List of last living war veterans

This a chronological list of the last surviving veterans from each war or conflict. The listed wars span from the 17th century to the beginning of World War II.

Contents

Early modern period

These cases, particularly with respect to the ages claimed by the veterans, cannot be verified.

English Civil War

War of the Polish Succession

War of the Austrian Succession

Russo-Turkish War

Jacobite rising

Seven Years' War

French and Indian War

American Revolutionary War

French Revolution

Napoleonic Wars

War of 1812

Texas War of Independence

Rebellions of 1837

Mexican-American War

Crimean War

Italian Unification

American Civil War

Union

Confederate

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 Debunked
Thomas Edwin Ross 19 July 1850 27 March 1952 Unknown
Richard William Cumpston 23 May 1841 5 September 1952 No evidence
William Loudermilk[36] 23 October 1848 18 September 1952 No evidence
William Jordan Bush[37] 10 July 1845 July 1846 11 November 1952 Probable
Arnold Murray[38] 10 June 1846 1854/1855 26 November 1952 Debunked
William Townsend[37] 12 April 1846 22 February 1953 Possible
William Albert Kinney 10 February 1843 10 February 1861 23 June 1953 Debunked
Thomas Riddle 16 April 1846 2 April 1954 No evidence
William Lundy 18 January 1848 May 1860 1 September 1957 Debunked
John B. Salling[39] 15 May 1846 15 May 1856 16 March 1959 Debunked
Walter Williams 14 November 1842 14 November 1854 19 December 1959 Debunked

Most cases are questionable, though it should be remembered that many Confederate records were destroyed or lost to history. Unlike the U.S. military archives, the Confederate 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. 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 Salling and all the other claimants were dead, Williams was celebrated as the last Confederate veteran after his death on 20 December 1959.[40]

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.[39] 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 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.

French invasion of Mexico

January Uprising

Fenian Raids

Indian Wars

Franco-Prussian War

Paris Commune

Zulu War

Northwest Rebellion

Spanish-American War

Boer War

Potemkin Mutiny

Mexican Revolution

World War I

Main article: List of surviving veterans of World War I

October Revolution

Finnish Civil War

Russian Civil War

Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919)

German Revolution of 1918–19

Polish-Ukrainian War

Estonian War of Independence

Irish War of Independence

Polish–Soviet War

Silesian Uprisings

Turkish War of Independence

March on Rome

Northern Expedition

Nanchang Uprising

Brazilian Revolution of 1930

Xi'an Incident

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