John B. Salling

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John B. Salling (May 15, 1858 - March 16, 1959) claimed to be the second-oldest surviving Confederate Veteran of the American Civil War, though his claims of being born in 1846 have since been debunked.

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 multiple instances of census data that indicated Salling was born in 1858, not 1846. ^[1]

It should be noted that at the time of his death, John Salling was thought to be the next-to-the last Confederate veteran. Walter Williams of Houston, Texas, at the time claimed to be 116. During the summer of 1959 an exposé by the NY Times showed that Walter Williams was in fact born in 1854, not 1842 as claimed. When Walter Williams died in late 1959 at the alleged age of 117 (really 105), he was recognized as the last Confederate veteran (mostly for ceremonial reasons), although newspapers noted his age was disputed.

The John Salling case gained currency after Guinness World Records listed him as the "oldest soldier" of all time, erroneously as 113 years and 1 day old (it was later found that John claimed birth in May 1846 in the 1950's, not March 1846; Guinness had made a typographical error). Thus, Salling's age was first dropped from 113 to 112, and then a census search suggested that he was really 'only' 100. In any case, no documentation to support his claim to being a veteran was ever produced. In 2006, Guinness pulled recognition of this case.

The last authenticated Confederate veteran was Pleasant Crump, who was 104 when he died on December 31, 1951.