Henry V. Plummer

Henry Vinton Plummer (July 30, 1844 – February 10, 1905) was an American Baptist preacher and chaplain with the United States Army Buffalo Soldiers. Born a slave on a plantation near Bowie, Maryland, he escaped slavery in his early 20s and enlisted in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. He served as a pastor at several churches before being appointed chaplain of the 9th Cavalry Regiment by President Chester A. Arthur in 1884. At that time, he was the only black officer in the US Army. In 1894 he was dishonorably discharged from the Army for drunkenness and poor conduct, but his discharge was upgraded to honorable after a review in 2005.

Henry Vinton Plummer
Born(1844-07-30)July 30, 1844
Three Sisters Plantation, near Bowie, Maryland
DiedFebruary 19, 1905(1905-02-19) (aged 60)
Kansas City, Kansas
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBaptist preacher, United States Army chaplain

Early life

Henry Vinton Plummer was born a slave July 30, 1844,[1] on the Three Sisters Plantation near Bowie, Maryland, the property of Gilbert Livingston Thompson, who was the son of Smith Thompson.[2] Plummer's father was Adam Francis Plummer and his mother was Emily Sauders Plummer and he had multiple sisters, including Sarah Miranda Plummer Clark and Nellie Arnold Plummer.[2][3][4] He and his mother were sold in 1851, and in 1862, Plummer escaped from slavery and traveled to Riversdale Plantation in Prince George's County to find his father. He hid at Riversdale for a time, before he enlisted with the Union Navy during the American Civil War in 1864.[2][5] He married and had multiple children, including H. Vinton Plummer.

Pre-Army career

After the war, Plummer took a position as a coachman and gardener with B. F. Guy of Hyattsville.[6] He also became involved in the politics and religious life of Washington DC's Maryland suburbs. In 1870, Plummer founded the Union Association of Bladensburg, Maryland.[1] In 1871, he received an appointment as watchman for the US Postal Service in Washington DC.[6]

In 1872, he enrolled at Wayland Seminary in Washington and when he graduated, became the pastor at St. Paul Baptist Church in Bladensburg, Maryland.[2] He was pastor of St. Paul's from 1876 to 1881.[6] In 1876, he was also a co-founder of Mount Carmel Church in Washington, DC.[7] In 1882 he became the pastor of Mount Carmel Church, where he served until 1884.[6]

In 1872 and 1876, Plummer was a representative for Prince George's county at the State Republican Convention.[8][9] In 1882, he was a member of the executive committee of the Maryland Republican Association under president James S. Crawford.[10] Plummer was a participant of the First Washington Baptist Association in the early 1880s.[11] In 1883 he was put forward as a Republican candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates but was passed over for the nomination on account of his race.[12] In 1883, he was vice president of the Hyattsville Maryland Republican Club along with Robert S. Whitticomb and Ferdinand Hall under president F. H. Smith.[13]

Army

In 1884, President Chester A. Arthur appointed Plummer chaplain of the 9th Cavalry Regiment. His appointment was in large part due to the advocacy by Hart B. Holton.[14] He replaced Chaplain Pierce and was the only black officer in the Army, holding the rank of captain.[15] By 1890, 3 more black officers were also in the army, Charles Young and John H. Alexander, both also of the 9th Cavalry, and Allen Allensworth of the 24th Infantry, all serving in black regiments.[16]

From August 1, 1885 to March 10, 1891, he was stationed at Fort McKinney in Wyoming.[17] He also served for a time at Fort Riley in Kansas.[2] Plummer was a very active chaplain, drawing hundreds to his services. He also conducted a well attended Sunday School. In 1892 and 1893 he inaugurated temperance meetings and founded a Temperance society.[18]

His work was not without controversy. While stationed at Fort Robinson in Nebraska, he started a newspaper where, under a pseudonym, he advocated that the forts black soldiers defend themselves physically against abuse they received in nearby Crawford, Nebraska.[19] In August 1894, Plummer proposed a scheme to the Secretary of War, Daniel S. Lamont, to explore parts of Africa.[20] He designed this proposal with the support of Bishop Henry Turner and numerous other proponents of African Americans moving to Africa.[21] However, his career in the army was cut short and ended in September.

On August 23, 1894, Plummer was court martialed for drinking and furnishing liquor and behaving inappropriately.[2] This was in spite of Plummer's support of temperance and organizing an unpopular temperance group seeking to ban the sale of alcohol in Fort Robinson.[19] The case relied heavily on the testimony of Sgt Robert Benjamin, also black, who had a grudge against Plummer because Plummer had reprimanded Benjamin for having an after-hours party. Benjamin's testimony was not corroborated by other witnesses[19] and Plummer pled not guilty, but on September 7, after an 11-day trial, he was found guilty and appeals by Plummer and his wife were unsuccessful.[2][19] Benjamin was promoted at about the same time.[19] As chaplain of the 9th, Plummer was replaced by George W. Prioleau.[22]

Post-Army life and death

Plummer returned to Washington DC, where he took part in Baptist leadership, being a leader of the Baptist Minister's Union in 1899.[23] He soon moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where he continued to be a religious leader and active in the local Republican Party.[24][25]

Plummer died February 10, 1905.[1] In 1924, his sister Nellie wrote a book which included a chapter about Plummer.[2]

Legacy
Grave of Captain Plummer in the National Harmony Memorial Park Cemetery, Prince George's County, Maryland

Multiple efforts were made to clear Plummer's name in Army records. In 1978, Army chaplain Earl V. Stover wrote a book about army chaplains and an article about Plummer which claimed that Plummer was the victim of racial prejudice and requested his discharge be upgraded.[19] In 2002, Plummer's great-nephew L. Jerome Fowler organized a Committee to Clear Chaplain Plummer to work to clear Plummer's record with the Army.[2] In 2003, after appeal from the group, Prince George's County Council passed a resolution calling on the president, Congress, the defense secretary, and the Army to review Plummer's case.[2] In February 2005, the Army changed Plummer's discharge to honorable, although it declined to remove Plummer's court martial and conviction from his record.[26]

Bibliography
  • Plummer, Nellie Arnold. Out of the Depths, or the Triumph of the Cross. New York: G. K. Hall & Co. 1924
  • Schubert, Frank N. Outpost of the Sioux Wars: A History of Fort Robinson. U of Nebraska Press, 1993.

References
  1. The Plummer-Clark Memorial Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Evening Star (Washington, DC) June 13, 1905, page 17, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  2. Penn, Ivan, Group Strives for Belated Justice, The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) July 16, 2003, page B6, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  3. Joint Anniversary Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Evening Star (Washington, DC) June 19, 1905, page 16, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  4. Plummer 1924, p xvi
  5. Chaplain’s Plains legacy on the line Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Washington Times (Washington, DC) February 13, 2004
  6. Plummer 1924, p 250-251
  7. Sunday Services Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Bee (Washington, DC) January 11, 1908, page 5, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  8. Maryland Affairs Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The Baltimore (Baltimore, Maryland) September 6, 1872, page 4, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  9. Maryland Republican Convention Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) May 5, 1876, page 1, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  10. No Headline Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine The Critic (Washington, DC) February 2, 1882, page 3, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  11. First Washington Baptist Association Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, National Republican (Washington, DC) September 10, 1883, page 8, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  12. Prince George's Politics Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) October 31, 1883, page 1, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  13. Hyattsville Happenings Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Evening Star (Washington, DC) November 14, 1883, page 2, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  14. No Headline Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine The Washington Bee (Washington, DC) July 5, 1884, page 3, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  15. No Headline Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine The Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska) July 13, 1884, page 7, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  16. Our Flour Barred Out Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) July 5, 1890, page 9, accessed January 2018 at Newspapers.com
  17. Cavalry of the Platte Archived January 29, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Casper Star-Tribune (Casper, Wyoming) February 22, 1959, page 18, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  18. Schubert 1993, pp 128–129
  19. Ulmer, Dick, Author attempting to clear first black chaplain's name, Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska) November 4, 1978, page 5, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  20. A Bold Idea Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) August 16, 1894, page 8, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  21. Schubert 1993, p 131
  22. Schubert 1993, p 135
  23. Baptist Ministers' Union Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Evening Star (Washington, DC) June 20, 1899, page 10, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  24. In Colored Circles Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The Coffeyville Daily Journal (Coffeyville, Kansas) 21, Jul 1903, page 5, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  25. No Headline Archived January 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, Nebraska) November 3, 1904, page 5, accessed January 23, 2018 at Newspapers.com
  26. Rich, Eric. Century-Old Disservice Gets Honorable Revision Archived January 29, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Washington Post (Washington, DC) February 10, 2005, pB1
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