There seems to be no clear cut identity for the last surving Confederate veteran.  

Janet Crain



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Surviving_Veteran

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The last surviving veteran of any particular war, upon his (or her) death, marks the end of a historic era. Unfortunately, who exactly the last surviving was is often an issue of contention. The last man standing was usually but a boy at the time of his enlistment, and oftentimes had to lie about his age to gain entry into the service, which confuses matters further.

To complicate matters even further, there were sometimes incentives for men to lie about their ages after their military service ended. For example, many Southern states gave pensions to Confederate veterans of the Civil War. Several men falsified their ages in order to qualify for these pensions, especially during the 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.


Last Surviving Confederate Veteran of American Civil War
John B. Salling (1846?-1959)

Salling's status is disputed. In 1991, William Marvel examined the claims of Salling and several other "last Civil War veterans" for a piece in the Civil War history magazine Blue & Gray. Marvel found census data that indicated Salling was born in 1858, not 1846. In the same piece, Marvel confirmed Woolson's claim to be the last surviving Union veteran, and asserted that Woolson was the last genuine Civil War veteran on either side.

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Albert H. Woolson (February 11, 1847-August 2, 1956), was the last surviving member of the Union Army, which fought in the American Civil War. He was also the last surviving Civil War veteran on either side whose status is currently undisputed. (At least two men who followed him in death claimed to be Confederate veterans, but the status of all of these men as Civil War veterans is in dispute).

Woolson was born in Antwerp, New York. His father, Willard Woolson, enlisted in the Union Army. Willard was wounded at the battle of Shiloh and was transported to an Army hospital in Windom, Minnesota, where he eventually died of his wounds. Albert and his mother moved to Windom to accompany Willard. Albert enlisted as a rifleman at age 17 in Company C, First Minnesota Volunteer Heavy Artillery on October 10, 1864, becoming the company's drummer. The company never saw action, and Albert Woolson was discharged on September 7, 1865.

Woolson returned to Minnesota, where he lived the rest of his life. He was a carpenter and later a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, a powerful political organization made up of Civil War veterans where he became senior vice commander in chief in 1953.

In his final days, he lived at 215 East Fifth Street in Duluth. Woolson died at St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota on August 2, 1956, at the age of 109, of a "recurring lung congestion condition." Woolson was buried with full military honors by National Guard Armory and is buried at Park Hill cemetery. Following his death, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "The American people have lost the last personal link with the Union Army ... His passing brings sorrow to the hearts of all of us who cherished the memory of the brave men on both sides of the War Between the States."

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