Colonel Pluck Parades His Celebrated “Bloody Eighty-Fourth” Regiment,

May 19, 1825

An amusing sensation started in 1824 continued to attract attention in Philadelphia during the following year.

There had been more or less laxity in the various militia organizations in the election of their officers and this was much more evident in Philadelphia than elsewhere in the State.

John Pluck, an ignorant hostler, was elected colonel of the Eighty-fourth Regiment as a joke and to ridicule the militia system, which at that moment was very unpopular with the members.

This election had been resisted by many who were disinclined to treat so serious a matter jocularly, and the board of officers set aside the election as illegal, and ordered a new election.

At the next election John Pluck received 447 votes; Benjamin Harter, 64; and John Ferdey, commonly called “Whistling Johnny,” 15.

The successful candidate treated the matter seriously and issued an order for a parade of the First Battalion on May 1, on Callowhill Street, the right resting on Sixth Street; and the Second Battalion was ordered to parade at the same place on May 19.

The order further directed that Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Norbury was to command the training of the First Battalion. The colonel himself was to take charge of the Second Battalion.

The papers of that day do not notice the parade of the First Battalion, which was scheduled for May 1, but they have much to say about the big parade of May 19.

It seems that by this time most of the militiamen in the regiment fully sensed the ridiculous position they were in with such an ignorant commander, and on the occasion of this much heralded parade the members appeared in fantastic costumes.

Many of the militiamen were armed with ponderous imitations of weapons, and a large number of the populace turned out in the parade, dressed in every imaginable sort of costume, such as would even cause a ripple of laughter at Hallowe’en; these were armed with brooms, rakes, hoes and every conception of weapon.

Philadelphia had never before witnessed such a “military” parade, and was quite unaccustomed to such a display, and this regimental review of “horribles” attracted much attention.

Colonel Pluck was mounted on a fine steed, and Adjutant Roberts, 351also well mounted, were the moving spirits of the parade and did not seem to fully realize the burlesque features of it.

The regiment marched out to Bush Hill, followed by thousands of people on foot and hundreds on horseback.

The press was either silent or expressed dissatisfaction. It could not have done otherwise.

A few days following the parade Colonel Pluck issued new orders. He said: “Well, I am an honest man, anyhow. And I ain’t afraid to fight, and that’s more than most of them can say.”

The United States Gazette said, “Pluck is the head groom at the corner of Third and Callowhill Streets. Some months ago he was chosen commander-in-chief of the ‘bloody Eighty-fourth;’ but the powers that be refused to commission him. * * * The Militia system is a farce. DemagoguesDemagogues have been using commissions in the militia as stepping-stones to offices of profit and honor. A cure must be found for the evil, which is to make fun of it.”

The “Pluck Parade” rendered one other good service to Philadelphia. When the regiment paraded to Bush Hill and wound up the day in disorderly frivolities, the grand jury in June declared Bush Hill a public nuisance. This was a large open field on the north side of Callowhill Street, between Schuylkill Fourth and Schuylkill Fifth.

The presentment of the grand jury states that men and women resorted there on various days, as well as on the Sabbath, “drinking, tippling, cursing, swearing, etc.” The grand jury further said that it had “particular reference to the days on which regiments and battalions of militia parade, when numerous booths, tents, and gaming tables are there erected.”

It would be supposed that such a fantastic exhibition, directed against the militia system, would soon cause a change in the existing law, but it did no such thing.

The act of Assembly of April 2, 1822, had reorganized the militia of Pennsylvania, and divided the State into sixteen military divisions.

But the act did not work to the advantage of the militia system. It developed a lot of merely dress parade organizations, which were usually equipped with costly and gaudy uniforms, while discipline and military regulations became at once of secondary importance.

From 1808 to 1844, the laws were principally for designating independent companies with high-sounding names. Such militiamen were exempted from drilling with regular militia, and occasionally the Legislature made appropriations to certain favored companies.

The music on days of general muster was not only made a special feature of the occasion but its cost was borne by the State.

So it is little wonder that the “Bloody Eighty-fourth,” elected “Colonel Pluck,” or that the populace and papers of that day demanded a change in the militia system of the State.

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