Albert Woolson
Era: Civil War
Military Branch: Army
Status: Featured Story
The Last Survivor of the Grand Army of the Republic
Albert Woolson was born in Antwerp, N.Y., on Feb. 11, 1847 (the same day inventor Thomas Edison was born). His father enlisted in the Army to fight in the Civil War and was wounded. During his hospitalization in Minnesota, the family moved there. The father died, but Albert enlisted at age 17, on October 10, 1864.
He enlisted as a rifleman but served as a drummer and bugler with Company C, 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery. In late 1864, the regiment was part of the Army of the Cumberland in Tennessee. Woolson was discharged as a Private on Sept. 27, 1865.
After his service, Woolson lived in Mankato and St. Peter, Minn., where he worked as a railroad fireman and a wood turner. He later worked as a grain miller and in a logging camp. In 1905 he moved to Duluth, at age 58. He worked as an electrician with the Duluth Carbolite Co. and for the Scott Graff Lumber Co. In 1925, at age 78, he went to work for the Hirschy Co., which manufactured washing machines. He retired in 1933 at age 86.
Once he reached 100, Woolson’s birthday drew letters, telegrams, and visits from people around the country. The aging veteran often visited with folks from the porch of his Duluth home and loved retelling his war experiences.
When he died on Aug. 2, 1956, at age 109, he was the last surviving member of the Union Army. About 1,500 people attended his funeral service in the Duluth Armory, and hundreds lined the route of his funeral procession to Park Hill Cemetery, where about 2,000 people watched as he was buried. Among those sending condolences to Woolson’s family after his death in 1956 was Richard Nixon, then the nation’s Vice President.
"One day father and I went to the capitol building at Albany, N.Y. There was a meeting there and one man was tall, had large bony hands. It was old Uncle Abe, and he talked about human slavery."
--Woolson on his childhood visit with President Lincoln
"One day the colonel handed me the end of a long rope. He said, ‘When I yell, you stand on your toes, open your mouth, and pull.’ First time the cannon went off, I was scared to death."
--Woolson on his experience in the Artillery in the Civil War
"I love to play the drum and cornet. They’re about the only amusement I have left. When a man gets past a hundred, he’s got to be a bit choosy about what he does."
--Woolson on his musical talent
"We were fighting our brothers. In that there was no glory."
--Woolson on the Civil War
(The following interview was transcribed on April 16, 2008, by Karin Swor, Program Assistant, St. Louis County Historical Society, Veterans’ Memorial Hall. The tape was donated by the family of Albert Woolson.)
Key: I = Interviewers A.W. = Albert Woolson
I: We are in the home of Mr. Woolson. It is August 5,1954. I am Bob Wombacker.
And I am Carl Wombacker.
And Jim Bernard.
We are going to try to get Mr. Woolson here to answer a few questions. We have the questions written out on slips. The first one is, we are going to ask him where he was born. I will hand him the slip of paper.
A.W.: Near Watertown, New York, Watertown, Jefferson County.
I: How old are you today? Mr. Woolson is reading the paper now.
A.W.: How old do you think? One hundred and seven!
I: One hundred and seven years.
A.W.: Antwerp, New York. When I was nine years old, I went in with my father to Ford’s Theater. Two brothers, actors on the stage, the youngest one is the one that shot Lincoln, later on. We were that evening at the theater, the first time I was in there. About a week later, one evening, the President of the United States and his wife were sitting in the audience, and he walked up and shot him right through the back of the head. He lived about three, four hours. He said “six soberly tourney,” that means that is the fate of Judaism. Poor old Abe.
I: He is talking about Abraham Lincoln now.
A.W.: He had a man out back with horses saddled all ready, and he had been an actor on the stage about the building, so he rushed out with his spurs on, and the spur got caught in the drape and broke some bones. He got out in the country about 15-20 miles, and a regiment of Calvary started after him. Booth wanted to get on the back porch, maybe go up in the hayloft in the big old building. The boys came up there, and he said, The first man that comes in here, I will shoot him. Well they figured out in a few minutes, one big tall, Calvary men went around behind and found a big knothole and shot him right through the head, right here. They took him out of the house and laid him on the porch. He lived about 15-20 minutes. He was dead.
I: Ok, we have another question for Mr. Woolson. This question is: Where did you see Abraham Lincoln?
A.W.: On the stage in Ford’s Theater in Washington. That is an old-time theater, big buildings. I was about nine years old at that time. My father went in ’63 or ’62 in the First Minnesota battle of Shiloh he lost his leg. My father.
I: Do you have another question there, Jim? Our next question of Mr. Woolson is: When were you in the Army?
A.W.: I will tell you about Grant, everybody loved Grant. You know all about him, you read all about him. He was a man of few words. After three years, the two armies back and forth, many men killed, Grant got reinforcement. He sent a message over to General Lee, Robert Lee. Grant said, I want to have a conference with you tomorrow. He says, Is that all right, do you want to furnish a bodyguard? No! Grant walked between the two armies right straight over Lee’s head. It was a great sight, the two armies. 18-20,000 men on both sides, altogether. He says, Your cause is hopeless. I will conference with you in the morning, Lee says all right, on your own grounds. So they talked a few minutes, and the next morning, went over. He says, Your cause is hopeless. I will give you until 10 o’clock tomorrow morning, Yes or no? General Lee sat down and wrote a message, this was the beginning of the end of the Civil war. That is what Grant did in fifteen minutes, nobody killed or hurt, just like that, after all those years of fighting. Grant said he would get it done, and did, in fifteen minutes. General Lee, his own men said, he is sick and tired of the whole thing, fighting. General Lee was a very old man himself. Just think of this, thousands of men in the ranks all around there, and just one man can accomplish all that in fifteen minutes. Hundreds of men killed, and nothing, too bad, but that is war. Dynamite was not invented at that time, but there was plenty of gun powder and smoking.
I: Do you have another question there, Carl? Yes, we are asking Mr. Woolson now, when he first came to Duluth.
A.W.: Oh, about 45-50 years ago. I have been here all that time. My father was a mechani, and he taught me how to turn wood on a turning lathe. But in Mankato, Minnesota, I was a chief engineer for a eight- or nine-story big building, flourmill. $175.00, every 24 hours turned out, night and day. I was chief engineer there for about four years and a half. $175.00 a month. I had ever done any engineering before, but I knew something handmade. I worked at Scott Graff that first summer. For a job, they asked, What can I do? I said, I am a cabinetmaker, wood turner. They looked me over, the boss did, so they had four 18-foot columns glued and tapered up, about that big in diameter. I got them into the lathe and got them fixed up in about ½ a day or more, next morning. I turned out the six knobs at the top, ornaments; there were four of those columns, 18 feet, for the Civic Center columns. I guess the government building is one of them. Quite a few of them. I worked four-and-a-half years.
I: Let’s see, do we have another question? One more question here. We are asking Mr. Woolson if he ever saw any combat in the Civil War.
A.W.: It was called the 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery. Chattanooga is where we had four 9A’s, rifles, and went to Lookout Mountain. It is about a mile high, and you could see the city down in the valley. Never been there, Chattanooga. The hills are almost vertical, but they carved a pathway up through the rocks. They had telescope rifles they carried a mile or more and were shooting at everyone they could see moving down there. They got tired of their job and skidaddled out of there. But the infantry regiments were the ones that saw most of the hard fighting.
I: Just a little visit with Mr. Woolson. Do you have anything else to say, Carl?
A.W.: I can’t hear, my hearing is very poor.
I: Although Mr. Woolson cannot hear me, I would like to say that I was very glad to meet him today.
A.W.: I see in the paper this morning--did you see it?--that they are having some kind of a parade for the American Legion, some kind of a honor.
I: We saw that and heard it on the radio, too. Jim, do you want to say anything?
I don’t think that we have mentioned that Mr. Woolson is the last surviving member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and there will be a bronze bust of him presented to the City of Duluth next week, from the Sons of the Grand Army of the Republic. When does that take place, Mr. Kobus, do you know?
Well, it begins tomorrow and runs through Thursday, I believe it is. The convention starts Sunday on the 8th, and the big doings are at Hotel Duluth on Monday evening, where they are going to unveil the bust of Mr. Woolson and present it to the City of Duluth. The convention continues until Thursday or Friday. General Grant the III will be coming for this occasion. I imagine he will have a lot of interesting things to tell.
Is he a direct descendant?
Yes, he is the grandson of President Grant.
