Individual Details

Death

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) March 27, 1899 page 12
Maj. James M. Pollard, an old and widely esteemed citizen of Washington, and for many years and ardent factor in the development and growth of the District National Guard, died yesterday afternoon at Providence Hospital of pneumonia. The funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon from 117 C street, and burial will be in Rock Creek cemetery. A delegation from the District National guard will be in attendance, and a firing party will give a last salute in honor of the dead man. Maj. Pollard served in the cavalry arm of the United States army during the civil war and was a good soldier. He received several wounds, one in the arm giving him trouble at intervals all his life. It was to receive treatment for this old wound that he went to Providence Hospital, but exposure had already placed the seeds of pneumonia in his system and his death resulted from it, as stated. Maj. Pollard came to this city after the war and enjoyed wide reputation as an authority on explosives. He became an examiner in the patent office, and in later years held an official position in the pension office. He had world-wide fame as an expert long-distance rifle shot, which he gained at Wimbledon, England, and at Creedmore, in this country. He was the inspector general of rifle practice of the District National Guard from the time of its organization by the late Gen. Albert G. Ordway until 1892. Before then he was a member of the old Washington Light Infantry Corps. He was a member of two American rifle teams which went to England to shoot against the representatives of the United Kingdom at Wimbledon, and it 1890 he took the District Brigade rifle team to Creedmore, where it first won the Hilton Trophy. Major Pollard was a man of attractive personality, but had been a great sufferer in recent years, and an invalid for a considerable portion of the time.

Extracted from: The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) March 30, 1899 page 24
James Pollard was born in Albany N.Y., and entered the Union service in September, 1861, a private in Company G., 5th New York Cavalry. After a service of four years and five months, he was discharged in November, 1865, as sergeant of the same company and regiment, on account of wounds.
Major Pollard was wounded by a pistol ball in the left leg below the knee while on picket duty in Virginia, in July, 1862, and again in 1865, during Early’s raid, when he received a gunshot wound in the left shoulder. He was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps during the autumn of 1865.