Thomas Riddle: A True Confederate Veteran
So if you don't believe the claims by Walter Williams, John Salling, and William Lundy, who was the real last living Confederate? Say hello to a prime candidate, Thomas Riddle, pictured in 1953 in his room at the Texas Confederate Home (a facility opened in 1886 for the disabled and indigent from the war). Unlike with the previous three cases, digging into old records backed up Riddle's memory: They have shown that he was indeed born in 1846, and that he was a soldier in a Tennessee regiment.
As the last Confederate vet living at the home, Riddle enjoyed a private room "the size of a small hospital ward," LIFE wrote. "By his bedside is stored the evidence of his daily pleasures: boxes of cigars, his dominoes and a guest book for visitors to sign." At the time, Riddle was also embroiled in a group lawsuit against the estate of Samuel D. Riddle, the millionaire owner of Triple Crown-winning racehorse Man o' War; Thomas claimed he was Samuel's half brother and thus entitled to a stake. "As a result of the suit he is getting proposals of marriage from women all over the state and firmly rejecting them," LIFE reported. (The suit was ultimately lost.) Thomas Riddle died in April 1954, just days before his 108th birthday.
Read more:
http://www.life.com/gallery/41382/the-last-living-civil-war-vets#index/0
God Bless this Patriot. Served to protect his home, family, & 10th Ammendment. CSA wasn't about slavery, it was about Federalism. With the loss, we've become enslaved to the Statist-Authoritarian Central Government. Slavery as an economic institution, died a peaceful death in Brazil in 1888. No bloodshed, no war. Killed by the free market.
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