CSS General M. Jeff Thompson was a cotton-clad sidewheel ram of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. The ship was selected in January 1862 by Captain James E. Montgomery to be part of his River Defense Fleet. At New Orleans on 25 January, Capt. Montgomery began to convert her into a cottonclad ram by placing a oak sheath with a iron covering on her bow, and by installing double pine bulkheads filled with compressed cotton bales.