26th Infantry

Private Mitchell M. Plummer

Company A (the “Jeff Davis Mountain Rifles”), 26th Regiment N.C. Troops

Mitchell M. Plummer (born ca. 1838) lived in the South Eastern District of Ashe County, evidently as a farm laborer. He enlisted as a private at Jefferson on May 17, 1861, in Ashe County’s first company, known variously as the “Jeff Davis Mountain Rifles” and “Jefferson Davis Mountaineers.” The company was briefly assigned to another regiment (the 12th Regiment N.C. Volunteers), but in late July was ordered to Camp Crabtree at Raleigh. On July 30th, Plummer was promoted to fifth sergeant and on August 27 the “Jeff Davis Mountain Rifles” were designated Company A, 26th Regiment N.C. Troops.

Plummer was reported present on three muster rolls through April 1862, although by the latter date he had been reduced in rank to private. He was hospitalized in August 1862 with acute diarrhea. The only other military of him is the North Carolina Roll of Honor which states that he “died July 16, 1863 from the effects of wounds received at Gettysburg.” Plummer was one of nearly two hundred members of the 26th North Carolina who were killed or mortally wounded in action at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Image: Sixth-plate ambrotype, 26th North Carolina Collection

Source Note:
1860 U. S. Census, South Eastern District, Ashe County, North Carolina, population schedule, page 120, dwelling 857, family 857, John Senton household; Manarin et. al., North Carolina Troops 7:477; Mast, “North Carolina Casualties”; service record files of Mitchel M. Plummer 26th Regiment N.C. Troops, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from the State of North Carolina (M270), RG109, NA.