List of last surviving veterans of military insurgencies and wars


This a chronological list of the last surviving veterans of military insurgencies, conflicts and wars around the world. The listed wars span from the 13th century BC to the beginning of World War II.

Classical antiquity

Muslim–Quraysh Wars">Military career of Muhammad#History">Muslim–Quraysh Wars (622–630)

These cases, particularly with respect to the ages claimed by the veterans, cannot be verified as it was common in pre-industrialised societies for elders to exaggerate their age.

[Indian Wars] (1622–1924)

[Great Northern War] (1700–21)

[Napoleonic Wars] (1803–15)

Union

NameClaimed birth dateBelieved birth dateDeath dateStatus
Pleasant Crump23 December 184731 December 1951Verified
Felix M. Witkoski5 January 1850October 18543 February 1952Dubious
Thomas Edwin Ross19 July 185027 March 1952Possible
Richard William Cumpston23 May 18415 September 1952Unknown
William Murphy Loudermilk23 October 1847April 185118 September 1952Possible
William Joshua Uncle Josh Bush10 July 1845July 184611 November 1952Verified
Arnold Murray10 June 18461842/185526 November 1952Possible
William Daniel Uncle Eli Townsend12 April 184622 February 1953Verified
William Albert Kinney10 February 1843/184610 February 186123 June 1953Probable
Thomas Evans Riddle16 April 184618622 April 1954Possible

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. Walter 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 John B. Salling and all the other claimants were dead, Williams was celebrated as the last Confederate veteran after his death on 20 December 1959.
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. 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] (1861–67)

[Russo-Japanese War] (1904–05)

Russian participants:
Veterans of Allied Intervention: