Buffalo Soldiers - Plummer Chapter

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Chaplain Captain Henry Vinton Plummer Chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers

In 1884, Henry Vinton Plummer became the first African Arnerican to be appointed as a U.S. Army Chaplain after Reconstruction. He held a rank equivalent to Captain. Ten years later and under questionable circumstances, he received a dishonorable discharge for "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." Until his death in 1905, Plummer unsuccessfully protested the charges against him, claiming "false testimony and prejudice." 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. In a meeting first held in 1997, his decendants and others moved his cause forward.

In 2002, Plummer's great-nephew L. Jerome Fowler organized a Committee, comprising family members, political leaders, military personnel, clergy, and others who began to meet regularly to determine a course of action to clear Chaplain Plummer's record with the Army. Archival research and conversations with lawyers, military personnel, and historians served to underscore the injustice done to Chaplain Plummer. The committee requested a review of the court martial and dishonorable discharge by the Department of the Army, Congress, and the President. The goal was to clear Chaplain Plummer's name.

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. 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.

This Chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers was established in his honor. The first President of our Chapter, Trooper Isaac Prentice, was among those who worked diligently to clear Chaplain Captain Plummer’s name.