Thomas Halsey was born on October 15, 1842, in Virginia to James and Martha Halsey. His father was a farmer who owned $4,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Wythe County, Virginia, and by 1860, he was working as a laborer.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on March 10, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company A of the 4^th Virginia Infantry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 3 inches tall, with dark hair and brown eyes. The regiment took part in the First Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Malvern Hill, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the Battle of Gettysburg.

 

He was wounded in the groin at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Union forces captured him and transported him to Davids Island, New York. They apparently released him later that year. In October 1863, a Virginia doctor declared him “wholly unfit for the performance of Military duty.” He deserted to Union lines at Charleston, West Virginia, in January 1865, and he swore an oath of amnesty on January 4, 1865.

 

He married Martha Wilkinson on October 28, 1863. They had at least six children: William, born around 1866; James, born around 1868; John, born around 1870; Sallie, born around 1874; Eva, born around 1880; and Maggie, born around 1885. The family moved to Mingo, Missouri, in the 1860s, and he worked as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $100 of personal property. They moved to Jackson, Missouri, in the 1870s. His wife died on January 20, 1898, and he died near Odessa, Missouri, on February 7, 1909.

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