Isaac Plumb, Jr.

Son of a chair maker and furniture dealer, he enlisted at 19 years old in Hamilton, NY on 2 September 1861 and mustered as a Sergeant in Company C, 61st New York Infantry on 6 September. He was promoted to First Sergeant on 24 November 1861.

He was with his company in Maryland, and probably acting Sergeant Major of the regiment in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. Afterward he wrote of it:

... Then Richardson came in and from that moment our star was in the ascendent ... our Division entered the field about 11 a.m. the Irish Brigade leading. We were on their left and a little to the rear ... We had not long to lay idle, a witness to the battle, but were soon allowed to participate to our hearts content. After changing our position to the right of the I.B. we came upon our enemy in the open field and after a stand still engagement of some time began to advance upon them and shown the bayonet which they did not like the look of at all.

They gave us a dreadful fire though of shell & bullets but we pressed them untill we came in front of a ditch or narrow road dug in the earth [Sunken Lane] in which laid a line of the enemy. Here we made a grand charge and few who did not surrender lived to tell the tale of their defeat, we almost annihilated one Regt, the 6th Ala. and the 4th North Carolina was completely routed.

... then proceeded into a cornfield [Piper's] where we fought for some time, changing positions to obtain advantage of the enemy till we got in range of two brass cannon from which they poured a dreadful fire of grape and canister. We being the most advance Regt and unsupported on the right & left by other troops, withdrew to the line of the other troops. Soon after we joined the rest of the Brigade from which we had become detached and laid in a nearby plowed field til the 19th.

... some tell me I am so small that there is no danger of my ever being hit. However it may and however longer I am spared to fight I shall do my best. I rejoice greatly that I have been spared to serve my country as long as I have.

He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of Company B on 17 November (to date from 1 October), promoted to First Lieutenant, Company G, on 23 February 1863 (from 22 September 1862) and promoted again, to Captain of Company A, on 12 January 1864 (from 6 March 1863). He was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor, VA on 11 June 1864 and died at Campbell Hospital in Washington, DC on 4 July.

His basic service from the State of New York.1 The quote above from his letter to William J Pell (husband to his cousin Mary Emily Folger) of 21 September 1862, now in the Isaac Plumb, Jr. Family Papers [finding aid, blog post] at Princeton University, source also of his portrait. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Thanks to Jim Smith for the pointers to Plumb and the Princeton collection.

01/10/1842; Sherburne, NY

07/04/1864; Washington, DC; burial in Sherburne West Hill Cemetery, Sherburne, NY