactly correct.
Maurice (pronounced "Morris") was born in Indiana, but the family moved to a plantation in north Georgia when he was a small child. Brother Will (that was his name... Will, not short for "William") was born in Georgia. They had a privileged childhood with a classical education and enjoyed hunting birds in the local woods with bows and arrows. In their teens, they met a hermit named Thomas Williams who lived in the woods near them. Williams was a longbowman, and taught the boys much about archery. Maurice and Will did serve the Confederacy in the war, but afterward both became lawyers and writers. They maintained their interest in archery, however, and spent weeks at a time on hunting trips in Florida, which was a fairly remote and exotic place at the time. While the southern people were generally disarmed during Reconstruction, the Thompsons at least kept their sidearms, and described carrying pistols with them in Florida as early as 1867. The pistols were used to dispatch game not killed by their arrows. These excursions to Florida were outfitted trips, with a hired camp-keeper on some of them. Maurice took one hunting trip to south Florida with a hired Seminole guide named Tommy, who was himself an archer. Tommy had become disgusted with other Seminole hunters, who were using guns. Tommy maintained that this scared all the game away. He set up a camp for himself away from the others, and that was where Maurice stayed for three weeks. Shortly after the trip to Okeechobee in 1867, both brothers moved to Indiana. They were founding members of the National Archery Association, and both had terms as president of the NAA. Will even won two bronze medals in the archery in the 1904 Olympics! Will later moved to Seattle, and I believe he became active in politics.
Maurice wrote a book entitled The Witchery of Archery, published in 1878, and reprinted several times. I have a facsimile copy printed in 1984. It is a great little book, easy to read, and full of hunting stories as well as some autobiographical sketches, and this book alone refutes a lot of the often-repeated "survival" narrative. In fact, the Thompson brothers were successful professional men, able to afford outfitted and sometimes guided sporting trips to exotic locations for bowhunting as well as expensive, imported equipment, such as snakewood bows from the "Far East," and professionally made Highfield arrows. Much of this is right there in The Witchery of Archery. They also continued to promote recreational and competitive archery and bowhunting for the rest of their lives.
Best regards,
Notchy Bob
