Short Biography of Charles H. Plimpton

Charles H., b. May 23, 1845; m. Nov. 4, 1867, Mary A., dau. of Hon. Harvey Bell, formerly of Virginia; and has been in the railroad business since the war, as locomotive engineer and passenger conductor, Danville, Ill. Mustered into the service of the United States July 31, 1862, in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment; transferred Sept. 1, 1863, to Co. F., third Veteran Reserved Corps, then located at New Haven, Conn., where his term of service expired. He was in the "Seven-days'-fight," Second Bull's Run, South Mountain, and last at Antietam, where the "Old Fifteenth" suffered as it never did before. Near the close of the last-mentioned battle, he was severely wounded in three places and taken prisoner. After being a prisoner three days he was recaptured by his own regiment, and then conveyed to the Battlefield Hospital. The surgeons there decided to amputate his left leg above the knee-joint. This he opposed so strongly that he was left to care for himself. In intense suffering, by ambulance and by railroad, he was taken to Philadelphia. There, by the aid of the most skillful surgeons, and good nursing, he recovered.

The patriotism which seems to have pervaded this whole family, in the person of this boy of seventeen years of age was peculiarly high-toned and enthusiastic. Earnestly he plead with his parents, and proudly he stepped forth to enter the already thinning ranks of the glorious "Old 15th."

Source: "A genealogy and historical notices of the family of Plimpton or Plympton in America, and of Plumpton in England" ⁹⁷⁶