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My father said in the 1950s there was a Civil War Vet who sat on a rocking chair on the outdoor porch of his house.
Has anyone ever met a Civil War Vet?
I lived next door to a Civil War veteran bride growing up in the early 60's.She married at 13 or 14 to a man that could of been her grandfather she remembered the souths reconstruction,riverboat steamers and collected a monthly pension for his service.
imagine what a Civil War vet would have witnesses through their life time?
they would of seen the musket ball technolgy all the way through the atomic bomb era and jet fighters
over seas air travel , the horse & buggy to the motor car and more
they would have seen some very big changes
This is what I think about when I do research on my great great grandpa. I mean the dude was 12 when he joined the Alabama Home guard during the last year of the war and lived until 1944! Didn't see the atom bomb drop though.
Edit: I take that back. He actually died August 27, 1945, so he did see it. If he wasnt senile.
I don't know if anyone already posted this, but as of the late 1990s, and maybe into the 2000s, a Confederate widow was still alive. The vet was in his 80s when they married, I think, and she was 14 or something. I'm sure she's passed on by now, but at least within the last 20 years she was alive. Kind of cool.
He played down being a Medal of Honor winner; said they were given pretty freely during that time. Yeah, right.
Actually, they were back then, haha. I believe there was even an investigation and some people were stripped of theirs. Not saying he didn't deserve it, but he was actually closer to the truth than being humble, if I recall correctly.
Nonetheless, your story is amazing. I wish I would've joined the service, as that seems the only way to become a civilian military historian later in life, and I would love to be one. I love listening to vets' stories, the older the better!
I don't know if anyone already posted this, but as of the late 1990s, and maybe into the 2000s, a Confederate widow was still alive. The vet was in his 80s when they married, I think, and she was 14 or something. I'm sure she's passed on by now, but at least within the last 20 years she was alive. Kind of cool.
Millions of Americans alive today could have met a civil war veteran. As the last vets from both sides died in the 1950s, even some baby boomers could have met them. The WW2 generation likely all met one at some time or another during the 1930s and 1940s. Being in my 40s that is out of the question for me, but I do remember seeing Spanish American war vets march in the memorial day parade back in the 1970s. As far as meeting freed slaves, even more people could have met a freed slave. It is probable that freed slaves born during the war could have lived into the 1970s. Anyone over 40 could possibly have met a freed slave. A previous poster suggested the changes the people born in the mid to late 19th century saw, from repeating riffles, oil lamps and railroads all the way to jets and nuclear technology. What a fascinating time to have lived through. No generation in human history saw that kind of change during a lifetime. The last 150 years has seen an unprecedented march forward of technology.
Fascinating stories about the Civil War vets and especially the widows of vets. It appears that back during the turn of the 20th century, young women would marry Civil War vets simply so they could get their Pensions after the Vet died.. which wouldn't be long after they married.
In the cases that I read about, the Vet was in his 80s and his bride was in her late teens or early 20s. Some states caught on and stopped paying widoes pensions.. Arkansas passed a law that would not pay pensions to widows born AFTER 1870. This was common in the South more so than the North. Keep in mind that Confederate Veterans didn't get a pension from the US government VA until 1930, prior to then, they got pensions from the Southern (rebel) State for which the resided in..
The latest Civil War Widows pension was paid by the VA in 2003! wow! nearly 140 years after the war ended! This was a Union soldiers widow. Gertrude Janeway, linked to in a previous post. Gertrude married Union Veteran John Janeway in 1927 when she was 18 and he was 81. She continued to receive a pension until her death in 2003 at the age of 93.
I guess we could speculate on Gertrude's motives at the time but its hard to imagine she married for love but you never know. I did read where she remarried and divorced soon after John's death in 1937 but changed her last name back to Janeway after the divorce.. I also read that she never remarried, but I was not terrible concerned about finding the truth there.. seems like if she had remarried, the VA would have stopped her pension.. not sure?? What does seem to be true is that she lived in the cabin that her and John moved into after getting married and remained there until her death in 2003.
I did read a article written in Feb of 2012 that noted the VA was still paying a Civil War Pension to 2 children of Civil War vets. A child would be eligible to receive their fathers pension if they had a disability that would prevent them from ever becoming self sufficient or they were very young when their father (civil war vet) died and their mother had already deceased. The article also noted that the 2 children were both ill and its possible that neither are still alive today (Jan 2014), 2 years later.
Millions of Americans alive today could have met a civil war veteran. As the last vets from both sides died in the 1950s, even some baby boomers could have met them. The WW2 generation likely all met one at some time or another during the 1930s and 1940s. Being in my 40s that is out of the question for me, but I do remember seeing Spanish American war vets march in the memorial day parade back in the 1970s. As far as meeting freed slaves, even more people could have met a freed slave. It is probable that freed slaves born during the war could have lived into the 1970s. Anyone over 40 could possibly have met a freed slave. A previous poster suggested the changes the people born in the mid to late 19th century saw, from repeating riffles, oil lamps and railroads all the way to jets and nuclear technology. What a fascinating time to have lived through. No generation in human history saw that kind of change during a lifetime. The last 150 years has seen an unprecedented march forward of technology.
There were two men, Sylvester Magee and Charles Smith who claimed to have been slaves and who lived into the 1970s. There were some doubts as to the veracity of their claims.
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