Last Surviving US Civil War Veterans--interesting

by IronGland 18 Replies latest jw friends

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  IronGland

  1. Albert Woolson of Minnesota was the last authenticated survivor of
  
  the Civil War. Woolson served as a Union drummer boy and died in 1956.
  
  2. Determining the last Confederate veteran is more difficult. The
  
  most recent and thorough study by William Marvel, published in "Blue and
  
  Gray" magazine in Feb. 1991, finds that the last authenicated veteran of
  
  the Confederate army was Pleasant Crump of the 10th Alabama, who died on
  
  31 Dec 1951. Previous claims to be the last veteran of the Confederate
  
  army (and of the whole War) were made for Walter Washington Williams (died
  
  19 Dec 1959) of Texas and for John Salling (died 19 Mar 1959) of Virginia.
  
  However, Marvel concluded that their claims must be rejected, since (among
  
  other reasons) census records indicated that, in 1860, Williams was only 5
  
  years old and Salling was just 2 years old.
  
  3. The last surviving Civil War general was Union Brig.Gen. Adelbert
  
  Ames, who died in 1933 at age 97.
  
  4. The last surviving Confederate general was Brig.Gen. John
  
  McCausland, who died on 22 Jan 1927 at age 91. Felix H. Robertson, who
  
  was appointed B.G. in 1864, who served at such, but whose nomination was
  
  rejected by the CSA Senate in 1865, died on 20 Apr 1928 at age 89. Does anyone have any personal memories of meeting any Civil War veterans? There were still a few around in the 40's and early 50's.?
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  Leolaia

  There was a woman who died just the other year who was a widow of a Civil War vet.

  I wonder if she got a widow pension for all these years.
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  BrendaCloutier

  Interesting stuff. But I wasn't around then....
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  IronGland

  Yes, she did get a civil war pension all these years! If I remember correctly, she was 18 or 19 and married a veteran in his late 80's. This was not uncommon esp. in the South in the early 1900's as veterans got a nice pension that could be passed on to a spouse
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  cruzanheart

  I don't (I'm not THAT old!), but my mom did. She was born in Richmond, VA in 1917 and remembered (until she got Alzheimer's) playing in a park when she was a toddler and seeing the old men, Confederate war veterans, sitting there feeding the pigeons and talking amongst themselves.

  It was interesting to see how her mind went backward at the beginning of Alzheimer's. She left Richmond and moved to New York and New Jersey when she was still small, and was a Yankee all her life. Her parents were Greek immigrants. There was no trace of the little Southern girl until the Alzheimer's came on and then . . . one day when I was driving her somewhere . . . she made the placid comment that there were a lot of "darkies" in their congregation. I almost had a wreck!! (Especially since she and Dad lived in a predominately African-American neighborhood and the congregation was 95% African-American.)

  I guess you can take the girl out of the Old South but can't take the Old South out of the girl!

  Nina
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  IronGland

  Interesting stuff. But I wasn't around then....

  No but a person who was a child in the 40's could have possibly met an veteran at a GAR parade or veterans parade back then.
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  Leolaia

  I had a friend whose mother went through Alzheimer's. Her mother was born in Germany and spoke English for all her adult life; but when she was going through the disease, she would only speak German and thought her daughter was someone from her childhood. :(
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  Simon

  There was a very good TV programme about the American civil war some years ago.

  After describing the hardship, the warfare and the incredible losses it described how years later, veterans from the conflict re-enacted one of the battles and lined up to face each other once again. After charging on the old battle-field they embraced their former enemies and wept together at what they had all been through. It was very moving.

  Even warfare, however grotesque, had an air of respect and professionalism that I do not think is often seen nowadays. The British vs Argentine conflict is probably the last example of former enemies becoming good friends.
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  roybatty

  Even warfare, however grotesque, had an air of respect and professionalism that I do not think is often seen nowadays.

  Yes and no. For example, the North and South freely exchanged POWs at the beginning of the war but this hit a snag when the South refused to recognize black Union soldiers as POW and wouldn't exchange them. The North responded by not exchanging Southern POWs. The result? POW camps swelled in size. Toward the end of the war, the South had a hard time feeding their own troop let lone POWs. At one POW camp in the south, Andersonville, 30% of the POWs died from hunger and dieses within 14 months. If you look at photos from this POW camp, you'd think it was something from a German concentration camp.

  I also believe that while their was an "air of professionalism" among the generals on both sides, these same individuals thought very little of the lives of their own troops. The outdated tactics (lining up men in rows i.e. American Revolution, Napolean, etc.) they used against modern weapons (carbine rifles, machine guns, artilery, etc.) led to devastating causualties. Its amazing how the battles tactics on either side remained the same throughout the war - send in 40,000 troops against entrenched men on the other side, try to soften them up and retreat if their lines don't break. In one battle after another six, seven or eight thousand men would be killed. Then they'd set up shop else where and do the exact same thing.

  Today it makes headlines when individual soliders are KIA.
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  run dont walk

  very interesting, the work to do this must of taken years.

  I wonder how many are left from WW I , any research on that anywhere ???