CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

[OldKingCrow]

He is said to have enlisted in the last days of March 1864, at age 16; Company D (Brown's), 4th Alabama Cavalry Regiment (Home Guard) at Elba; and to have been honorably discharged at Elba in May 1865, on account of close of war. He moved his family to Laurel Hill in 1890, where he and wife, Mary Jane Lassiter, raised ten children. He was granted a Confederate soldiers pension in Florida, no. 8948, of $600 per annum was awarded to be paid effective from June 12, 1941. At some point the pension increased to $75 per month ($900 per annum), and finally, in 1953, it was increased to $150 per month ($1800 per annum). Source: Florida Pension Records On January 18, 1955, the Boston Traveler published an article, "Reb on T.V.", of which William Allen Lundy was the subject; making mention of the 107 year old Confederate veteran being on television in Pensacola.

He was the last surviving Confederate soldiers residing in Florida, and one of three (all Confederate) Civil War veterans in the United States.

At the ostensible age of 109, Private Lundy died at Crestview, Okaloosa County, on September 1, 1957. He is interred at Almarant Cemetery, Laurel Hill. These photos are from 1955 at Eglin AFB, Florida.

[BumpusTN]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Awesome pics. Thanks Chris!!!

Scott Bumpus

[Sean Wilson]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Did he receive a Confederate headstone ????? It would have been interresting to sit down and talk to him about everthing he went thur during the war and all the histroy he saw during his life time.

[BrisbaneReb]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Wow thanks for sharing the info. Crazy when you think about it, this man fought in a war of blackpowder muskets and cannon and there he is with fighterjet. Goes to show either the speed of human 'progress' or that the war wasn't all that long ago...

[Sean Wilson]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Great Job !!! It would have been cool to talk with him about the War and other things that happen in history in his life time.

[unclefrank]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

The radical changes this man saw during his lifetime will never be repeated!

[EasySam]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

When he was a youngster steam power was probably a wonder to him and there he is posing with a jet. Telegraph to television. Fifty states. Refrigeration. Amazing life. I once read a WW1 veteran's stories about everyone stopping to look up in wonder at airplanes and being fascinated with radio.

[Prodical Reb]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Great story!!!!................hmmm, I wonder what became of the musket in th elast photo?

[Benedict]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

That man had his fair share of U.S. history, from the Civil War to the closing of the frontier to two World Wars ... and all the other groundbreaking things along the way! What a life.

[Sean Wilson]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Great Job. He was a walking histroy book with everthing he had seen in his lifetime.

[David Fox]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

I hesitate to write this, but, tho' not from Missouri, one has to "show me" re: proof of the military status of the last five or six alleged Confederate veterans. To my satisfaction Albert Woolson (who, tho' never serving at Gettysburg, has a monument near the old Cyclorama building, subject of a different thread) was the last bonafide Civil War veteran when he died in 1956, a day I remember, God help me.

[tater_cuffie]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Simply a piece of history! awesome pics! thanks for postin

[Dignann]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Lundy's Florida pension file can be viewed here:

http://www.floridamemory.com/collections/pensionfiles/getRecord.asp?fapplication=A08948&Surname=LUNDY&given_names=William+Allen&see_reference=%26nbsp%3B&wife_s_given_name=%26nbsp%3B&Wife_S_Maiden_Name=%26nbsp%3B&Application_County=Okaloosa+Co&Application_Year=1931&service_unit=Alabama&currentpage=&SearchBy=Surname&SearchVal=Lundy&Total_Pages=54

Eric

[David Fox]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Mr. Lundy was doubtless a fine man and surely saw many changes in his life. Among those changes were his birth dates, which he appears to have enhanced as he grew older, a common trait among older people in locals where age is admired. By the 1930 censis he'd pushed his birthday back to 1858, too young to have served the Lost Cause (and, significantly, when folks were yet alive to challenge counterfeit Confederates from first person recollections). Only when he applied for his Florida pension in 1941 did he assert a birth year of 1848, squeaking in as a possible boy soldier.
The Federal census, under our Constitution, is mandated every year ending in a "0". Mr. Lundy appears in the 1860 census, born in May of that year. That made him actually five years of age the year he claims to have enlisted. Lunday was thus a citizen of the Confederacy, but not a defender of it.
As a Civil War besotted boy, I followed with keen interest the last days of the alleged last Civil War vets, including Mr. Lundey. I suffering with them during their last illnesses, memorizing their names and biographies. I've since come to the conclusion memorializing the bogus last veterans merely denies the REAL last survivors their true place in our history and in our hearts. This is why it's now a federal crime to falsely hold oneself out as a winner of the Medal of Honour: the crime is the obscuring of the true merit of those who bled to achieve this award.
In the 1970s Germany sought to benefit African native troops who served under German officers in WW I. Many of the old black men who stepped forward to qualify for the pension had no proof of service whatsoever. The method of sorting out the frauds was simple: hand the old guy a Mauser rifle and have him go through the manual of arms. Like riding a bicycle, it was a skill real vets never forget. Pity the Florida pension board didn't think of that.

[Secesh]

Re: CS Veteran Photos in 1950's

Good point David!