Strategic Missiles

Mr. Trewhitt. Mr. President, I’d like to head for the fence and try to catch that one before it goes over, but I’ll go on to another question.

You and Mr. Mondale have already disagreed about what you had to say about recalling submarine-launched missiles. There’s another, a similar issue out there that relates to your — it is said, at least, that you were unaware that the Soviet retaliatory power was based on land-based missiles. First, is that correct? Secondly, if it is correct, have you informed yourself in the meantime? And third, is it even necessary for the President to be so intimately involved in strategic details?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, this had to do with our disarmament talks. And the whole controversy about land missiles came up because we thought that the strategic nuclear weapons, the most destabilizing are the land-based. You put your thumb on a button and somebody blows up 20 minutes later. So, we thought that it would be simpler to negotiate first with those. And then we made it plain, a second phase, take up the submarine-launched or the airborne missiles.

The Soviet Union, to our surprise — and not just mine — made it plain when we brought this up that they placed, they thought, a greater reliance on the land-based missiles and, therefore, they wanted to take up all three. And we agreed. We said, “All right, if that’s what you want to do.” But it was a surprise to us, because they outnumbered us 64 to 36 in submarines and 20 percent more bombers capable of carrying nuclear missiles than we had. So, why should we believe that they had placed that much more reliance on land-based?

But even after we gave in and said, “All right, let’s discuss it all,” they walked away from the table. We didn’t.
The President’s Age

Mr. Trewhitt. Mr. Mondale, I’m going to hang in there. Should the President’s age and stamina be an issue in the political campaign?

MR. MONDALE: No. And I have not made it an issue, nor should it be. What’s at issue here is the President’s application of his authority to understand what a President must know to lead this nation, secure our defense, and make the decisions and the judgments that are necessary.

A minute ago the President quoted Cicero, I believe. I want to quote somebody a little closer to home, Harry Truman. He said, “The buck stops here.” We just heard the President’s answer for the problems at the barracks in Lebanon, where 241 marines were killed. What happened? First, the Joint Chiefs of Staff went to the President, said, “Don’t put those troops there.” They did it. And then 5 days before the troops were killed, they went back to the President, through the Secretary of Defense, and said, “Please, Mr. President, take those troops out of there because we can’t defend them.” They didn’t do it. And we know what happened.

After that, once again, our Embassy was exploded. This is the fourth time this has happened — an identical attack, in the same region, despite warnings — even public warnings — from the terrorists. Who’s in charge? Who’s handling this matter? That’s my main point.

Now, on arms control, we’re completing 4 years. This is the first administration since the bomb went off that made no progress. We have an arms race underway instead.

A President has to lead his government or it won’t be done. Different people with different views fight with each other. For 3\1/2\ years, this administration avoided arms control, resisted tabling arms control proposals that had any hope of agreeing, rebuked their negotiator in 1981 when he came close to an agreement, at least in principle, on medium-range weapons. And we have this arms race underway. And a recent book that just came out by perhaps the Nation’s most respected author in this field, Strobe Talbott, called “Deadly Gambits,” concludes that this President has failed to master the essential details needed to command and lead us, both in terms of security and terms of arms control. That’s why they call the President the Commander in Chief.

Good intentions, I grant. But it takes more than that. You must be tough and smart.
The President’s Leadership

Mr. Trewhitt. This question of leadership keeps arising in different forms in this discussion already. And the President, Mr. Mondale, has called you whining and vacillating, among the more charitable phrases — weak, I believe. It is a question of leadership. And he has made the point that you have not repudiated some of the semidiplomatic activity of the Reverend Jackson, particularly in Central America. Did you approve of his diplomatic activity? And are you prepared to repudiate him now?

MR. MONDALE: I read his statement the other day. I don’t admire Fidel Castro at all. And I’ve said that. Che Guevara was a contemptible figure in civilization’s history. I know the Cuban state as a police state, and all my life I’ve worked in a way that demonstrates that. But Jesse Jackson is an independent person. I don’t control him.

And let’s talk about people we do control. In the last debate,\1\ (FOOTNOTE) the Vice President of the United States said that I said the marines had died shamefully and died in shame in Lebanon. I demanded an apology from Vice President Bush because I had, instead, honored these young men, grieved for their families, and think they were wonderful Americans that honored us all. What does the President have to say about taking responsibility for a Vice President who won’t apologize for something like that?

(FOOTNOTE) \1\Mr. Mondale was referring to an earlier debate between George Bush and Geraldine Ferarro, the Vice-Presidential candidates.

MR. NEWMAN: Mr. President, your rebuttal?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. I know it’ll come as a surprise to Mr. Mondale, but I am in charge. And, as a matter of fact, we haven’t avoided arms control talks with the Soviet Union. Very early in my administration I proposed — and I think something that had never been proposed by any previous administration — I proposed a total elimination of intermediate-range missiles, where the Soviets had better than a 10 — and still have — better than a 10-to-1 advantage over the allies in Europe. When they protested that and suggested a smaller number, perhaps, I went along with that.

The so-called negotiation that you said I walked out on was the so-called walk in the woods between one of our representatives and one of the Soviet Union, and it wasn’t me that turned it down, the Soviet Union disavowed it.

MR. NEWMAN: Mr. Mondale, your rebuttal?

MR. MONDALE: There are two distinguished authors on arms control in this country — there are many others, but two that I want to cite tonight. One is Strobe Talbott in his classic book, “Deadly Gambits.” The other is John Neuhaus, who’s one of the most distinguished arms control specialists in our country. Both said that this administration turned down the “walk in the woods” agreement first, and that would have been a perfect agreement from the standpoint of the United States in Europe and our security.

When Mr. Nitze, a good negotiator, returned, he was rebuked, and his boss was fired. This is the kind of leadership that we’ve had in this administration on the most deadly issue of our times. Now we have a runaway arms race. All they’ve got to show for 4 years in U.S.-Soviet relations is one meeting in the last weeks of an administration, and nothing before.

They’re tough negotiators, but all previous Presidents have made progress. This one has not.

____________________________________________

Excerpts from Mary Lee Orsini transcript

The following is a series of excerpts from a July 17 interview between Mary Lee Orsini and Sgt. Jim Dixon and Major Jackie Goodson of the Pulaski County sheriff’s office. The transcript was edited only for basic spelling.

Goodson: On the 12th the night before, would you go over some of that for me. As to what your mind set was, and what your-I know that’s asking you to go back, but I think probably you’re pretty clear about what all you did that night?
Orsini: Uh, um my husband’s father was in the hospital dieing of cancer at that time and he had gone to, he’d eat supper. He had gone to the hospital and he had come back home and uh, uh, I’m not real clear it was just an ordinary evening. He and my daughter were talking about football and different stuff. They done talked about. Tiffany had been staying home like I said for a couple days, or a day or so and from school. And uh when we went to bed, and I, you know, and which I had done the night before, I had slept with Tiffany; which had nothing to do, you know I know that it looks like it does, but it had nothing to do with the crime the fact that I was in another bedroom. Um she had actually been watching the TV during the day and had been in our bedroom most of the day as I recall. And uh, you know I wrestled with it probably all the way up to the moment that I went in there.
Goodson: So y’all were in the bed in her room. She goes to sleep and at some point…
Orsini: And she wasn’t sedated. They made comments at the trial that she was sedated. I sedated her to do…
Goodson: Was she on medications from the illness?
Orsini: I don’t recall that she was. If she was it wasn’t a sedative; it would have been an antibiotic or something. I don’t really recall. The only thing that she ever took and she didn’t have any at that time as I recall uh was something for her menstrual cramps. But uh…
Goodson: So you and her are there in the bedroom, and is that where you made your decision to go…
Orsini: To be perfectly honest I think I made the decision the second before I did it, you know, I mean the actual decision. You know, like I said, you wrestle with it…
Goodson: Right.
Orsini: You go back and forth.
. . .
Goodson: So when you left the room you had not made the decision to do that then you think, or do you think you decided to do it?
Orsini: You know, I think that there was other night that I had pondered this. You know within a few week period of time and I think until the moment that it actually happened that is was one-it was just an indecisive. Cause it was-it was many days that I wanted to sit down and tell him the truth.
. . .
Goodson: So this was just one of those nights out of those few nights that you just did it. Okay, let me just-and again I hate to ask you details but I have to get details in order to again, there’s a lot of stuff in the paper, there’s a lot, there’s a book, one or two I think out on this thing. I’m trying to have you remember something that maybe that you haven’t told anybody or that someone else didn’t know. That we could find out that occurred that night.
Orsini: Well, other than that fact that I didn’t know about a jacked-up car that a little girl saw. I didn’t hear it or see it. and I was up…
Goodson: That’s the thing that law enforcement had come up with…
Orsini: Yeah well it stands that I never knew. I never even, I was up walking around the house and I never saw a car out there, so whether this little girl made this up, whether it actually happened. I do know that once that the gun went off, dogs all the around the area started barking.
Goodson: That’s what I’m talking about.
Orsini: Yeah, dog’s started barking but…
Goodson: Let me tell you a little bit about what you just saying…
Orsini: And my daughter, when I went back in the room, my daughter raised up. You know after in fact, you know, in fact I do remember that. My daughter, I had gotten back in bed and my daughter raised up and I pretended to be asleep and she climbed over, looked out the window then she got back in bed.
Goodson: After you, after you had shot the-that’s what I’m trying to do…
Orsini: But she thought I was asleep. She did not know that I was awake.
Goodson: Okay, so…
Orsini: I did not disturb her.
. . .
Dixon: When you fired the gun, what did you do to prepare it to fire?
Orsini: I don’t understand what that means.
Dixon: Did you actually aim it at the back of his head…
Orsini: Yes.
Dixon: Or did you-did you touch the back of his head with it at any time.
Orsini: No, I did not touch, no.
Dixon: Did you shoot directly into him…
Orsini: Yes.
Dixon: Or through the pillow or bed sheets or anything or…?
Orsini: No. It was directly into him.
Dixon: Okay. And this was a revolver uh, how did you fire it.
Orsini: I pulled the trigger.
Dixon: You just merely squeezed the trigger.
Orsini: Um huh.
Dixon: Okay, now it has a hammer, so did you pull the hammer back on it with your thumb or did you just…
Orsini: I wouldn’t have known to do that.
. . .
Orsini: And the sound of the gun shot was deafening to me, you know. But if I had not been asleep, I mean if I had not been awake trust me I wouldn’t of heard the gun shot. I just have that kind of sleep pattern and so does she. Cause in fact that night with that other thing that you came to the house with that. That gun went off and I don’t know if you recall it; we like to have never gotten Tiffany up. Tiffany was in the room and did not wake up. She was sound asleep and the door was there. So you know the position where the bedroom is at the top of the stairs. So yeah I have about a four hour sleep pattern. I have a real, a real strong sleep pattern.
. . .
Goodson: And what time did your daughter get up?
Orsini: Uh from 21 years ago I couldn’t honestly tell you.
Goodson: But she was going to school that day.
Orsini: She was going to school it was on Thursday…Thursday the 12th.
Goodson: So she got up, your husband’s still in bed. Y’all are both aware of that right? I mean you made some excuses for him still…
Orsini: No I did not make no, no, the door was locked and um, I had gotten up, and if uh, if I recall Tiffany wanted to get in the room for some reason I don’t remember what it was-what the reason uh for the sake of being honest I don’t remember what the reason was but she wanted to get in the room. And I told her the door was locked and leave it alone, that I would call Daddy and find out where the key was and so she left it alone.
Goodson: So she, she assumed that your husband had already left to go to work.

It has been 150 years since the beginning of the Civil War that started in April of 1861 at Ft Sumter.

General Robert E. Lee

General Grant

Soviet Union

MR. KALB: Mr. Mondale, you have described the Soviet leaders as, and I’m quoting, “. . . cynical, ruthless, and dangerous,” suggesting an almost total lack of trust in them. In that case, what makes you think that the annual summit meetings with them that you have proposed will result in agreements that would satisfy the interests of this country?

MR. MONDALE: Because the only type of agreements to reach with the Soviet Union are the types that are specifically defined, so we know exactly what they must do; subject to full verification, which means we know every day whether they’re living up to it; and followups, wherever we find suggestions that they’re violating it; and the strongest possible terms.

I have no illusions about the Soviet Union leadership or the nature of that state. They are a tough and a ruthless adversary, and we must be prepared to meet that challenge, and I would. Where I part with the President is that despite all of those differences we must, as past Presidents before this one have done, meet on the common ground of survival. And that’s where the President has opposed practically every arms control agreement, by every President, of both political parties, since the bomb went off. And he now completes this term with no progress toward arms control at all, but with a very dangerous arms race underway instead. There are now over 2,000 more warheads pointed at us today than there were when he was sworn in, and that does not strengthen us.

We must be very, very realistic in the nature of that leadership, but we must grind away and talk to find ways of reducing these differences, particularly where arms races are concerned and other dangerous exercises of Soviet power.

There will be no unilateral disarmament under my administration. I will keep this nation strong. I understand exactly what the Soviets are up to, but that, too, is a part of national strength. To do that, a President must know what is essential to command and to leadership and to strength.

And that’s where the President’s failure to master, in my opinion, the essential elements of arms control has cost us dearly. He’s 3 years into this administration. He said he just discovered that most Soviet missiles are on land, and that’s why his proposal didn’t work.

I invite the American people tomorrow — because I will issue the statement quoting President Reagan — he said exactly what I said he said. He said that these missiles were less dangerous than ballistic missiles because you could fire them, and you could recall them if you decided there’d been a miscalculation.

MR. NEWMAN: I’m sorry, sir — —

MR. MONDALE: A President must know those things.

It has been 150 years since the beginning of the Civil War that started in April of 1861 at Ft Sumter.

Ron Orsini, owner of a North Little Rock heating and air-conditioning business, had been dead for three years when Arkansas Business launched in 1984. But it wasn’t until 2002 that his widow, Mary “Lee” Orsini, confessed to his murder, just a couple of weeks before she died in prison of a heart attack.

Lee Orsini’s conviction for Ron’s murder had been overturned, but she was serving life without parole for hiring two blundering hit men to commit the infinitely more sensational murder of Alice McArthur of Little Rock, wife of her defense attorney, Bill McArthur.

There are still a lot of people who suspect McArthur was involved in his wife’s murder in July 1982, but a grand jury refused to indict him. After all, no evidence beyond the word of a murderess ever connected him to a crime that created a media circus the likes of which Arkansas has not seen since.

Second Reagan-Mondale presidential debate 1984 #3

Oct 21, 1984 Presidential Debate Reagan v Mondale

MR. NEWMAN: Mr. Kalb, your question to President Reagan.
Soviet Union

MR. KALB: Mr. President, you have often described the Soviet Union as a powerful, evil empire intent on world domination. But this year you have said, and I quote. “If they want to keep their Mickey Mouse system, that’s okay with me.” Which is it, Mr. President? Do you want to contain them within their present borders and perhaps try to reestablish detente — or what goes for detente — or do you really want to roll back their empire?

THE PRESIDENT: I have said on a number of occasions exactly what I believe about the Soviet Union. I retract nothing that I have said. I believe that many of the things they have done are evil in any concept of morality that we have. But I also recognize that as the two great superpowers in the world, we have to live with each other. And I told Mr. Gromyko we don’t like their system. They don’t like ours. And we’re not going to change their system, and they sure better not try to change ours. But between us, we can either destroy the world or we can save it. And I suggested that, certainly, it was to their common interest, along with ours, to avoid a conflict and to attempt to save the world and remove the nuclear weapons. And I think that perhaps we established a little better understanding.

I think that in dealing with the Soviet Union one has to be realistic. I know that Mr. Mondale, in the past, has made statements as if they were just people like ourselves, and if we were kind and good and did something nice, they would respond accordingly. And the result was unilateral disarmament. We canceled the B – 1 under the previous administration. What did we get for it? Nothing.

The Soviet Union has been engaged in the biggest military buildup in the history of man at the same time that we tried the policy of unilateral disarmament, of weakness, if you will. And now we are putting up a defense of our own. And I’ve made it very plain to them, we seek no superiority. We simply are going to provide a deterrent so that it will be too costly for them if they are nursing any ideas of aggression against us. Now, they claim they’re not. And I made it plain to them, we’re not. There’s been no change in my attitude at all. I just thought when I came into office it was time that there was some realistic talk to and about the Soviet Union. And we did get their attention.
Regions Vital to U.S. Interests

MR. KALB: Mr. President, perhaps the other side of the coin, a related question, sir. Since World War II, the vital interests of the United States have always been defined by treaty commitments and by Presidential proclamations. Aside from what is obvious, such as NATO, for example, which countries, which regions in the world do you regard as vital national interests of this country, meaning that you would send American troops to fight there if they were in danger?

THE PRESIDENT: Ah, well, now you’ve added a hypothetical there at the end, Mr. Kalb, about where we would send troops in to fight. I am not going to make the decision as to what the tactics could be, but obviously there are a number of areas in the world that are of importance to us. One is the Middle East, and that is of interest to the whole Western World and the industrialized nations, because of the great supply of energy upon which so many depend there. Our neighbors here in America are vital to us. We’re working right now in trying to be of help in southern Africa with regard to the independence of Namibia and the removal of the Cuban surrogates, the thousands of them, from Angola.

So, I can say there are a great many interests. I believe that we have a great interest in the Pacific Basin. That is where I think the future of the world lies. But I am not going to pick out one and, in advance, hypothetically say, “Oh, yes, we would send troops there.” I don’t want to send troops any place.

MR. NEWMAN: I’m sorry, Mr. President. Sir, your time was up.

THE PRESIDENT: All right.

It has been 150 years since the beginning of the Civil War that started in April of 1861 at Ft Sumter.

Albert Woolson: The Last Living Civil War Veteran

The last surviving veteran of any particular war, upon his or her death, marks the end of a historic era. Exactly who is the last surviving veteran is often an issue of contention, especially with records from long-ago wars. The “last man standing” was often very young at the time of enlistment and in many cases had lied about his age to gain entry into the service, which confuses matters further.

There were sometimes incentives for men to lie about their ages after their military service ended. In addition, there were some impostors who claimed to have served but did not (such as Walter Williams, who claimed to be 117 in 1959). For example, many former Confederate States in the South gave pensions to Confederate veterans of the American Civil War. Several men falsified their ages in order to qualify for these pensions, especially during the Great Depression; this makes the question of the identity of the last Confederate veteran especially problematic. The status of the officially recognized “last Confederate veteran” is in dispute. 

Albert Woolson of Minnesota was a Union drummer boy who died in 1956, and the Civil War’s last authenticated survivor.

Albert Woolson, a Civil War veteran and a son of a Civil War veteran was made an Honorary Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War at the 72nd National Encampment held in Buffalo, New York on August 23 – 27, 1953.

Comrade Woolson was born in the New York farm hamlet of Antwerp, 22 miles northeast of Watertown, on February 11, 1847, the same day that Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor, was born. Willard Woolson, his father, was a carpenter in Watertown and apprenticed his son to the trade. The senior Woolson, however, had a second vocation. He was a musician, and when President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers in 1861, he and his fellow musicians enlisted in a body. When his family did not hear from him for more than a year, they traced him through Army records to a hospital in Minnesota suffering from a leg wound received at the battle of Shiloh. Shortly after the family was reunited, his leg had to be amputated and he died.

Minnesota’s manpower was stretched thin to furnish its quota for the Union forces and at the same time to hold back the Sioux Indians, who were off the reservation in 1863. The Union needed heavy artillery and Col. William Colville organized a Minnesota heavy artillery regiment of 1,800 men. Albert Woolson got his mother’s consent and was accepted into Company C, First Minnesota Volunteer Heavy Artillery. His military service dated from October 10, 1864. Enlisted as a rifleman, he eventually was assigned as a drummer and bugler. Late in 1864, the Regiment joined the Army of the Cumberland in Tennessee. It was commanded by Maj. General George H. Thomas, known to history as The Rock of Chickamauga, but more familiarly to his men as Pap.

The First Minnesota sat out the spring and early summer of 1865 in the shadow of Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, and in August the Regiment was ordered home. Comrade Woolson received his discharge on September 7, 1865.

He married Sarah Jane Sloper in 1868. She died in 1901. Three years later he married Anna Haugen who died in 1949. Survivors include six daughters, Mrs. John Kobus, Mrs. Arthur Johnson, and Mrs. Robert Campbell, all of Duluth; Mrs. Adelaid Wellcome, Mrs. F.W. Rye, and Mrs. J.C. Barrett, all of Seattle; and two sons, Dr. A.H. Woolson of Spokane, Washington, and R.C. Woolson of Dayton, Washington.

Comrade Woolson was a member of and participated in the last Grand Army of the Republic National Encampment in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1949, and was the last surviving member of that Organization.

On August 2, 1956, Comrade Woolson died at the age of 109 years. He had been hospitalized for nine weeks with a recurring lung congestion condition. He lapsed into a coma five days before his death and did not regain consciousness. Members of his family were at his bedside when he died in St. Luke’s Hospital, Duluth, Minnesota. In Washington, President Eisenhower said, The death of Mr. Woolson brings sorrow to the hearts of Americans. The American people have lost the last personal link with the Union Army.

On August 6, 1956, Comrade Woolson, the Union Army veteran who outlived all his comrades, was laid to rest in the family plot in Park Hill Cemetery, Duluth, Minnesota. as thousands paid final tribute.

Secretary of the Army, Wilber Bruckner, headed a delegation of political and military dignities including Assistant Secretary Hugh M. Milton, Senators Hubert H. Humphrey and Edward J. Thye, as well as Representative John A. Blatnick. Other dignitaries included Lt. General William H. Arnold, Fifth Army Commander, Chicago; Governor Orville Freeman and Maj. General Jos. E. Nelson, State Adjutant General.

More than 1,500 persons attended the 2 P.M. funeral in the Duluth armory, hundreds more lined the route to the cemetery, and about 2,000 watched as the bronze casket was set down with full military honors.

At 1:45 P.M., an army drum and bugle corps, stationed outside the armory with an army marching unit of 109 men (one for each of Comrade Woolson’s years), blew retreat. A military guard of honor, lining the walk to the armory door, snapped to attention. Military men saluted and the Fifth Army Band played a funeral processional.

Six Army Sergeants, acting as pall bearers, carried the casket into the armory, following Lt. Col. Augustine P. Donnelly, a Presbyterian chaplain attached to Fifth Army Headquarters, Chicago. As the procession entered the armory, the Carillon Chorus Club sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Col. Donnelly, who conducted the services, started the ceremony at 2:03 P.M. with, I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord. The service ended with a short prayer at 2:45 P.M.

The procession left the armory with the band – the drums were decked in black – playing Chopin’s Funeral Dirge. Behind the band came the army marching unit plodding in slow cadence in the 85 degree heat. At 4 P.M. the band’s drums could be heard at the cemetery.

The Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Fife and Drum corps of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War took over the procession’s lead at the cemetery gate and played Onward Christian Soldiers. The color guard followed the fife and drum corps. Behind them marched Col. Donnelly. Then came the hearse and numerous automobiles.

At 4:17 P.M. pall bearers brought the casket and Col. Donnelly presented a short funeral oration. The pall bearers, who had been holding the casket flag two feet above the casket, folded it and gave it to Secretary of the Army Bruckner, who in turn presented it to Mrs. Kobus.

The Grand Army of the Republic funeral service was then performed by members of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, as they placed a wreath, a rose, and a miniature United States flag atop the casket.

An army firing squad fired three volleys. The bugler sounded Taps while military men saluted. The group was silent. The firing squad marched away. The fife and drum corps faded into the distance with the fifes whistling the Battle Hymn of the Republic. 

The next-to-the last Union veteran was James Albert Hard of New York. He died March 12, 1953, at the claimed age of 111. However, census research indicates that he was probably a year or two younger as well and may have inflated his age to gain service. He is recorded as having joined the Union army May 14, 1861, aged ’19.’ However, the 1850, 1910, and 1920 censuses indicate that he was born in 1843, 1842, and 1842, respectively. 

William Allen Magee died on January 23, 1953 in Long Beach, California, at age 106. He is listed as enlisting as a bugler on October 20, 1863, at age 18 (a 2-year age exaggeration) in Company M, 12th Cavalry Regiment Ohio, so he was a veteran regardless of age.

The last surviving Civil War general was Brevet-Brigadier General Aaron S. Daggett of Maine, who died in 1938 at age 100. However, others who served in the war and were later promoted to General survived into the 1940s.

On the Confederate side the answer is somewhat more difficult to confirm.

An article by historian William Marvel, published in Blue and Gray magazine in February 1991, and titled “The Great Impostors,” names Pleasant Crump of the 10th Alabama, who died in 1951, the last Confederate vet. Prior claimants to the distinction included Walter Washington Williams (who died December 19, 1959) of Texas and John Salling (who died March 19, 1959) of Virginia. A thorough check of official census records by Marvel suggests that both Williams and Salling were too young to have served. 

We went back to the search results to substantiate our findings, only to discover that the reference desk at the Chicago Public Library, in answer to the very same question, still lists Mr. Walter W. Williams as the last Confederate survivor, despite the fact that the page was updated in April, 1999.

Looking for more? The real-life last Confederate widow, Mrs. Alberta Martin died in 2004. It is to be a celebration of Confederate heritage. “Old times there are not forgotten…”