The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-05-27
THE LAST VETERAN.
ARE oNE-HALF THE SOLDIERS OF
1865 NOW LIVING?

Sonao manner melancnOIy racts-Aver8So
Age of the veterans-How Few Generals
Still Live-Estimat ed Number of Actual
Men Enlisted-Who will Be the Last?
We are on the down hill side. We are
looking toward sunset. The shadows
lengthen fast and already to most of us
the years since we were mustered out
seem longer, as they certainly are more
numerous, than the years before our en-
istment. The youngest boy who could
by any possibility have carried gun in
the great conflict is now far into middle
life, he realizes that his golden prime Is
in the past and is warned every day by
some physical symptom that decay has
begun.
Be it that his service was the shortest
and easiest possible. Be it that he sus-
tanned no injury, or even that he gained
health and strength by the open air life
of the camp, as few unquestionably
did; nevertheless, by the ordinary laws
of mortality he can count on but few
years more. The individual feels this.
The statistician knows that by the es-
tablished laws of vital chances the per-
centage of deaths among the veterans
must from now on increase at an arith-
metical ratio. A glance at any life in
surance table will teach one that.
And it was probably the youngest
Grand Army ever mustered. The aver
age age of the veterans at muster out
was but a fraction over twenty-four
years, while that of the Confederates is
believed to have been thirty-six. The
lad of twenty-four in 1866 is now fifty
one-and to most men fifty-one is old.
A careful analysis of dates presented by
several Grand Army posts shows that
the average age of the veterans at death
is but fifty-six and half years. If any
one mourns that the pension appropria-
ton increases so rapidly there is conso-
lation fer hint cannot last long.
After 1898 it will scarcely be possible
for the present pension force to "pass
cases" as fast as pensioners will die.
And how many still remain? We can
not judge by our generals, for their age
was greater; but of all who reached that
rank how small a proportion is still with
us! Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas,
Mcdowell, Mcclellan, Hancock, Meade,
Burnside, Logan, Hooker-where are
they? And of those only a little less
celebrated, yet including such glorious
men as Garfield, Hackleman, Granger,
Heintzelman, Geary, Rousseau, Custer,
Fitzpatrick, Cruft, Ames and 80 many
more that this column would scarcely
contain their names, it would seem that
not more than a third are still with us.
Yet how very young many of them
now seem in the retrospect. McPher-
son was killed at thirty-fve. Slocum
was corps commander at thirty-two.
Reynolds was major general at thirty
nine. Ames, Custer, Fitzpatrick and Nc
Kenzie were brigadiers at twenty-six.
Corse was but twenty mine when he won
Immortality at Altoona. Garfield was
major general at thirty-one and Gren-
vile Dodge at thirty three, while Judge
Gresham and John Beatty were briga-
diers at thirty-two. We have been jok-
ing about "Old Ben Butler" ever since
the war, yet he was but forty-two when
he commanded the Army of the Gulf.
Why, they were all mere boysi
A curiosity hunter, after long search,
has declared that the very last men who
were in any battle of the American Rev
olution died in 1858. Two fourteen
year-old boys who went from western
North Carolina and took part in the
battle of Kings Mountain, (Oct. z, 1850
died in the year named-one in east Ten
nessee, the other in Indiana. Possibly
others may have survived these, but be
that as it may, the time is at hand when
the veterans will be but handful in
any neighborhood. uEe
I Statisticians who have made careful
study Of the percentage of re-enlist-
ments, taking specimen counties as
basis, have concluded that the number
of actual men in the Union army, count
ing each but once, was about 1900, 900.
It is scarcely possible that one half of
these are alive today. OF the full regi-
ments of 1851 there is not one, so far as
can learn, that has been able to get
800 together at any reunion for years.
Yes-spin out the thread Of life as
they may there must come time when
in your city or state there will be ''last
man of the Union army" Possibly some
slender STRIPPING of 1875 will halt fee
bly, along your streets as late as 1916,
venturing out only when the sun shines
most cheerziy, and as he passes children
will gaze and wonder, and men and
women will repeat what they heard
their grandparents say = how those
grandparents as children saw the pa
rades of 1865, and "how that old, old
fellow looked when he came home from
the war" .f4 efg~e,J. 81. BEADLE
Thought for Memorial Day.
l>poxy NOT xubx1 fJ,;o ci1o,,oo 90 x,,occo,