A double-sided State Historical Marker for The Thompson House and the Skirmish on the Blackwater provides Information on the c.1847 Thompson House and on the October 1864 Union raids in the area. The house was the residence of Benjamin W. Thompson, a partner in the lumbering firm of E.E. Simpson and Company.

Two of his sons, Oliver Thompson and Benjamin W. Thompson, Jr., served in the 1st Florida Infantry which fought in the western theater, and both were killed during the war. The Thompson House was occupied by Union forces during an October 1864 raid on Bagdad and Milton.

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew B. Spurling of the 2nd Maine Cavalry commanded the Union raiding force which included the 1st Florida Union Cavalry, a regiment formed of Southern Unionist refugees and Confederate deserters. Spurling would later go on to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during a Union raid at Evergreen, Alabama in March 1865.

During a restoration of the house in 1976, two instances of graffiti with drawings and signatures which had been scratched on the plaster walls by Union troops and later covered with wallpaper were uncovered.

One message in the drawing room stated Bagdad Mr. Tompson Spurling First Fla Cavalry camped in your house the 26th of Oct 1864. A similar message dated October 28, 1864 was uncovered on the wall of the upstairs cross hall written by a different individual.

The house is privately owned but is occasionally open to the public during the Bagdad Village Preservation Association's Blackwater Heritage Tour of Historic Homes.

Information Provided by the Florida Department of State.