Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1197

Rh Vicksburg from the South. Here his battery lost four guns and about thirty of the company were killed and captured. At the battle of Baker's Creek, or Champion's Hill, on May 16th, the last stand made outside of the Vicksburg entrenchments, the company lost two more guns and most of the men. During the subsequent siege of Vicksburg, from the first assault on May 19th to the surrender on July 4th, he served faithfully in the defense of the Confederate lines under almost constant fire, enduring a mental and physical strain which those who were there can never forget. After his parole at Vicksburg he returned to Virginia and in May, 1864, was engaged at New River Bridge, subsequently served in the defense of Lynchburg against Hunter's advance, and at Rockfish Gap, in contests with Sheridan's cavalry. In June, 1865, he was paroled at Staunton, and returned to the valley of Virginia to take up again his business as a photographer. Since 1877 he has resided at Lynchburg and has been successfully engaged in that business, having one of the leading establishments of the kind in that region. Mr. Plecker is popular socially and is a member of the Masonic order.

Charles T. Plunkett, a prominent citizen of Lynchburg, Va., and a veteran of the artillery branch of the army of Northern Virginia, was born in Appomattox county in 1846. When seventeen years of age he entered the Confederate service in December, 1863, as a private in Company A of the Twentieth battalion of artillery. He served in the subsequent operations of this command, and about April 1, 1865, was promoted color-bearer. During the siege of Richmond he participated in the fighting on the Brook road, and after the retreat had begun he took part in several skirmishes with the enemy and finally at Sailor's Creek, fell into the hands of the Federals. He was subsequently sent to Point Lookout as a prisoner of war and held there until June, 1865. After his release he returned to Appomattox county, and in 1866 embarked in the mercantile business at Spout Springs. In 1870 he was elected treasurer of Appomattox county for a term of three years. In 1874 he made his home at Lynchburg, and after a period in which he was employed as a salesman and bookkeeper, he became in January, 1876, the cashier of the Lynchburg insurance and banking company, as which he continued until July, 1882, when the company, having retired from business, he embarked in insurance and banking on his own account. This he has continued successfully since that date. In 1869 Mr. Plunkett was married to Miss Viola, daughter of Christopher Clark, of Campbell county.

Colonel William Thomas Poague, notable among the artillery commanders of the Confederate States, was born in Rockbridge county, Va,, in 1835. He is of a family long resident in Virginia, descended from his great-great-grandfather, Robert Poague, who came from the north of Ireland in 1738. He was educated at Washington college, receiving the degree of A. B., in 1857, after which he engaged in school teaching for one year in Georgia. Returning to Lexington he studied law, and desiring to make a career in the West, removed to St. Joseph, Mo., where he was admitted to the bar, and embarked in the practice of his profession. But the exciting events of that winter convinced him that a crisis was at hand in which he could be of service to his native State, and he