Charles Plummer Tidd

Charles Plummer Tidd, also known as Charles Plummer, was a captain in John Brown's army. He was born in Palermo, Maine, in 1834, and changed his name after the raid in order to avoid possible arrest and trial as a Harper's Ferry raider--a precaution of greater importance when he entered the Union army in 1861.

He emigrated to Kansas with the party of Dr. Calvin Cutter, of Worcester, in 1856. He joined John Brown's party at Tabor, in 1857, and thereafter, in Canada and elsewhere, was one of Brown's closest associates, returning to Kansas in 1858 as a follower of "Shubel Morgan." He took part in the raid into Missouri. He and Cook were particularly warm friends. Tidd opposed the attack on Harper's Ferry. After his escape from Virginia, he visited Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Canada, and was freely consulted in the plans for rescue of Stevens and Hazlett. "Tidd," wrote Mrs. Annie Brown Adams, "had not much education, but good common sense. After the raid he began to study, and tried to repair his deficiencies. He was by no means handsome. He had a quick temper, but was kind-hearted. His rages soon passed and then he tried all he could to repair dam- ages. He was a fine singer and of strong family affections."

He died of fever, on the transport Northerner, as a first sergeant of the Twenty-first Massachusetts Volunteers, on February 8, 1862, with the roar of the battle of Roanoke Island in his ears. This he had particularly wished to take part in, for ex-Governor Henry A. Wise (the nemesis of the raid on Harper's Ferry) was in command of the Confederates, his son, O. Jennings Wise, being killed in the engagement. Tidd had enlisted July 19, 1861, as a private. His grave is No. 40 in the New Berne, N. C., National Cemetery.