Last of the blue and gray
Subtitle: old men, stolen glory, and the mystery that outlived the Civil War
By: Richard A. Serrano
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9781588343956
Subjects: Impostors and imposture; Veterans; Centennial celebrations; Biography; History
Description: "In the late 1950s, as America prepared for the Civil War centennial, two very old men lay dying. Albert Woolson, 109 years old, slipped in and out of a coma at a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital, his memories as a Yankee drummer boy slowly dimming. Walter Williams, at 117 blind and deaf and bedridden in his daughter's home in Houston, Texas, no longer could tell of his time as a Confederate forage master. The last of the Blue and the Gray were drifting away; an era was ending. Unknown to the public, centennial officials, and the White House too, one of these men was indeed a veteran of that horrible conflict and one according to the best evidence nothing but a fraud. One was a soldier. The other had been living a great, big lie"--

"Richard Serrano, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Los Angeles Times, pens a story of two veterans in the late 1950s gearing up for the Civil War centennial--one claiming to be the last Confederate soldier and one claiming to be the last Union soldier--and one of them a fraud. Last of the Blue and Gray sets the stage for the centennial anniversary of our nation's most difficult period, with notions of ethics and honor and also dishonesty and disgrace. In the late 1950s, as America prepared for the Civil War centennial, two very old men lay dying. Albert Woolson, 109 years old, slipped in and out of a coma at a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital, his memories as a Yankee drummer boy slowly dimming. Walter Williams, at 117 blind and deaf and bedridden in his daughter's home in Houston, Texas, no longer could tell of his time as a Confederate forage master. The last of the Blue and the Gray were drifting away; an era was ending. Unknown to the public, centennial officials, and the White House too, one of these men was indeed a veteran of that horrible conflict and one according to the best evidence nothing but a fraud. One was a soldier. The other had been living a great, big lie"--

A story of two veterans in the late 1950s gearing up for the Civil War centennial--one claiming to be the last Confederate soldier and one claiming to be the last Union soldier--and one of them a fraud. Last of the Blue and Gray sets the stage for the centennial anniversary of our nation's most difficult period, with notions of ethics and honor and also dishonesty and disgrace.
Notes: Includes bibliographic references (pages 195-214) and index.
Table of contents: title: Two Old Soldiers; title: Reunion; title: Old Age and Stolen Valor; title: Albert Woolson; title: Walter Williams; title: Old Men in Blue; title: Old Men in Gray; title: Centennial; title: Last in Blue; title: Debunked?; title: In His Memory-Clouded Mind; title: Last in Gray; title: Of the Dead, Speak No Evil.