Last of the Civil War veterans
Some Confederate, some Union, all fighters.
Chris Wild
1890s-1950s
The greatest parade in American history has finally come to an end. The Grand Army of the Republic has marched off to join the shadows and no matter how long the nation exists there will never be anything quite like it again. - LIFE MAGAZINE, AUG. 20, 1956
For 90 years after the last shot of the American Civil War was fired, the men who had fought for the Union and the Confederacy, respectively, continued to meet, and in doing so wielded considerable political power in the nation that had divided them.For one, the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) brought together Union soldiers, referred to as "veterans of the late unpleasantness." Starting in 1866, only one year after the war's close, and ending with the death of 109-year-old Albert Woolson in 1956, the G.A.R. boasted 490,000 members at its peak in 1890. A hugely influential body, the G.A.R. was instrumental in electing a number of U.S. presidents in the late 1800s, from the 18th (Ulysses S. Grant) to the 25th (William McKinley). Orators for the G.A.R. were caricatured as "waving the bloody shirt."
I wonder if you know how much influence I really have? I can throw the Grand Army at any candidate like a sock. I can get senators defeated and I can pick appointments like apples. I can make men and I can destroy men. Do you know that? - Cyrus Trask, in John Steinbeck's "East of Eden", 1952
With one single exception, the G.A.R. was a male body. That exception was Sarah Emma Edmonds, who was admitted to the G.A.R. in 1897. Sarah had fought in the 2nd Michigan Infantry disguised as a man named "Franklin Thompson," from 1861 to 1863. She died in 1898.
For the South, the United Confederate Veterans (U.C.V.) was inaugurated in 1889. Local Confederate veteran associations proliferated after the war. At the movement's peak, more than 1,500 such groups were amalgamated in the U.C.V. The U.C.V.'s stated purpose was to promote "social, literary, historical and benevolent" aims.During the 1890s, around 30,000 veterans and 50,000 further guests were present at the annual U.C.V. reunion. But in 1950, at the final reunion, a lone U.C.V. member was present: 98-year-old James Moore of Alabama.About 617,000 Americans were killed during the Civil War. The number is equal to the entire number of Americans who had died in all wars up to that point, including both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
This chapter in our history has been closed. <br>Something deeply and fundamentally American is gone. - LIFE Magazine, Aug. 20, 1956
There was an open door to the past, and what we could see through that door was magically haunted. But when the last notes of the bugle hung against the sky, the door swung shut. It cannot be reopened. - LIFE MAGAZINE, AUG. 20, 1956
There is some debate as to the validity of both Walter Williams' and William Lundy's claims. Walter Williams claimed in 1959 to be the last Civil War veteran alive. Williams said he was 116, but census data discovered more recently suggests that he may have been eleven when the war ended in 1865. William Lundy was born at a similar time, and died in 1957.
One very old man died and all of us are a little more lonely. - LIFE MAGAZINE, AUG. 20, 1956
