Thomas Plunket

Who is Thomas Plunket?

Thomas Plunket was an Irish soldier in the British army 95th Rifles regiment. He served throughout the Peninsular War and later in the Hundred Days campaign of 1815.

He is remembered for a feat at the Battle of Cacabelos during Moore's retreat to Corunna in 1809. Here Plunket shot the French Général de Brigade Auguste-Marie-François Colbert at a range of around 600 metres using a Baker rifle.

Plunket had run forward to make this shot. Before returning to his own lines he reloaded and shot down a trumpet-major who had rushed to the aid of the fallen general, which showed that the first shot had not been a fluke; the deaths were sufficient to throw the pending French attack into disarray. The shots were at a sufficiently long distance to impress others in the 95th Rifles, whose marksmanship was far better than the ordinary British soldiers who were armed with a Brown Bess musket and only trained to shoot into a body of men at 50 metres with volley fire.