Think for a moment about the long link of lives.
We think that the Civil War was a long time past, and it did end 156 years ago. So that seems like a long time, but in generational terms, it isn't.
Civil War widow
The last person to get a Civil War pension ($73.13 a month) died in May 2020. Hard to believe, but Irene Triplett was the daughter of Moses Triplett, who fought on both sides during the Civil War. In 1924, at age 83, Moses married his second wife, Elida Hall, who was 33. Their daughter Irene was born in 1930, and her father died in 1938, so she was eligible for his Civil War pension, which she received until her death in 2020.
Former slave
Imagine the implications for families of enslaved people. Until the 1970s, there were still people alive who could say they were born into slavery. Peter Mills was such a person. Born into slavery in 1861, he lived until age 110 in September 1972. He lived through the invention of the radio, two world wars, the first television, nuclear weapons and the moon landing.
American Revolution daughter
But what about the American Revolution? That ended in 1783.
In 1943, the last actual daughter of a soldier in the American Revolution died. Annie Knight Gregory's father, Richard Knight, was 11 years old when he fought at Valley Forge. Richard was 66 years old when he was married his third wife, and in 1843 Annie was born. Richard Knight died in 1850 when Annie was 6 years old. Annie lived to be 100, and when she died in 1943, the overlap between her father's life and her own life was a whopping 177 years, according to the Daughters of the American Revolution.
In fact, as late as 1931, there were still seven actual daughters of the American Revolution alive.
