David F. Polliard

1842 - 1921  (79 years)

• Name	David F. Polliard
  	In the 1850 Federal Census for Porter Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, David Polliard, age 9, is residing with the family of David Womelsdorf, a farmer. In the 1860 Federal Census for Madison Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, David Polliard, age 18, occupation laborer, is residing with the family of David Hawk, a farmer. Civil War American Civil War Soldiers David Polliard Enlistment Date: 7 Sep 1862 Side Served: Union State Served: Pennsylvania Service Record: Enlisted as a Private on 7 September 1862. Enlisted in Company K, 148th Infantry Regiment Pennsylvania on 7 Sep 1862. Mustered Out Company K, 148th Infantry Regiment Pennsylvania on 1 Jun 1865 at Alexandria, VA. Sources: 18,22 (Ancestry.com) “The 28th of June, 1863, on the Gettysburg campaign, was the hardest day's marching we ever had. The evening before, I had bought a peck of potatoes from the officers' wagon, hoping to enjoy a good breakfast, but the bugle sounded the march before the potatoes were cooked. Comrade Polliard proposed to carry them, so that we might have them for dinner. He put them in his knapsack, and we started. It was a very warm day, the march was rapid, and about noon Polliard said, "I wish they would stop. These potatoes are getting heavy." As the march continued, he said, "If we don't stop soon, I will have to throw them away," but I took his gun and carried it for him for several hours, and when we halted, about ten o'clock at night, with but four men of the company to stack arms, we dropped down on the ground, forgetting all about the potatoes, and went sound asleep. We had them for breakfast, however, the next morning.” (Source - "The Story of Company K, 148th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry" by Captain, Brever Major, Jeremiah Zacharia Brown.) In the 1870 Federal Census for Madison Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, David F. Polliard, occupation carpenter, is married and residing with his wife Clarissa A. Lobaugh. The 28th of June, 1863, on the Gettysburg campaign, was the hardest day's marching we ever had. The evening before, I had bought a peck of potatoes from the officers' wagon, hoping to enjoy a good breakfast, but the bugle sounded the march before the potatoes were cooked. Comrade Polliard proposed to carry them, so that we might have them for dinner. He put them in his knapsack, and we started. It was a very warm day, the march was rapid, and about noon Polliard said, "I wish they would stop. These potatoes are getting heavy." As the march continued, he said, "If we don't stop soon, I will have to throw them away," but I took his gun and carried it for him for several hours, and when we halted, about ten o'clock at night, with but four men of the company to stack arms, we dropped down on the ground, forgetting all about the potatoes, and went sound asleep. We had them for breakfast, however, the next morning. (Source - Extracted from notes of an published interview with Captain Jerimiah Zachariah Brown of Company K, 148th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry following the Civil War) See additional notes in Captain Brown's file. David Polliard September 04, 1921 CLARION CTY. E. MADISON TWP. 78 yrs ORGANIC HEART Burial Cemetery Lot Section Undertaker 09/06/1921 Rimersburg PLOT C.B. STEWART Survivors Notes CO. K. 148 PA. INFANTRY [1]
  Born	1842	Clarion, Clarion County, Pennsylvania
  Gender	Male
  _FA1	Father was born in Pennsylvania.  [2]
  Died	04 Sep 1921	Madison Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania
  Buried	06 Sep 1921	Rimersburg Cemetry, Rimersburg, Clarion County, Pennsylvania   [1]
  Person ID	I3775	McKinney and Stewart of Clarion County, Pennsylvania
  Last Modified	11 Jul 2008

  
  

  Family	Clarissa A. Lobaugh,   b. 1851, Clarion County, Pennsylvania ,   d. 19 Sep 1934, Rimersburg, Clarion County, Pennsylvania  (Age 83 years)
  Last Modified	13 Oct 2007
  Family ID	F1145	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos		Civil War - The 148th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg A painting by John Paul Strain. Generals Hancock and Caldwell of the 2nd Corps watch as General Sickles of the 3rd Corps makes his ill fated march into the wheat field at Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863. Caldwell’s 1st Division would be sent to rescue Sickles. Among the regiments in Caldwell’s division was the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. See Notes Section on Jeremiah Zachariah Brown for his comments on the march to Gettysburg on June 28, 1863 and the position of Company K of the 148th in the Wheatfield on the farm of John Rose (230 acres of which 26 were planted in wheat) at Gettysburg. The battle flag to the right in the painting is that of the II Corps. The battle flag to the left contains a trefoil, the symbol of the II Corps. It is the same design as that on the Momument to the 148th at the Gettysburg National Military Park. Some Additional Comments on The Wheatfield. Initial assault on the Wheatfield. The area known as the Wheatfield had three geographic features, all owned by the John Rose family: the 20 acre field itself, Rose Woods bordering it on the west, and a modest elevation known as Stony Hill, also to the west. Immediately to the southeast was Houck's Ridge and to the south Devil's Den. The fighting here, consisting of numerous confusing attacks and counterattacks over two hours by eleven brigades, earned the field the nickname "Bloody Wheatfield”. The first engagement in the Wheatfield was actually that of Anderson's brigade (Hood's division) attacking the 17th Maine of Trobriand's brigade, a spillover from Hood's attack on Houck's Ridge. Although under pressure and with its neighboring regiments on Stony Hill withdrawing, the 17th Maine held its position behind a low stone wall with the assistance of Winslow's battery, and Anderson fell back. Trobriand wrote, "I had never seen any men fight with equal obstinacy." By 5:30 p.m., when the first of Kershaw's regiments neared the Rose farmhouse, Stony Hill had been reinforced by two brigades of the 1st Division, V Corps, under Brig. Gen. James Barnes, those of Cols. William S. Tilton and Jacob B. Sweitzer. Kershaw's men placed great pressure on the 17th Maine, but it continued to hold. For some reason, however, Barnes withdrew his under strength division about 300 yards (270 m) to the north—without consultation with Birney's men—to a new position near the Wheatfield Road. Trobriand and the 17th Maine had to follow suit, and the Confederates seized Stony Hill and streamed into the Wheatfield. (Barnes's controversial decision was widely criticized after the battle, and it effectively ended his military career.) Earlier that afternoon, as Meade realized the folly of Sickles's movement, he ordered Hancock to send a division from the II Corps to reinforce the III Corps. Hancock sent the 1st Division under Brig. Gen. John C. Caldwell from its reserve position behind Cemetery Ridge. It arrived at about 6 p.m. and three brigades, under Cols. Samuel K. Zook, Patrick Kelly (the Irish Brigade), and Edward E. Cross moved forward; the fourth brigade, under Col. John R. Brooke, was in reserve. Zook and Kelly drove the Confederates from Stony Hill, and Cross cleared the Wheatfield, pushing Kershaw's men back to the edge of Rose Woods. Both Zook and Cross were mortally wounded in leading their brigades through these assaults, as was Confederate Semmes. When Cross's men had exhausted their ammunition, Caldwell ordered Brooke to relieve them. By this time, however, the Union position in the Peach Orchard had collapsed (see next section), and Wofford's assault continued down the Wheatfield Road, taking Stony Hill and flanking the Union forces in the Wheatfield. Brooke's brigade in Rose Woods had to retreat in some disorder. Sweitzer's brigade was sent in to delay the Confederate assault, and they did this effectively in vicious hand-to-hand combat. The Wheatfield changed hands once again. Confederates seize the Wheatfield. Additional Union troops had arrived by this time. The 2nd Division of the V corps, under Brig. Gen. Romeyn B. Ayres, was known as the Regular Division because two of its three brigades were composed of U.S. Army (regular army) troops, not state volunteers. (The brigade of volunteers, under Brig. Gen. Stephen H. Weed, was already engaged on Little Round Top, so only the regular army brigades arrived at the Wheatfield.) In their advance across the Valley of Death they had come under heavy fire from Confederate sharpshooters in Devil's Den. As the regulars advanced, the Confederates swarmed over Stony Hill and through Rose Woods, flanking the newly arrived brigades. They retreated back to the relative safety of Little Round Top in good order, despite heavy casualties and pursuing Confederates. The two regular brigades suffered 829 casualties out of 2,613 engaged. This final Confederate assault through the Wheatfield continued past Houck's Ridge into the Valley of Death at about 7:30 p.m. The brigades of Anderson, Semmes, and Kershaw were exhausted from hours of combat in the summer heat and advanced east with units jumbled up together. Wofford's brigade followed to the left along the Wheatfield Road. As they reached the northern shoulder of Little Round Top, they were met with a counterattack from the 3rd Division (the Pennsylvania Reserves) of the V Corps, under Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford. The brigade of Col. William McCandless, including a company from the Gettysburg area, spearheaded the attack and drove the exhausted Confederates back beyond the Wheatfield to Stony Hill. Realizing that his troops were too far advanced and exposed, Crawford pulled the brigade back to the east edge of the Wheatfield. The bloody Wheatfield remained quiet for the rest of the battle. But it took a heavy toll on the men who traded possession back-and-forth. The Confederates suffered casualties of 1,394 and the Union 3,215 (not a typical ratio of attackers to defenders). Some of the wounded managed to crawl to Plum Run but could not cross it. The river ran red with their blood. As with the Cornfield at Antietam, this small expanse of agricultural ground would be remembered by veterans as a name of unique significance in the history of warfare.
  		Civil War - Monument of 148th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry at Gettysburg From the Ayers Avenue (Wheatfield) Monument. The 148th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Corps, the Army of the Potomac. "The Regiment engaged the enemy on this position in the afternoon of July 2nd 1863." "Present at Gettysburg 468 offices and men. Killed and died of wounds, 2 officers, 25 men. Wounded, 5 officers, 88 men. Captured or missing, 5 men. Total 125." "Some of the deadliest fighting of the Battle of Gettysburg took place in the now famous Wheatfield. James Longstreet's I Corps attacked Federal soldiers from Daniel Sickles' III Corps. For over three hours, six Confederate brigades attacked and counterattacked 13 Union brigades from four different Federal corps. Several generals were mortally wounded, and the fighting bogged down into a regiment-by-regiment, man-to-man engagement. When the smoke cleared and the fighting ceased on the evening of July 2, 1863, the 26 acres of wheat owned by George Rose had been destroyed, with the dead and wounded strewn all about." Neither side gained control of the ground, but many men gave their lives trying.

  
  

  Documents		1880 Federal Census, Madison Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania David F. Polliard Family
  		Roster of 148th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War.

  
  

  Histories

  100th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Pennsylvania State Memorial at Gettysburg on September 27, 2010

  
  

• Sources

  [S20995] Eccles-Lesher Memorial Library (Reliability: 3). [S02776] 1880 Federal Census for Pennsylvania.