Walter Washington Williams (November 14, 1842 or 1854 – December 19, 1959) claimed to have been a forager for
Hood's Brigade, which if true made him the
last surviving veteran of the
American Civil War.
Serious doubt has been claimed about the veracity of these claims.
Last surviving veteran claims
Born in
Itawamba County, Mississippi
Itawamba County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 23,401. Its county seat is Fulton. The county is part of the Tupelo, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area.
The county was ...
, Williams claimed to have served under General
John Bell Hood, as a foragemaster in Hood's Brigade and Quantrill's
guerrillas. Since
John Salling
In ''Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox'', historian William Marvel identified Private Pleasant Riggs Crump, of Talladega County, Alabama, who died December 31, 1951, as the last confirmed surviving veteran of the Confederate States Army ...
and all the other "last claimants" were dead, Williams was celebrated as the "last Confederate veteran." When he died in 1959 in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, at the reported age of 117,
U.S. Grant III, chairman of the
Civil War Centennial
The American Civil War Centennial was the official United States commemoration of the American Civil War, also known as the ''War Between the States''. Commemoration activities began in 1957, four years prior to the 100th anniversary of the comm ...
, said the death was an occasion for national mourning.
[
However, in September 1959, ]Scripps-Howard
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
journalist Lowell K. Bridwell revealed that he could not find "one single scrap" of substantiating evidence to back up Williams's age or claims of military service, or anyone else's for that matter. Moreover, the 1860 census listed Williams as age 5 in June 1860, suggesting that he was born in November 1854.
When he died on December 19, 1959, according to his '' New York Times'' obituary, "a newspaper story said a check had failed to find evidence to support the claim. Back in the times when Williams was born, there was very limited documentation to support birth dates, death dates, etc." Based on Bridwell, he would have been eight years old at the time he said he had joined the Confederate Army, eleven months before the war ended in 1865. It also was reported that the National Archives listed no Walter G. Williams as having served in the Confederate Army from either his home state of Mississippi or from Texas, where his family later settled. Archives at Jackson, Mississippi, however, were said to list a Walter Washington Williams as a private. Williams said that he had used several different middle initials.
Other officials contended that the Archives of the Federal Government are incomplete on the Confederacy and that ages in census records sometimes are inaccurate. A 1991 article by William Marvel gave further details suggesting Williams was born between October 1854 and April 1855.
Irrespective of the controversy, his grave is marked at the Mount Pleasant Church Cemetery near New Baden, Robertson County, Texas. An interpretive sign was provided by the Texas Civil War Centennial Commission
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
in 1963.
The "Soldiers and Sailors of the Confederacy" monument by Donald De Lue at the Gettysburg battlefield site bears an inscription about Williams on the reverse of the base. The inscription reads, "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."Soldiers& Sailors of the Confederacy Monument
GettysburgSculptures.com website, accessed July 22, 2013
See also
*
Last surviving United States war veterans
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Walter
1842 births
1959 deaths
American supercentenarians
People from Itawamba County, Mississippi
Longevity claims
Men supercentenarians
American centenarians