This is an incomplete list of the last surviving veterans of American wars

Military history of the United States

The military history of the United States spans a period of over two centuries. During the course of those years, the United States evolved from a new nation fighting the British Empire for independence without a professional military , through a monumental American Civil War to the world's sole...

. The last surviving veteran of any particular war, upon his 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.

French and Indian War

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

• Jonathan Benjamin (1738–1841) — Also fought in American Revolutionary War. Settled in Granville, Ohio
  Granville, Ohio
  As of the census of 2000, there were 3,167 people, 1,309 households, and 888 families residing in the village. The population density was 790.4 people per square mile . There were 1,384 housing units at an average density of 345.4 per square mile...
  
   in 1802.

American Revolutionary War

• Daniel Bakeman
  Daniel F. Bakeman
  Daniel Frederick Bakeman may have been the last surviving veteran of the War for American Independence . He is buried in Sandusky Cemetery, Freedom, New York....
  
   (1759–1869) — Claimed to be veteran and was awarded pension by Congress, though could not prove service.
• John Gray
  John Gray (American Revolutionary War)
  John Gray was one of the candidates for last surviving U.S. veteran of the American Revolutionary War. He was advertised as such by journalist James Dazell and as of 1876 was believed by the Pension Office of the U.S...
  
   (1764–1868) — Last verifiable veteran although service period was too short for pension qualification.
• Samuel Downing (1764–1867)
• Lemuel Cook (1759–1866) — Last official veteran.

Mexican-American War

• Owen Thomas Edgar
  Owen Thomas Edgar
  Owen Thomas Edgar was, according to data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the longest surviving U.S. veteran of the Mexican-American War....
  
   (1831–1929) — United States Navy
  United States Navy
  The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
  
  .

Confederate

Name	Claimed birth date	Believed birth date	Death date	Status
Pleasant Crump Pleasant Crump Pleasant Riggs Crump is the last verifiable veteran who fought for the Confederacy soldier during the American Civil War. Although he was survived by several other claimants in the 1950s, such as Thomas Riddle, William Lundy, John B. Salling and Walter Williams), historical research has...	23 December 1847		31 December 1951	Verified
Felix M. Witkoski Felix M. Witkoski Felix M. Witkoski is a spurious candidate for the last surviving Confederate Veteran. He claimed that in 1862 he was turned back as too young by a Texas regiment, but walked to Montgomery, Alabama and successfully enlisted as a water boy in the 53rd Alabama Infantry...	5 January 1850	October 1854	3 February 1952	Debunked
Thomas Edwin Ross	19 July 1850		27 March 1952	Unknown
Richard William Cumpston	23 May 1841		5 September 1952	No evidence
William Loudermilk	23 October 1848		18 September 1952	No evidence
William Jordan Bush	10 July 1845	July 1846	11 November 1952	Probable
Arnold Murray	10 June 1846	1854/1855	26 November 1952	Debunked
William Townsend	12 April 1846		22 February 1953	Possible
William Albert Kinney	10 February 1843	10 February 1861	23 June 1953	Debunked
Thomas Riddle	16 April 1846		2 April 1954	No evidence
William Lundy William Lundy William Lundy was a claimant of the last living Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, having claimed to have served with the Alabama Home Guard in 1865.-Biography:...	18 January 1848	May 1860	1 September 1957	Debunked
John B. Salling John B. Salling John B. Salling claimed to be the second-oldest surviving Confederate Veteran of the American Civil War, though his claim of being born in 1846 has since been debunked...	15 May 1846	15 May 1856	16 March 1959	Debunked
Walter Williams	14 November 1842	14 November 1854	19 December 1959	Debunked

Most cases are questionable, though it should be remembered that many Confederate records were destroyed or lost to history. Unlike the U.S. military archives, the Confederate records had no official archive system after the war. However, for most of the cases investigated, the ages of the claimants alone were enough to prove their claim was false. Williams was generally acknowledged as the "last Confederate veteran" in 1950s newspapers. However, in September 1959 an exposé by The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

revealed that he was in fact born in 1854 in Itawamba County, Mississippi

Itawamba County, Mississippi

In 2000, there were 8,773 households out of which 33.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.30% were married couples living together, 9.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.90% were non-families. 23.40% of all households were made up of individuals and...

, and not 1842 as claimed. Still, since Salling and all the other claimants were dead, Williams was celebrated as the last Confederate veteran after his death on 20 December 1959.

Salling's own 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. Although in 1900 Salling supplied a birthdate of March 1858, he appears to have been born around 1856, still too late to have served in the Confederate Army. The 1860 census lists him as 4 years old, and the 1870 census as 14. William Lundy is listed as 1 year old on the 1860 census, and from 1870 until 1930 he gave census marshals ages that reflected birthdates as early as 1853 and as late as 1860. He did not push his birthdate back to the 1840s until he applied for a Confederate pension from the state of Florida. 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. However, Marvel did not present research establishing who, among the several other Confederate claims from the 1950s, some of which appear to be genuine, was the real last Confederate veteran.

Indian Wars

Indian Wars

American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...

 

• Fredrak Fraske (1872–1973)
• John Daw
  John Daw
  John Daw was the last surviving U.S. Army Indian Scout veteran that had served in the Indian Wars at the time of his death. He was a Navajo Indian given the Navajo name at birth...
  
   (1870–1965)
• Dewey Beard (1857–1955) — Native American
  Indigenous peoples of the Americas
  The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
  
   from Lakota tribe. Last survivor of Battle of the Little Big Horn. He also fought at Wounded Knee
  Wounded Knee Massacre
  The Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M...
  
  .

Spanish-American War

Spanish-American War

The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...

 

• Jones Morgan
  Jones Morgan
  Jones Morgan is said to be an African-American soldier who served in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War. He ran away from home and sneaked into the army at age 15. The ostensible last surviving US veteran of the war, Morgan served as a cook and a horse wrangler in the 10th Regiment...
  
   (1882–1993)
• Nathan E. Cook
  Nathan E. Cook
  Nathan Edward Cook was a sailor in the United States Navy during the Spanish-American War. He was recognized as the longest surviving U.S. veteran of that war . Cook retired from the U.S...
  
  (1885–1992)