# Colonel Plug

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{{Short description|American river pirate}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox person| name        = Colonel Plug
| image       = Heron Pond in Cache River State Natural Area.jpg
| caption     = Colonel Plug and his gang of [river pirate](/source/river_pirate)s patrolled the [Cache River](/source/Cache_River_(Illinois)) [cypress](/source/cypress) [swamp](/source/swamp), of [Southern Illinois](/source/Southern_Illinois), near the [confluence](/source/confluence) of the [Ohio](/source/Ohio_River) and [Mississippi River](/source/Mississippi_River)s, hunting down helpless and unsuspecting river travelers, to attack, rob, and murder, between the 1790s–1820. 
| birth_place = [Rockingham County, New Hampshire](/source/Rockingham_County%2C_New_Hampshire), US
| death_date  = 1820?
| death_place = [Cache River](/source/Cache_River_(Illinois)), present-day [Pulaski County, Illinois](/source/Pulaski_County%2C_Illinois)?
| resting_place = [Cache River](/source/Cache_River_(Illinois)), present-day [Pulaski County, Illinois](/source/Pulaski_County%2C_Illinois)?
| occupation  = river pirate, criminal gang leader, state militia officer
| other_names = Colonel Fluger, Colonel Flueger, Colonel Pflueger, Col. Plug, Last of the Boat-wreckers                        
| predecessor = 
| successor = 
| party = 
| boards = 
| spouse = Pluggy
| parents = 
| relatives = 
| known for = 
}}

[[File:Keelboat and flatboat.jpg|right|thumb|235px|Colonel Plug and the Cache River pirates chose [flatboat](/source/flatboat)s, [keelboat](/source/keelboat)s, and [raft](/source/raft)s, as profitable targets, to attack, because of the valuable and plentiful [cargo](/source/cargo) on board and the crews could be easily overwhelmed and killed.]]

[[File:Cave-in-rock IL.jpg|left|thumb|245px|The infamous outlaw haunt of [Cave-in-Rock](/source/Cave-in-Rock_State_Park) on the [Ohio River](/source/Ohio_River) the real-life river pirate [Samuel Mason](/source/Samuel_Mason) led a gang of [river pirate](/source/river_pirate)s, from 1797-1799 who the legendary Colonel Plug may have been based on]]

[[File:Fort Massac River Side.jpg|thumb|right|390px|[Fort Massac](/source/Fort_Massac_State_Park), down [river](/source/Ohio_River), from [Cave-in-Rock](/source/Cave-in-Rock_State_Park) and above the Cache River which was a [U.S. Army](/source/United_States) frontier post that policed the [Ohio River](/source/Ohio_River) looking for pirates like Colonel Plug and his gang.]]
 
{{Infobox Criminal organization
| name                 = Cache River Pirates
| founded           = 
| founding_location    = [Cache River](/source/Cache_River_(Illinois)), at the [confluence](/source/confluence) of the [Ohio River](/source/Ohio_River), just above the [Mississippi River](/source/Mississippi_River), in [Southern Illinois](/source/Southern_Illinois)
| founded_by           = Colonel Plug, Nine-Eyes
| years_active         = 1790s–1820
| territory            =  [Ohio](/source/Ohio_River) and [Mississippi River](/source/Mississippi_River)s, [Southern Illinois](/source/Southern_Illinois), Western Kentucky
| ethnicity        = European-American, African-American
| membership_est       = ?
| criminal_activities  = river piracy, theft, fencing stolen goods, murder 
| rivals               = [Samuel Mason](/source/Samuel_Mason) (river pirate)
}}

[[File:Caulked hull timbers, Spry, Blists Hill.jpg|thumb|right|195px|Wooden boat [hull](/source/hull_(watercraft)) planks with watertight seams wedged together used traditional caulking made from the combined fibers of [cotton](/source/cotton) and [oakum](/source/oakum), a type of [hemp](/source/hemp) rope fiber soaked in [pine tar](/source/pine_tar)]]

[[File:Auger 3 (PSF).png|110px|right|thumb|An [auger](/source/auger_(drill)) the drilling tool used by Colonel Plug and his [river pirate](/source/river_pirate)s]]

'''Colonel Plug''' (1700s? – 1820?), also known as '''Colonel Fluger''' and "'''The Last of the Boat-Wreckers'''", who existed sometime between the 1790s and 1820, was the [legend](/source/legend)ary [river pirate](/source/river_pirate) who ran a criminal gang on the [Ohio River](/source/Ohio_River) in a [cypress](/source/cypress) [swamp](/source/swamp) near the mouth of the [Cache River](/source/Cache_River_(Illinois)). The outlaw camp of Colonel Plug was supposedly below the river pirate hideout of [Cave-In-Rock](/source/Cave-In-Rock_State_Park) and the [U.S. Army](/source/United_States_Army) post at [Fort Massac](/source/Fort_Massac), which monitored and policed frontier river traffic just above the [confluence](/source/confluence) of the [Ohio](/source/Ohio_River) and [Mississippi River](/source/Mississippi_River)s.

==Cache River swamp and Ohio River juncture==
[French-Canadien](/source/French-Canadian) [voyageurs](/source/voyageurs) gave the Cache River its name, which meant "secret or hidden place". The first European settlers came into this [swampy river country](/source/freshwater_swamp_forest)<ref name=NHD>U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. [http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The National Map] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630110913/http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ |date=2016-06-30 }}, accessed May 13, 2011</ref> in 1803. The waterlogged river soil was too wet for farming, and the cypress swamps were populated with [mosquito](/source/mosquito)es and [venomous snakes](/source/List_of_snakes_of_Illinois). Many of the settlers along the Cache became sick and died of [malaria](/source/malaria).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lib.niu.edu/2000/oi000907.html|title = Cache Incentives}}</ref> Because the Cache River was such an undesirable and nearly uninhabitable place, the poor living conditions in the region were ideal for concealing the illicit activities of river piracy.

==Colonel Plug tactics==
Colonel Plug's usual tactics were to sneak aboard or have one of his river pirates, secretly, go into the [hull](/source/hull_(watercraft)) of a boat, dig out the [caulking](/source/caulking) between the boat bottom [planks](/source/plank_(wood)), causing the boat to sink and be easily attacked. The other method for disabling a boat was to [drill](/source/drill) holes in the bottom planks, with an [auger](/source/auger_(drill)).

Traditional caulking was made from combining the fibers of [cotton](/source/cotton) and [oakum](/source/oakum), a type of [hemp](/source/hemp) rope fiber soaked in [pine tar](/source/pine_tar). The sticky caulk mixture would be driven into a wedge-shaped seam between the wooden boat [hull](/source/hull_(watercraft)) planks, with a caulking mallet and a broad [chisel](/source/chisel)-like tool called a caulking iron to create a watertight seal.

The salvaged boat and cargo would later, be sold, down the Mississippi River, in [New Orleans](/source/New_Orleans) and along other river town ports. Plug eventually [drowned](/source/drowning), being unable to escape from being trapped inside the bottom of a rapidly sinking boat.

==Physical appearance==
According to Cincinnati newspaperman Timothy Flint in 1830, Colonel Plug was described as:

<blockquote>
But being a youth of broad red cheeks, muscle and impudence, and withal, abundantly stored with small talk, from eighteen to twenty-one he was a decided favorite with the fair, and had had various love affairs, being reputed remarkably slippery in regard to the grace of perseverance. At twenty four he had mounted [epaulette](/source/epaulette)s, was a militia colonel, had a portentous red nose, and was in bad odour with all honest people.
</blockquote>

==Colonel Plug wife and river pirate gang==
Colonel Plug had a wife, known as "Pluggy", a very large, copper complected, [mustache](/source/mustache)d, [quadroon](/source/quadroon) woman of three mixed races.  He had a partner and second in command, of the river pirate gang, named "[Nine-Eyes](/source/lamprey)", who may have been an [escaped slave](/source/Fugitive_slaves_in_the_United_States), [manumitted former slave](/source/manumission), or [free-born negro](/source/free_negro).

==Historical research and folklore==
Tales of Colonel Plug may have been based on the real life, Cave-In-Rock river pirate, [Samuel Mason](/source/Samuel_Mason) or by his alias, "Bully Wilson".  Little is known about Colonel Plug, if he was actually a real person or a just a fictional river pirate character, except, from the [folklorish](/source/folklore) descriptions provided by Timothy Flint in his 1830 newspaper article "Col. Plug, the last of the Boat-wreckers," from the [Cincinnati, Ohio](/source/Cincinnati%2C_Ohio) [newspaper](/source/newspaper), ''The Western Monthly Review'' and another article "The Boat-Wreckers—Or Banditti of the West," in the [Rochester, New York](/source/Rochester%2C_New_York) newspaper, ''Daily Advertiser'', January 29, 1830, very little historical evidence exists about Colonel Plug to prove he actually lived.

Colonel Plug claimed to have been a [Yankee native](/source/New_England) from [Rockingham County, New Hampshire](/source/Rockingham_County%2C_New_Hampshire) and a former [colonel](/source/Colonel_(United_States)) in the [New Hampshire](/source/New_Hampshire_Militia) [Militia](/source/Militia). Colonel Fluger may have been of [German](/source/Germany) ancestry, as Fluger is a German surname. No historical evidence exists to justify this military claim, as no '''Fluger''', '''Flueger''', or '''Pflueger''' surnames, as many spelling variations exist, can be found in the [New Hampshire](/source/New_Hampshire) U.S. [census](/source/census) records or the Rockingham County military muster rolls.

==Decline of river piracy==
After the arrival of the first [steamboat](/source/steamboat), ''[New Orleans](/source/New_Orleans_(steamboat))'', on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in 1811, the year of the cataclysmic [New Madrid earthquake](/source/1811%E2%80%9312_New_Madrid_earthquakes), river piracy began to decline because these new boats were faster and harder to ambush and would not have had to stop as often for fueling, rest, supplies, or shelter from a storm.  Also, keelboat crews came to eventually travel together in [naval flotillas](/source/flotilla), with large groups of guards to protect their cargo from any criminal elements they found on the rivers.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

==In popular culture==
Actor [Walter Catlett](/source/Walter_Catlett) portrayed the historical river pirate and criminal gang leader, Colonel Plug inaccurately as a comical mischief maker, not as ruthless outlaw in the [Walt Disney's Disneyland](/source/Walt_Disney_anthology_television_series)'s, live-action miniseries, in season 2, episode 13, ''[Davy Crockett and the River Pirates](/source/Davy_Crockett_and_the_River_Pirates)'', which aired December 14, 1955.

==Brewing industry==
In 2013, the [microbrewery](/source/microbrewery) [Listermann Brewing Company](/source/Listermann_Brewing_Company) of Cincinnati, Ohio has produced Colonel Plug ([Kentucky](/source/Kentucky) Style Common Ale),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.brewminds.com/events/new-local-beer-alert-listermann-colonel-plug-kentucky-style-common-ale/|title = New local beer alert: Listermann Colonel Plug (Kentucky Style Common Ale)|date = 17 September 2013}}</ref> a [sour mash](/source/sour_mash) [ale](/source/ale) aged in oak barrels.

==See also==
*[Peter Alston](/source/Peter_Alston)
*[Philip Alston](/source/Philip_Alston_(counterfeiter))
*[James Ford (pirate)](/source/James_Ford_(pirate))
*[Wiley Harpe](/source/Harpe_brothers)
*[Samuel Mason](/source/Samuel_Mason)
*[John Murrell (bandit)](/source/John_Murrell_(bandit))
*[Stack Island (Mississippi River)](/source/Stack_Island_(Mississippi_River))
*[Tower Rock](/source/Tower_Rock)

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*[Asbury, Herbert](/source/Herbert_Asbury). ''The French Quarter:  The Informal of the New Orleans Underworld''.  New York:  Alfred A. Knopf, 1936.
*Smith, Carter F. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=z0IyDwAAQBAJ&q=Gangs+and+the+Military%3A+Gangsters%2C+Bikers%2C+and+Terrorists+with+Military+Training Gangs and the Military: Gangsters, Bikers, and Terrorists with Military Training]''.  Lanham, MD:  Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
*Wagner, Mark J. ''The Wreck of the '"America" in Southern Illinois: A Flatboat on the Ohio River''.  Carbondale, IL:  Southern Illinois University Press, 2015.
*Wagner, Mark and Mary McCorvie. "Going to See the Varmint: Piracy in Myth and Reality on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, 1785–1830," ''X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy''.  Gainesville, FL:  University Press of Florida, 2006.
*Flint, Timothy.  "Col. Plug, the last of the Boat-wreckers," ''The Western Monthly Review''. Cincinnati, OH, 1830.
*"The Boat-Wreckers—Or Banditti of the West," ''Daily Advertiser''.  Rochester, NY, Jan. 29, 1830.

==External links==
*[http://www.illinoishistory.com/plug.html Col. Plug and the Pirates of the Cache River]
*[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19640430&id=waAtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eNcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=923,2652251&hl=en "Colonel Plug And His Wooden Plugs", ''The Southeast Missourian'' Newspaper]
*[http://www.brewminds.com/events/new-local-beer-alert-listermann-colonel-plug-kentucky-style-common-ale/ Colonel Plug (Kentucky Style Common Ale) - Listermann Brewing Company]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plug, Colonel}}
Category:River and lake piracy
Category:American pirates
Category:18th-century pirates
Category:19th-century pirates
Category:Outlaws
Category:Outlaws of the American Old West
Category:Folklore of the United States
Category:Ohio River
Category:Rivers of Illinois
Category:Riverboats
Category:Water transportation in the United States
Category:Legendary American people

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Colonel Plug](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Plug) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Plug?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.