William Membane Pollard Questionnaire

1.  State your full name and present post office address:  -

2.  State your age now:  78 last June (1921)

3.  In what state and county were you born:  Williamson County, TN

4.  In what state and county were you living in when you enlisted in the Confederacy or Federal Government?:  Confederacy;  Williamson County, Tenn.

5.  What was your occupation before the war?:  At School.

6.  What was the occupation of your father?:  Farmer and Country Store

7.  If you owned land or property at the opening of the war, state what kind of property you owned, and state the value of your property as near as you can:  Owned None

8.  Did you or your parents own slaves?  If so, how many?:  Yes, about 20 (my parents owned them).

9.  If your parents owned land, state about how many acres:  500 acres

10.  State as near as you can the value of all the property owned by your parents, including land, when the war opened:  About $50,000

11.  What kind of house did your parents occupy? State whether it was a log house or frame house or built of other materials, and state the number of rooms it had:  Frame House - 9 rooms

12.  As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe, and did other kinds of similar work (Certain hisorians claim that white men wouldn't do work of this sort before the war.):  Worked on Saturday and during vacation.

13.  State clearly what kind of work you father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember -- that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, etc. :  My Father supervised farm work.  My mother superintended work done in the house such as cooking spinning weaving etc.

14.  Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many?:  Three about house and kitchen.

15.  How was honest toil -- as plowing, hauling and other sorts of honest work of this class -- regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable?:  Yes

16.  Did the white men in your community generally engage in such work?:  Yes

17.  To what extent were there white man in your community leading lives of idleness and having other do their work for them?  No Idlers.

18.  Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did not own slaves?:  Mingled freely, no distinction manifested.

19.  At the churches, at the schools, at public gatherings in general, did slaveholders and non-slaveholders mingle on a footing of equality?:  They did.

20.  Was there a friendly feeling between slaveholders and non-slaveholders in your community, or were they antagonistic to each other?:  There was no antagonism.

21.  In a political contest in which one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help  him in winning the contest?:  No

22. Were the opportunities good in your community for a poor young man -- honest and industrious -- to save up enough to buy a small farm or go in business for himself?:  Yes

23. Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders?:  Encouraged.

24. What kind of school or schools did you attend?:  Male Schools

25. About how long did you go to school altogether?:  About 7 or 8 years

26. How far was it to the nearest school?:  About 1 and 1/2 miles.

27. What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood?:  Union Academy-pupils from many of the southern states.

28. Was the school in you community private or public?:  Private

29. About how many months in the year did it run?:  About 10 months.

30. Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly?:  Yes.

31. Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or a woman?:  Men.

32. In what year and month and at what place did you enlist the Confederate or of the Federal Government?:  Confederacy; April 1861, Franklin, Tenn.

33. State the name of your regiment, and state the names of as many members of your company as you remember:  See Supplement.

34.  After enlistment, where was your company sent first?:  To Camp Cheatham about 4 miles north of Springfield, Tenn. where the 1st Tenn. Regt. of Infantry was organized.  See Supplement No. 34.

35. How long after your enlistment before your company engaged in battle?:  Perryville, KY Oct. 8, 1862.

36. What was the first battle you engaged in?:  Perryville was our first regular exclusive of some skirmishes in Va.  See Supplement No. 36.

37. State in you own way your experience in the war from this time on until the close. State where you went after the first battle -- what you did, what other battles you engaged in, how long they lasted, what the results were; state how you lived in camp, how you were clothed, how you slept, what you had to eat, how you exposed to cold, hunger and disease. If you were in the hospital or in prison, state you experience here:  I have written full details much more satisfactory then I could give here.

38. When and where were you discharged?:  My parole is dated Greensboro, N.C.  In my diary I state that I rec'd my parole at 4:30 PM May 4th 1 mile from Salisbury, N.C. which is near Greensboro.