On December 19, 1959, Walter Washington Williams (sometimes referred to as Walter G. Williams), reputed near the time of his death to be the last surviving veteran of the
Confederate States Army, died in Houston, Texas. Williams's status as the last Confederate veteran already had been debunked by a September 3, 1959 story in the
New York Times by Lloyd K. Bridwell. In his 1991 article in
Blue and Gray magazine entitled
The Great Imposters, William Marvel gave further details, including census records from before his 1932 Confederate pension application, showing Williams's birth as having occurred between October 1854 and April 1855 in
Itawamba County, Mississippi. Those records showed he was too young to have served in the Confederate Army. Also, he did not identify himself as a Confederate veteran in the 1910 census which included a question about whether a person had that status. Nonetheless, since all the other claimants were dead, Williams was celebrated as the last Confederate veteran after his death on December 19, 1959. When Williams's status was disproved, attention turned to the alleged second longest surviving Confederate veteran, John B. Salling of
Slant in
Scott County, Virginia. Marvel also showed that Salling had been too young to have served in the Confederate Army. In a post on the
Library of Virginia blog on October 6, 2010, Craig Moore, Virginia State Records Appraisal Archivist, wrote that when Salling applied for a pension in 1933, Pension Clerk John H. Johnson could not find a war record for Salling at the Library of Virginia, which held the records of the Department of Confederate Military Records. Salling received a pension after providing a notarized statement attesting to his service. In his 1991 article in
Blue & Gray magazine, Marvel confirmed
Albert Woolson's (February 11, 1850 – August 2, 1956) claim to be the last surviving
Union Army veteran and asserted that Woolson was the last genuine surviving
American Civil War veteran from either side. On October 10, 1864, Albert enlisted in Company C,
1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment, becoming the company's drummer. However, the company never saw action, and Albert Woolson was discharged on September 7, 1865. Union Army veteran
James Albert Hard (July 15, 1843 – March 12, 1953) was the last verified surviving American Civil War veteran who was in combat. == Notes ==