Thomas A. Polleys
Thomas A. Polleys was born around 1839 in Nova Scotia, Canada, to Abner and Jane Polleys. The family immigrated to America around 1850 and settled in Juneau, Wisconsin. According to an early biographer, Polleys “received a good common-school education and fitted himself as a teacher in the common schools of the State.” By the early 1860s, he was working as a teacher in Trempealeau, Wisconsin.
He enlisted in the Union army on June 20, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company H of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry on July 16. The regiment took part in the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign. He was wounded at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment.
He married Cordelia L. Martin on February 4, 1864, and their son Thomas Polleys was born on January 31, 1865. He was severely wounded in the right leg near Petersburg, Virginia, on June 18, 1864. Surgeons amputated the leg, but he died in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 30, 1864.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (5174) | Polleys, Thomas A. | 1839 | 1864-06-30 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Sergeant
- Rank highest: Sergeant
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 1
- (2192) [writer] ~ Thomas A. Polleys Diary, 1864
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 1
- (1140) [enlisted] [H] ~ 6th Wisconsin Infantry
SOURCES
Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; Wisconsin Marriage Records, 1820-2004, available from Ancestry.com; Widow’s Pension Records of Cordelia Polleys, available from Fold3.com; Biographical Review of Dane County, Wisconsin (Chicago, IL: Biographical Review Publishing Co., 1893)
