from a local paper, dated January 27, 1943

James Hutchison, this county's last surviving Civil War veteran, will celebrate his 97th birthday next Friday. It will be a quiet celebration at the home of his daughter....He will read the newspaper, perhaps a magazine or two and enjoy a daily walk.

Right now Mr. Hutchison's keenest interest is in the progress of the World War. His great-grandson, Ernest Fox, is overseas someplace. His grandson, Robert Payton, is also in the service. Mr. Hutchison said the other day, as he talked with a veteran of the first world war--"If they could use me in the service, I'd go."

He likes to contrast this war with Civil War and its horse-drawn ammunition wagons and cannons. It was then, Hutchison reminds his friends, that cavalrymen were cavalrymen and not mechanized.

Hutchison was born in Scotland , where he began his work in the coal mines. He came to this country and on to Indiana as a young man. He enlisted in the Union Army at Warrick county on March 18, 1864, at age 18; fought in the seige of Atlanta, marched with Sherman to the sea and took part in several other battles.

After the War he worked in various local coal mines until retirement.

For many years Hutchison had as his best friend other members of the GAR. After they died he still had as his friends members of the Haf-Century and Three-Quarter-Century Clubs.

Mr. Hutchsion has six living children, several grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Wow.

My grandma has told me about going to visit old Civil War veterans when she was little (she was born in 1938 I believe). These were Confederate veterans, as she lived in Virginia at the time, and she told me that they used to point to the picture of Lee on the wall and ask her "Judy, who is that?", and she would say, "Robert Lee Lee!" and they would all have a nice laugh. Obviously this was around the time that article was written, so there weren't many vets left around and they were all quite old.

How many WWI vets we got left? I imagine not many.

there's one. (http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/06/644042.aspx)

Figured it wouldnt be more than a handful, if that.

one is the loneliest number.

Wow.

My grandma has told me about going to visit old Civil War veterans when she was little (she was born in 1938 I believe). These were Confederate veterans, as she lived in Virginia at the time, and she told me that they used to point to the picture of Lee on the wall and ask her "Judy, who is that?", and she would say, "Robert Lee Lee!" and they would all have a nice laugh. Obviously this was around the time that article was written, so there weren't many vets left around and they were all quite old.

That's interesting.
Several years ago, when I was indexing old newspapers, I ran across an article about "Old Reb"--the last surviving CW veteran. The year was 1959 and the city of Houston gave a parade in his honor. Just a few short weeks after the parade, the old soldier died. I forget how old he was or even his name but he'd enlisted as an 8 or 10 year old drummer boy. He was over 100 years old.

I don't know when the last Union veteran died but it was several years before that, I'd say.

I've read the World War II vets are dying at the rate of about 2000 men per day. That's why it's so important to get their stories before they're all gone...first hand accounts. We're now working on interviewing old local vets for our WWII Oral History Project.

i think the URL says it all.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_5-most-badass-presidents-all-time.html


(who says history can't be fun?)

LOL, where's my own personal fave, William Henry Harrison, the tough frontiersman who once spent 5 minutes walking from his back door to empty his chamberpot (The chambermaid had smallpox that day) and who gave a 12 hour Inaugural Address in freezing weather with no coat or hat to prove how tough he was?

He died about 28 days later.

i think the URL says it all.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_5-most-badass-presidents-all-time.html


(who says history can't be fun?)
OMG that is absolutely hilarious. I've only read the part about Jackson and I'm practically in tears.

Takes every kind of people to make the world go round ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkycopPasVg