Last Survivor Monument

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Albert Henry Woolson was the last survivor of the Civil War's Union Army, and thus the last surviving member of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a fraternal organization for Union veterans. He lived to be 106, but it wasn't quite long enough to see his monument. He died 41 days before it was dedicated at the Gettysburg Battlefield on September 12, 1956.

Avard Fairbanks -- who had earlier made an ax-wielding Abe Lincoln for Hawaii -- sculpted the bronze monument, which, technically, is dedicated to the GAR, not Woolson. An aged Albert sits on a rock, wearing a 1950s business suit and holding a cane. A GAR medal is pinned to his jacket and a GAR hat rests on the rock beside him.

Despite the monument's location and Union Army connection, Albert did not fight at Gettysburg and in fact did not fight anywhere in the Civil War. He was a 14-year-old drummer boy when the war ended, and never saw a battle.