This a chronological list of the last surviving veterans of military insurgencies, conflicts and wars around the world. The listed wars span from the 13th century BC to the Korean War.
These cases, particularly with respect to the ages claimed by the veterans, cannot be verified as it was common in pre-industrialised societies for elders to exaggerate their age.
Name | Claimed birth date | Believed birth date | Death date | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Pleasant Crump | 23 December 1847 | 31 December 1951 | Verified | |
Felix M. Witkoski | 5 January 1850 | October 1854 | 3 February 1952 | Dubious |
Thomas Edwin Ross | 19 July 1850 | 27 March 1952 | Possible | |
Richard William Cumpston | 23 May 1841 | 5 September 1952 | Unknown | |
William Murphy Loudermilk [123] | 23 October 1847 [124] | April 1851 [125] | 18 September 1952 | Possible |
William Joshua Uncle Josh Bush [126] | 10 July 1845 | July 1846 | 11 November 1952 | Verified [127] |
Arnold Murray [128] | 10 June 1846 | 1842/1855 [129] | 26 November 1952 | Possible [130] |
William Daniel Uncle Eli Townsend [126] | 12 April 1846 | 22 February 1953 | Verified [131] | |
William Albert Kinney | 10 February 1843/1846 [132] | 10 February 1861 [133] | 23 June 1953 | Probable [134] |
Thomas Evans Riddle | 16 April 1846 [135] | 1862 [136] | 2 April 1954 | Possible [137] |
Most cases are questionable, though it should be remembered that many Confederate records were destroyed or lost to history. Unlike the U.S. Armed Forces archives, the Confederate Armed Forces records had no official archive system after the war. However, for most of the cases investigated, the ages of the claimants alone were enough to prove their claim was false. Walter Williams was generally acknowledged as the "last Confederate veteran" in 1950s newspapers. However, in September 1959 an exposé by The New York Times revealed that he was in fact born in 1854 in Itawamba County, Mississippi, and not 1842 as claimed. Still, since John B. Salling and all the other claimants were dead, Williams was celebrated as the last Confederate veteran after his death on 20 December 1959. [138]
Salling's own status is disputed. In 1991, William Marvel examined the claims of Salling and several other "last Civil War veterans" for a piece in the Civil War history magazine Blue & Gray. Marvel found census data that indicated Salling was born in 1858, not 1846. Although in 1900 Salling supplied a birthdate of March 1858, he appears to have been born around 1856, still too late to have served in the Confederate Army. The 1860 census lists him as 4 years old, and the 1870 census as 14. [139] William Lundy is listed as 1 year old on the 1860 census, and from 1870 until 1930 he gave census marshals ages that reflected birthdates as early as 1853 and as late as 1860. He did not push his birthdate back to the 1840s until he applied for a Confederate pension from the state of Florida. In the same piece, Marvel confirmed Woolson's claim to be the last surviving Union Army veteran and asserted that Woolson was the last genuine Civil War veteran on either side. However, Marvel did not present research establishing who, among the several other Confederate claims from the 1950s, some of which appear to be genuine, was the real last Confederate veteran.
Russian participants:
Veterans of Allied Intervention:
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