USA > Illinois > Military history and reminiscences of the Thirteenth regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war in the United States,1861-65, pt 2 > Part 8
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In his early life he attended the common schools and received a fair business education. At the age of seventeen years he accepted a position as clerk in the office of Register and Clerk of Orphans' Court in said Schuylkill county, where he remained four years. He then entered the law office of G. Loesen and commenced the study of law. He served the term required by the rules of the court necessary to be admitted to practice, but never applied for admission to the bar. Instead, he adopted the profession of Conveyancer, remaining in that office for about five years.
September 13th, 1853, he was married ; his wife and four children-three girls and one boy-are still living. He was eng agd in the profession of Conveyancer and writing in the Recorder's office of Lee county a portion of the time after removing to Dixon, until the outbreak of the war in 1861. Colonel Gorgas had some experience in military matters in an organization of State troops, and when a company was organized in Dixon under the call for troops, he was elected captain of said company, which afterwards became Company A, of the Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. At the organization and "muster in" of the regiment May 9th, 1861, he was elected major and mustered in as such. Lieu- tenant-Colonel B. F. Parks resigned June 25th, 1861, and Major Gorgas was promoted to the office of Lieutenant- Colonel, in which capacity he served until the death of Col. John B. Wyman, which occurred at Chickasaw Bayou, December 28th, 1862. February 28th, 1863, he was mustered in as colonel, and held that position until the "muster out " of the regiment, June 18th, 1864.
After the close of the war he resided for a time in German-
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S. C. PLUMMER, M. D. Regimental Surgeon, 1862.
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S. C. PLUMMER, M. D. Regimental Surgeon (1892).
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town, Pennsylvania, and sometime in 1881 removed with his family to Crookston, Minnesota, where he now resides. He engaged for a time in the real estate business, but later became interested in the Crookston Water Works, where he was employed for a time. He then returned to the real-estate business in connection with insurance, in which he is still engaged.
Colonel Gorgas was blest with a strong, vigorous frame, a splendid military bearing and a kind heart which always went out in sympathy to his subordinates.
H. T. NOBLE.
SAMUEL CRAIG PLUMMER, M. D.
SURGEON OF THE THIRTEENTH ILLINOIS.
Enlisted at Rock Island, Illinois, April 16th, 1861, and mustered with the regiment at Dixon, Illinois, on May 24th, 1861, with the rank of major.
Dr. Plummer was born April 10th, 1821, at Salem Cross- Roads, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania ; and on entering the army was forty years old, light complexion, blue eyes, dark brown hair, five feet nine and one-half inches tall, weighed one hundred and sixty pounds, and was by profes- sion a physician.
The Plummers are of English descent, where one or more branches of the family can now be found in Middlesex ; but the American patriarch of the family, Francis Plummer, who was by occupation a linen-weaver, and residing at Woolwich, near London, with Ruth, his wife, and several children, - certainly their two sons, Samuel and Joseph,-came to New England in 1633. and settled in Newbury, in the then Colony of Massachusetts Bay, but which in 1776 became the State of Massachusetts. Somewhat of his status may be learned from the old records which declare him to have been a freeman in the year after coming to New England, which means that he was a voter by reason of Puritan church-membership, which
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alone, in those times, qualified a man for citizenship in that colony.
The descendants of Francis Plummer have been repre- sented in the Colonial Legislature, and have furnished a gov- ernor to New Hampshire and five were members of Congress.
Dr. Plummer also comes of good fighting stock ; for John Plummer, the grandson of the patriarch Francis, a soldier from Dorchester, Massachusetts, was killed by the Indians while defending Hatfield, Massachusetts, on the 28th of August, 1675. Dr. Plummer's great-grandfather, on his father's side, served on General Braddock's staff, and was with him at the battle and defeat of General Braddock, at Braddock's Field, in 1755, then near, and now in the city of Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania. His grandfather on his mother's side was a soldier in the war of 1812.
The parents of Dr. Plummer, John B. Plummer, and Eliza- beth Craig, were both born in Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, and their ancestors settled in western Pennsylvania at an early day.
Dr. Plummer received a common school education, after which he was in the Preparatory Department of Western Re- serve College, Ohio, for one year. Returning to Greenville, Pennsylvania, he was in the Greenville Academy about two years. He then read medicine under Dr. H. D. La Cossett for three years. He also attended lectures at Cleveland Medical College, from which he graduated. He also received the Ad cundem degree from the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio, and for thirteen years previous to entering the army, he practiced his profession in Rock Island, Illinois.
Thus it will be seen that by long, patient and thorough study, and subsequent practice, Dr. Plummer brought to his new position of Army Surgeon the full equipment and rich furnishment which were necessary to that position and its col- lateral possibilities.
Being the ranking surgeon in the Volunteer Army-as he believed-together with his social qualities, and his great executive abilities, and devoted patriotism, he was conspic-
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uously well fitted to fill the important and honorable positions to which, early in the service, he was called ; and whether a regimental-surgeon, medical director of the army of the Eastern District of Arkansas, surgeon-in-chief First Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, or medical director of the Fif- teenth Army Corps, he honored the service as much as these various grades of service honored him. And while these higher grades of the service were enjoyable to him-as he says-as it brought him into close and intimate association with many of our most prominent generals and commanding officers in all departments of the service, his fealty to his old regiment never faltered ; and while his old boys were always scolding about him, that is, those natures that are always chronic grumblers, at the same time they would much rather take a dose of blue-mass from him, than whisky and sugar from any of the assistant surgeons ; while on his part he might be depended upon to mount his horse and ride three miles to the camp of the Thirteenth, to look at the tongue of some eighth corporal, or high-private in Company Q, and then prescribe blue-mass, and see that it was taken, than to accept an invitation to dinner with some major-general.
As characteristic of the above-mentioned fealty to his comrades of his old regiment, and his hatred of shams, and the fuss-and-feathers of high-graded red-tape, it will be both pertinent and proper here to relate that on the day that Wy- man fell, at Chickasaw Bayou, Dr. Plummer, being a medical director, and with his operating table in the woods, some- what back and to the southwest of the Lake Plantation, and near General Sherman's headquarters, was notified that Colonel Wyman was shot. The doctor dropped everything, mounted his horse and without asking leave, hastened with such speed as the nature of the country would allow of, away to the right to where our regiment was in line of battle imme- diately to the left of Gen. Morgan L. Smith's second division and was hotly engaged. The ranking surgeon was imme- diately informed of Dr. Plummer's action, and started a mounted messenger in hot pursuit with orders for Dr. Plum-
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mer to return immediately to his post of duty; which, on overtaking the doctor, the messenger delivered, and received the reply that the doctor's Colonel had been shot and he was going to him. The messenger called the attention of the doctor to the fact that the order was imperative. This raised the doctor's ire to its highest executive pitch ; and he sent back a plump refusal to obey the order, together with a mes- sage couched in language of such scorn and contempt as enraged the ranking surgeon to that degree that he at once preferred charges against the doctor ; but on being brought before General Sherman, his explanation caused the General to dismiss the case with something less than a reprimand, and scarcely more than a suggestion that, henceforth. his language should be somewhat more carefully considered when communicating with his superior officer.
It seems unjust, and certainly is unfortunate, that such eminent services as were rendered his country, by Dr. Plum- mer, do not carry with them promotion in rank such as is received by commanders of troops in the field. Measured by the actual value of important services rendered, the unsur- passed, if approached, sanitary condition of his regiment dur- ing its full term of service, and his eminent ability in many higher positions, as a surgeon, fully entitled him to have car- ried home with him the stars of a major-general.
Dr. O. P. S. Plummer, a brother of the subject of this sketch, was for a few months, assistant surgeon of our regi- ment ; while the doctor's son, Samuel C. Plummer, Jr., M. D., is now a practicing physician in Chicago.
On being mustered out of the military service, Dr. Plum- mer returned to his family at Rock Island, Illinois, and resumed the practice of his profession.
On October 17th, 1844, Dr. Plummer had married Julia Hayes, of Burg Hill, Ohio, who died October 6th, 1872. They had five children.
Dr. Plummer married the second time, on June 9th, 1874, Sarah Moore Dawson, at New Wilmington, Penn- sylvania.
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LIEUT .- COL. F. W. PARTRIDGE.
Thirteenth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry.
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By the explosion of a shell, at the assault on the 22d of May, 1863, during the siege of Vicksburg, Dr. Plummer lost the hearing of his right ear ; otherwise, with the grizzled hair and white beard of his seventy years, he is remarkably well preserved, attending to the duties of surgeon for two impor- tant railroads besides a large home practice, is a Mason, is a Republican, and periodically attends the meetings of the Loyal Legion, at Chicago, and never misses the annual reunion of his old regiment, at Dixon, Illinois.
Dr. Plummer and his estimable lady live respected by all at their home at Rock Island, Illinois, where the latch-string always hangs outside, and his pill-box is invitingly open to every surviving member of his old regiment, who all hope he will be with them yet, many long years. ASA B. MUNN.
FREDERICK W. PARTRIDGE.
Staff No. 4, General Frederick W. Partridge was born August 19th, 1826, at Norwich, Windsor county, Vermont. He traces his lineage to a line of ancestry noted for military tastes and acquirements. His father commanded a company in General Scott's regiment at the battle of Lundy's Lane in 1812. Two of his uncles were graduates of West Point Academy and were captains in the Corps of Engineers at the time of their death.
A cousin of his father's, named Alden Partridge, was cap- tain in the regular army, and at one time was superintendent of the West Point Academy.
Colonel Partridge attended the common schools in his early years and afterward entered as a student the Norwich Vermont Literary, Scientific and Military Academy, and was for a length of time under the personal care of its president, Cap- tain Alden Partridge.
Later on he spent some years at Dartsmouth College, at Hanover, New Hampshire, and was elected Military In- structor of the Pennsylvania Military Academy at Harrisburg.
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He was serving in that capacity when the Mexican War broke out in 1847 and at this time was given a commission in the army, and sent by President Polk on secret service to Mexico. Owing to the fact that his mission was a secret one. he could not explain to the commanding officer the character of his trust, and owing to this and the frontier difficulty of passing into the enemy's territory, he never reached his desti- nation, but was arrested as a spy and after a brief imprison- ment returned to Washington without accomplishing the object of his mission.
Lieutenant Burton, a cousin of General Partridge, was in command of the garrison at San Juan De Ulloa where he was confined as prisoner, and at his instance received kind and liberal treatment. Lieutenant Burton afterwards became a general on the artillery branch of service, and was in command · at Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, Maryland, when Jefferson Davis was confined there as a State prisoner in 1865.
After his return to Washington, he was given a leave of absence and went to Kendall county, Illinois, and engaged in farming.
In the spring of 1858, he removed to Sandwich, Illinois, with his family, and then went to Chicago to complete his law studies, which he had commenced years before in the office of Franklin Pierce at Concord, New Hampshire. In Chicago he entered the law office of Arnold, Larned, and Gregory, and in due time was admitted to the bar, and opened a law office at Sandwich. He resigned his place in the Army after his "leave," had expired in 1847.
Although severing his connection with the army, his mili- tary tastes and inclinations still adhered to him and he felt an active interest in military organization, and took an active part in organizing a militia company, in the Forty-fourth Battalion commanded by Major Hitt, of Ottawa, Illinois. He was a leader and officer in other organizations for political purposes for the Republican party in the campaign of IS56 - and 1860 and performed valuable services in his espoused cause.
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At the breaking out of the war for the Union in 1861, he raised two companies which were tendered through the State to the general Government for the defense of the "old flag," one of which he commanded as captain and was known as Company E of the Thirteenth Illinois Volunteers' Regiment, which became the Color Company.
When Lieutenant-Colonel Parks resigned in June 1861, Captain Partridge was elected Major, and when Colonel Wyman was killed in December, 1862, Major Partridge was elected Lieutenant-Colonel. He was mustered out with the regiment June 18, 1864. He was with the regiment from first to last excepting an absence after he was wounded at the battle of Ringgold Gap.
March 13th, 1865, he was brevetted Colonel and Brigadier- General. After his return to his home he was elected circuit clerk and recorder of DeKalb county, and served in this capacity four years, and was then appointed Consul- General of the United States at Bangkok, for Siam and its dependencies, which position he filled for more than seven years. He filled this position with credit to himself and satis- faction to his government. His duties were of a varied character-some pleasant, some otherwise-and he had the bitter mingled with the sweet-the cloud and the sunshine. Owing to the character of the people, and the state of the country, there were many "accidents and incidents by flood and field," which confronted him, that are of interest to his old comrades, and the writer will give in his own words, describing a trip he took in that far-away land. He says :
"At one time I traveled across the Continent of Asia commencing at Bangkok, and mostly on elephant back through the Strait's settlements, Hindoostan, and across the Persian Gulf.
" In this long and interesting journey I was several times called upon to defend my life, and at one time had to fight stubbornly with a native chief, and kill and disable several of his warriors. This incident made a friend of the King of Cambodia, whose son was liberated as one of the results of the
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fight and this King made me a "knight" in his Princial Order, and later on, decorated me three times, which deco- rations-beautiful and of considerable intrinsic value are now in my possession at Sycamore, as pleasant mementoes of an exciting passage in personal history."
In the autumn of 1876, General Partridge returned to America, visiting on his way home many places of interest on the continent, Italy, Switzerland, France and Great Britain.
In 1882 he was commissioned by the Interior Department, as special examiner of pensions and sent to Indiana, where he has rendered efficient service, often visiting Ohio and other States in special cars.
In the summer of 1889, he resigned and returned to his old home at Sycamore, Illinois, where he now resides.
In a note to the writer he says, "I have retired to my home to enjoy the rest and quiet that nowhere else are to be found ; and as my mind runs back over the scenes and mem- ories of an active life, I find no place where it lingers with such pleasures, as when contemplating my soldier life. No scenes more stirring, more prized, or more firmly impressed than my campaign and comradeship with the glorious old Thirteenth.
HENRY T. NOBLE.
DOUGLAS R. BUSHNELL.
Maj. Douglas R. Bushnell, son of Francis W. and Louisa Bushnell, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, June 17th, 1824, where the first years of his life were spent, and where he received a thorough education and adopted the profession of civil engineer,, in which capacity he was connected with the railroads in the vicinity of his native place.
In 1845 he removed to New Hampshire, and still follow- ing his profession, was employed on many of the railroads in that and the adjoining State of Vermont.
At Highgate, Vermont, on the 16th of September, IS49. he was married to Miss Emily J. Edson, an intelligent and
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accomplished lady, in whose refined taste and cultivated society he found the counterpart of his own cultivated mind ; and he participated in unusual domestic happiness until duty called him to offer even this precious boon upon the altar of his country.
In the fall of 1850, falling in with the tide of emigration, which was wending its way toward the fertile prairies of the great West, he came to Illinois and located at Rockford, to which place he removed his family the year following. After a three years' residence there, in the meantime, being connected with the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, he located his family at Sterling. While here, he was prom- inently connected as engineer, with the Dixon Air Line Rail- road, and as chief engineer, superintended the construction of one of the main roads in the northern part of Iowa, running westward, and also the Sycamore branch of the Galena & Chicago Union railroad. When the Sterling & Rock Island road was projected, he was called to the position of chief engineer, and most successfully he performed his duties.
In the spring of 1861, when the first call was made for troops to maintain our integrity as a nation, and to repel the treasonable assaults of Southern disunionists upon our glorious inheritance of unity and liberty, Major Bushnell was . among the first to respond. Prompted by a sense of duty to his country, and impelled by the true spirit of patriotism, he added his name to the muster-roll of honor, and went forth to battle for the right-to lend the aid of a heart, an intelligent mind, and a strong arm, in the defense of his country's insti- tutions.
At Sterling, scores of resolute men, among whom were the most intelligent, wealthy and influential of her citizens, left their counters, their workshops, their offices and their farms, to volunteer for the defense of their dear old flag, and imme- diately commenced drilling for the service.
They expected no light work, and raised no questions of bounty and pay. They knew only that their country was in danger, and their bosoms burned to avenge her wrongs.
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Such were the heroes of the Thirteenth Illinois Infantry, and such were the men of Company B. To be chosen leader of these brave sons of Sterling, was an honor not to be lightly esteemed, and in electing D. R. Bushnell for their captain, they manifested their appreciation of liis ability, experience and many virtues. The company was presented with a beau- tiful flag by the citizens, with appropriate ceremonies ; and with an affectionate adieu to hiis two lovely children and a tender farewell to the brave woman, who bade him "God- speed" in this glorious cause, Captain Bushnell hastened to join the regiment in camp at Dixon.
The early volunteers having been accustomed to civil liberty, were not prepared to endure the restraints of military duty, and to some, Captain Bushnell's strict discipline seemed severe ; but in a short time, they learned to prize him all the more for this qualification.
From Dixon, the regiment was ordered to Rolla, Missouri, and there, during the summer of 1861, Colonel Wyman was in command and Captain Bushnell, acting Major. At the request of General Totten, who was personally acquainted with his abilities as engineer, he was put in charge of the construction of a fort at that place, which was nearly completed under his supervision, and was afterward pronounced one of the strongest and most complete of its size in the United States. It was proposed to name it after its scientific con- structor, but Captain Bushnell, with his characteristic mod- esty, declined the honor and gave the preference to his superior officer and it was called "Fort Wyman."
In March, 1862, the regiment joined General Curtis' army at Pea Ridge, and in all their toilsome marches through southern Missouri and Arkansas, Captain Bushnell was acting Major, and by his sagacity and uniform sympathy with the weary but uncomplaining soldiers, won the confidence and affection of officers and men. After the arrival at Helena on the 14th of July, he was frequently put in command of expedi- tions into the surrounding country. In one of these he was sent to St. Francis river, with a detachment of the Thirteenth
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Illinois and Fourth Iowa, and from the plantation of Generals Pillow and Brown, he brought away quite a large quantity of corn and a number of cattle. In General Hovey's expedition to the Coldwater and Tallahatchie rivers, Captain Bushnell had a command of two hundred of the Thirteenth ; and after a successful raid in the enemy's country, and destroying the railroad at Oakland Station, they returned to Helena where they remained until the 22nd of December. The regiment was then put under command of General Sherman, in General Blair's brigade, and ordered immediately to Vicksburg.
After arrival there, the "Old Thirteenth " was placed in advance, and was the first Illinois regiment to assault the enemy's ranks. In all the engagements previous to Decem- ber 20th, Captain Bushnell led his own brave company of Sterling boys; but upon the fall of Colonel Wyman, he was promoted to Major of the regiment.
On the 29th occurred the memorable charge upon the rebel rifle-pits at the foot of Walnut Hills, at Chickasaw Bayou, in which the Thirteenth lost, thirty killed and over one hundred wounded. Major Bushnell highly distinguished himself for coolness and courage, by advancing within a few rods of the enemy's works, under a fire that swept the ground on which he stood.
On the Ioth and IIth of January, 1863, we find him dis- playing the same heroic devotion at the assault and taking of Arkansas Post. After this his engineering abilities were again called into requisition during the seventy-five days the regiment was at Young's Point, digging canals, building levees, and erecting fortifications to operate against Vicks- burg.
In General Steele's raid upon Deer Creek in April, in the march upon Grand Gulf and Jackson in May, in the terrific assaults upon Vicksburg in June and July, Major Bushnell was ever at his post-shrinking from no toil, privation or danger to which the regiment was exposed. In General Sherman's operations against Johnston, after the fall of Vicks-
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burg, Major Bushnell acted as Lieutenant-Colonel until they returned to their summer quarters, August 13, 1863.
He had risen high in the estimation of his superior officers, and had he been ambitious for office as he was to be useful, he might have arrived at greater distinction, but would have been less a hero. His only desire was to discharge the duty to his country faitlifully, and then to return to the bosom of his family ; and now as he drew nearer his last battle, and the images of his loved ones rise before him, his affectionate letters to them breathe more earnestly this longing desire.
In one of them he says : " I pray God, at the end of my service, I may be restored to my beloved family in safety, but more especially I pray, that the cause in which I have staked my life and my honor may succeed."
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