The last war veterans

In The Guns at Last Light, Rick Atkinison says: “Of the 16,112,566 Americans in uniform during the Second World War, the number still living was expected to decline to one million by late 2014, and, a decade later, 2024, to dip below a hundred thousand. By the year 2036, U.S. government demographers estimated, fewer than four hundred would remain alive, less than half the strength of an infantry battalion.”

I wondered, when did the last veterans of the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I die?

I thought the answers would be clear. I thought wrong.

“Last Union veteran, Albert Woolson, died 8/2/56, age 109.

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

“There is controversy over the Confederate one but Mr. Crump is the ONLY one whos (sic) age AND participation in the war are confirmable.”

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/137887#ixzz2j30Wjep8

But, see the monument for “Walter Washington Williams who was recognized by the government of the United States as the last surviving Confederate Veteran died 1959 at the age of 117 years.”

http://www.confederatedigest.com/2010/08/walter-washington-williams-last.html

Now, those folks who insist on paper documentation, are they saying Johnny Horton was a liar when he wrote the song for Mr. Williams?

“You fought all the way Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb,
“You fought all the way Johnny Reb.”

The last Spanish-American War veteran was Nathan Edward Cook, Navy, who died in 1992, or maybe Jones Morgan, 9th Cavalry, who died in 1993.

http://genealogytrails.com/main/lastveteranobits.html#morgan

Frank Buckles, corporal, World War I, and captured in the Philippines in 1942, died in February 2011. He was 110. No one questions Mr. Buckles. Not yet, anyway.

I remember newspaper and TV stories about Walter Washington Williams, and at the time (1959), no one challenged the old man.

But today, given the great number of phony Vietnam veterans and SEALs and Army Special Forces and Army Rangers … Sometimes, you just don’t know.