Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to confuse, to confound; usu. as adj. catawampussed.

1839		N.O. Picayune 8 Mar. 2/4: Things have been a goin’ on in a catawompussed fix for a long time [DA].
1880		P. Deming Adirondack Stories 31: May I be cat-a-wampussed if he won’t swaller all the soap that old coot is a mind to give him [DA].

2. to injure, to harm.

1862		Bury Times 29 Nov. 4/6: When he says that he is ‘bested’ he means that he is [...] utterly spiflicated and catawumpus’d.
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 129: catawampus, v. To warp. ‘The fire just catawampussed this boiler.’.

3. to move in a diagonal line.

1902

DN II.