https://longeviquest.com/2025/02/stolen-valor-allegedly-long-lived-veterans/

Stolen Valor – Allegedly Long-Lived Veterans

This year marks 80 years since World War II ended. Most veterans of this major war are now long gone and the ones who remain are now almost exclusively centenarians. In about a decade or so there will be none left who can provide first-hand accounts of the tragedies and valor that they witnessed in this war. These brave people, no matter how they served, deserve to be recognized for their contributions to the greater good. Still, wanting to be recognized for serving and sharing in the glory is something that some people who didn’t actually partake in the war do.

“Stolen valor” is a term that depicts people falsely claiming to have been part of an event in order to receive some sort of benefit. It doesn’t necessarily have to be war as I would consider the woman who claimed to have been a survivor of 9/11 only to later be discovered to have been nowhere close to the Twin Towers when the attack happened to also have stolen some “valor” from the actual victims and survivors of this attack.

Daniel Bakeman at the alleged age of 109. Source: Wikipedia.

My recent editorial on long marriages featured Daniel Bakeman who claimed to have been married to his wife for over 90 years. He also claimed to have been part of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and was granted a pension late in life as there did not exist any direct proof that Bakeman had actually served during the war. Bakeman lived to the alleged age of 109 and would often feature during ceremonies and memorials of the Revolutionary War, but the only evidence that he could provide of having served was tales of events that happened during the war, all of which could have been told to him by actual veterans.

Albert Woolson was the last verifiable Civil War veteran. Source: Des Moines Tribune, 6 Aug 1956.

But it is probably the Civil War that lasted between 1861-1865 that has seen the most examples of alleged centenarian “veterans.” The last verifiable veteran was Albert Woolson (1850-1956) who enlisted as a 14-year-old and served as a drummer for the 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment, but his company never saw action. The last actual combat veteran was James Hard (1843-1953) who also inflated his age in later life by two years and was at one point recognized as having become a supercentenarian, only later being “demoted” to age 109, although there is some debate on whether he was potentially 110 years old when he died. But we’re not here to talk about actual verified veterans, but rather the dubious alleged veterans who couldn’t prove that they had actually served.

Walter Williams on his alleged 117th birthday. Source: The Roanoke Times, 20 Dec 1959.

When Walter Williams died in December 1959 at the alleged age of 117 it was seen as a  day of mourning as this marked the definite era of Civil War veterans. Doubts about the veracity of his claims had already been raised by Lloyd Bridwell some time before Williams passing as his story followed the same route as several other claimants: He had no evidence to support actually having served. In fact, Williams didn’t even identify himself as a veteran in the 1910 census. It was only in 1932 that Williams actually applied for a Confederate pension. A follow-up investigation by William Marvel in 1991 helped solidify the debunking of Walter Williams by identifying him in the 1860 United States census as being five years old, hardly old enough to be a foragemaster during the war.

When Williams veteran status was debunked, John B. Salling who died a little over half a year earlier at the alleged age of 112, emerged as a contender for the title of the final  Civil War veteran. The story was, once again, the same. There was no evidence of his service when he applied in 1933. An affidavit of his service as a salpeter miner was, however, recognized as sufficient proof of his veteran status. His age was also debunked and it emerged that Salling too was a child during the Civil War.

William Lundy (left) and John B. Salling (right) both claimed to be Civil War veterans but the documentation indicates that they were too young to have served at the time. Source: Winston-Salem Journal, 7 Oct 1956.

The same goes for William “Uncle Bill” Lundy who waited until 1941 to apply for a pension and died in 1957 at the alleged age of 109. His story was the same, no proof, exaggerated his age by a decade, and later evidence concluded that he was nowhere close to having been an actual veteran. The 1860 census lists him as being only a year old, so a wee bit young for having signed up in March 1864.

We can say the same thing for another dozen or so other claimants and the last verifiable Confederate veteran was actually Pleasant Crump (1847-1951) who enlisted in 1864 and served with the 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment. Although, it can be discussed whether Sarah Frances Rockwell (1843?/1844-1953) counts as a Confederate veteran as she helped serve as a nurse during the war. She was considered debunked by Marvel as he had found evidence that she was 15 years old in 1865. Subsequent research by other researchers and me has proven that she was older than that in 1865. Her 1850 census states that Rockwell was six years old at the time, indicating a birth in 1843/44 and the 1860 census that she was 18 years old, indicating 1841/42. Rockwell herself claimed to have been born in 1844, which is probably when she actually was born.

Several other wars have of course seen claims of stolen valor, but the numbers have been nowhere close to what happened in connection with the Civil War.

Moral of the story?

Don’t fake it. There’s little to gain from lying about credentials that you don’t have and I would go as far as say that it is immoral to steal the spotlight from others who actually were part of a particular event. Be honest and you’ll sleep better at night.