Last of the Blue and Gray

Starred review from June 24, 2013
As late as the 1950s, two veterans of the bloodiest conflict on American soil were still living. Or rather, one vet and one fraud, both very, very old. In this quintessentially American tale, Serrano (One of Ours), a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist for the Los Angeles Times, marshals a formidable amount of research and a winning prose style to solve the mystery of which man—Union loyalist and drummer boy Albert Woolson, or rebel soldier and forage master Walter Williams—was the real deal. Both were well into their 100s as the Civil War centennial drew near, and neither was lucid enough to be counted on to provide dependable testimonies of their time at war. Adding to the uncertainty was the fact that many soldiers lied about personal details in order to serve. Serrano’s grand narrative brings a wealth of American history into its scope and features plenty of larger-than-life characters, cussin’, hollerin’, smoking cigars, and chewing tobacco, and proudly donning their wartime uniforms. Serrano masterfully maintains the tension throughout, until he finally reveals the truth (which some still find controversial). Told with clarity and skillfully paced, Serrano’s story of two old men and the mythology that grew up around them is intimate, expansive, and thoroughly entertaining. Photos.

August 15, 2013
A Civil War story only for those who can't get enough of the War Between the States. Serrano (One of Ours: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing, 1998) proposes to tell the stories of two men, one of whom probably never served as a soldier. "One of them was a soldier, but one," writes the author, "according to the best evidence, was a fake. One of them had been living a great big lie." The run-up to the centennial in 1961 brought attention to those who still survived. Albert Woolson (1847-1956) was a drummer boy with the 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery, and Walter Williams foraged for "cattle, fresh crops, and anything else to eat" for John Bell Hood's Texas Brigade. Woolson was quick with tales of his war experiences, and, as often happens with old men, his stories tended to change. He was active in the Grand Army of the Republic's reunions, or encampments, which continued intermittently until 1949 (the organization was disbanded upon Woolson's death in 1956). Williams, on the other hand, never talked much about his short enlistment. He was more cowboy than Confederate and preferred talking about his days herding cattle on the Chisholm Trail. These two men were the last veterans of their respective sides, but there's not a lot to tell. The author goes into detail about their last years and all that goes with aging: fighting for pensions, deafness, blindness, toothlessness, general deterioration and the process of dying. As the narrative progresses, Serrano sprinkles in stories of the other last few living soldiers of the Civil War, a tactic that merely bulks up the page count. Serrano's an adequate writer, and the story could have been a decent long-form magazine article. As a book, however, there is just too much mystery-free filler.

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July 1, 2013

Serrano (Washington correspondent, Los Angeles Times; One of Ours: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing) tells the little-known story of the men who were apparently the last two surviving Civil War veterans, one Union and one Confederate, and their hope to live to celebrate the war's centennial in 1961. In telling their stories, exploring their postwar lives and the ways they responded to the war over time, Serrano seeks to paint a bigger picture of how Civil War veterans remembered their experiences, particularly through the various reunions and national commemorations leading up to the centennial. Unfortunately, the book comes across as somewhat unfocused at times, creating the feeling that Serrano has only scratched the surface of the compelling issues he seeks to address. VERDICT Civil War buffs will find this book enjoyable as it tells a story that is not well known, but readers wanting a more in-depth look at the lives of Civil War veterans should read James Marten's Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America or similar works.--Michael C. Miller, Austin P.L. & Austin History Ctr., TX

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