Before the Glorious Cause Faded from Memory: The Story of the Last Living Veterans of the American Revolution

 This grainy black and white photo with stacked rifles off to the side showing a man dressed in militaristic homespun garb not unlike a Confederate soldier from the American Civil War was taken in early 1862.  That year was one of the peak years of the War Between the States--a year that saw some of that war’s deadliest and most bloody battles; when the fate of the United States of America itself as a nation hung in the balance with every passing day.  And this photo does depict an American soldier--albeit a one-hundred year old American soldier--but what makes this Victorian Era photograph so remarkable is that it isn’t a photograph of a soldier serving in the Union or Confederate armies, but rather, it depicts a man who served under George Washington during America’s War for Independence.

That man’s name was Nicholas Gerrit Veeder and just below you can see a colorized version that shows that Mr. Veeder proudly posed in his old blue Continental Army uniform.  Nicholas Gerrit Veeder was born on Christmas Day in 1761 in the town  of Schenectady, New York and he died just over one hundred years later--probably only mere weeks after this photograph was taken--having spent the vast majority of his more than a century on earth in and around Schenectady, except for when--at the age of only fifteen--Mr. Veeder enlisted for military service during the American Revolution and as his grave says, “Fought for Freedom’s Cause in 1776.”  Nicholas Veeder’s tombstone also goes on to recount how at the time of his passing he was, “The last soldier of the American Revolution in New York State.”

Today, Nicholas Gerrit Veeder still lies buried at the Old Reformed Church Cemetery in Schenectady New York within sight of where he married his wife Ann in 1795 and within walking distance of where  he raised his three sons and two daughters.  But, for a few glorious years, while still a teenager, a mere boy, Nicholas Gerrit Veeder fought for the cause of American Independence and he lived long enough to become New York’s (and perhaps America’s) last living hero of the Glorious Cause.

Historians believe that as many as 400,000 soldiers may have fought for the cause of American Independence in the years between 1775-1783, from when the, “Shot Heard Around the World” was fired on Lexington Green in Massachusetts until the last redcoat departed from New York City, but really it’s impossible to tell.  Many people--Nicholas Gerrit Veeder included--enlisted and then re-enlisted several times during the course of the war and many served in various forms of state and local militias that would become part of the greater Continental Army at large whenever the war happened to come to their doorsteps.  Some enlisted under different names several times throughout the war; some simply vanished, desertion was rife everywhere and many served on both sides.

It is believed that around five to six thousand American soldiers died in combat during our nation’s Revolution and that upwards of fifty-thousand--or more than ten percent of all men who served in uniform for the cause of American Independence--died from disease, malnutrition or exposure.  Over five thousand African-Americans--many of them escaped slaves or enslaved peoples who had been promised their freedom in return for their service--enlisted in the Continental Army.

At no one single time during the War for Independence did George Washington’s army ever exceed fifty thousand men at arms.  We also know that most who served, just like Nicholas Gerrit Veeder served in state run local militias to literally protect their homes from marauding Hessians, British or hostile indigenous tribes and would simply go back to farming, or shopkeeping or whatever once the threat had passed or been subdued just as Nicholas Gerrit Veeder did in Schenectady, New York.  Many received little or no pay for their service and some didn’t even have uniforms!

We know today that the American Revolutionary War marked the only time in history that a colonized people took up arms against the British Empire and actually won on the battlefield in open rebellion.  Two-hundred and fifty years later we know that the war ravaged great swaths of the American landscape and we know today, that what we call America’s War for Independence, was more of a Civil War between Americans and a theater in a larger eighteenth century World War that pitted great European powers like Britain, France and Spain against one another in global conflict, more than it was a mere localized war in North America between Great Britain and rebellious colonists.

However, the one thing that we don’t know about the American Revolution for certain--and the one thing that even in the middle of the nineteenth century that no one seemed to know for certain either is: Who was the last living veteran, the last living patriot, of what was called the Glorious Cause still alive before America’s War for Independence passed away forever from living memory?

The photo of Nicholas Gerrit Veeder is one of the most remarkable verifiable photos of a Revolutionary War veteran that I have ever come across, but it isn’t the only photo of an American Revolutionary War veteran, by any means and there definitely were several other centenarians living in the latter half of the 19th century who could rightfully claim to have been America’s last living veteran of our War for Independence.

In 1864 a Christian Minister from Connecticut named Elias Brewster Hillard embarked on a remarkable, some would say an obsessive, historical quest.  Perhaps, swept up by a wave of nationwide patriotism during the Civil War the remarkable Reverend set out to not only interview, but also, to photograph all the remaining living veterans of the American Revolution that he could possibly find.

Revered Hillard fervently believed that if he could interview and photograph every living veteran from the Revolution who had met and served with George Washington then he would somehow be able to save the Union at a time when the outcome of the American Civil War was still yet in serious doubt.

Hillard wrote to publishers to pitch his idea for a book of interviews and photographs that, “This present is the last generation which will be connected by living memory with the Revolution.”  Hillard insisted, at a time when most history was contained in dry and boring scholarly textbooks, that, “History lives only in the persons that created it.”

And what Reverend Elias Brewster Hillard created was one singularly remarkable book of photographs and interviews entitled, The Last Men of the Revolution.

During the mid 1860s at the height of the Civil War he travelled by rail, coach and on foot to three different states: New York, Ohio and Maine and was able to speak with six different men--all of whom were well past one hundred years old--and all of whom claimed to be among the last living veterans of America’s War for Independence.  

The man pictured on the cover of Hillard’s amazing volume is William Hutchings of Maine.  Hutchings is pictured as the venerable old man of one-hundred and two that he was at the time he was photographed by Hillard.  But, at the age of only fifteen Hutchings had enlisted in the Maine militia to defend the coast of his home state.  He had met George Washington and he received a pension from Congress for his service to the “Glorious Cause” of around twenty-one dollars a month for nearly eighty years.  He was married to his wife, who also lived to be over one-hundred years old, for just as long too.

William Hutchings

In 1864 Reverend Hillard asked Hutchings what he thought about the possibility that General Grant’s assault on Richmond would end the Civil War.  Hutchings replied, “I don’t know, but I know that there are two old people up here in Maine who are praying for him.”

All six men that Hillard interviewed were remarkable men, not just for their heroic service to the cause of liberty and American Independence in their youth so long ago, but also for their remarkable longevity and the living history that they so eloquently presented.

The oldest living verifiable veteran that Hillard interviewed was Lemuel Cook of Connecticut.  Lemuel Cook is today considered by most to have been the oldest living verifiable veteran of the American Revolution. Cook was born on September 10, 1759.  He enlisted in the Continental Army immediately after the outbreak of hostilities with the British at Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775.  He was sixteen years old at the time.

He fought in many of the campaigns of the American Revolution and served for the duration of the war.  Lemuel Cook witnessed the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown and he was personally discharged from the Continental Army by George Washington himself on June 12, 1784 after nearly a decade of meritorious service in the cause of American independence.

He moved to New York with his wife in 1795 where he would spend the rest of his life and be very active in local politics.  Lemuel Cook lived to be one hundred and six years old.  He lived long enough to see both the beginning and end of the American Civil War and he was the last surviving veteran of the American Revolution to receive a verified pension for his service during the War for Independence from the United States Congress.

Lemuel Cook passed away on May 20, 1866 and was buried with full military honors.  Many believe that when Lemuel Cook passed away in 1866 that the last of the Revolutionary generation had irrevocably passed from living human memory, though, it should be noted that two others who claimed to be veterans were still living at the time of Cook’s death.

Lemuel Cook in 1864

One, named Daniel F. Bakeman was photographed and interviewed by Reverend Hillard.  Though Bakeman’s date of birth could not be verified it is likely that he served in the New York State militia with Nicholas Gerrit Veeder and it’s interesting to note that both men were from Schenectady, New York and were personal acquaintances of one another.  The world of the American Revolution truly was a small world.  Daniel F. Bakeman passed away at the claimed age of 109 on April 5, 1869

The other last claimant was a man named John Gray.  Gray was born in Virginia and served in the Ohio State militia.  His claims were valid enough that at the venerable age of 102 Congress finally awarded Gray a pension of $500 semi-annually for service in the Cause of Liberty.  Gray passed away at the age of 104 on April 22, 1869 having finally been recognized for his service after so many years.  A memorial to his service exists to this day along Ohio State Route 821.

All three of these men, at one time or another, claimed to be the last living veteran of the American Revolution.  The haze of history and time makes it difficult to determine who was right about such claims and who was wrong, but in the end---Does it really matter?

Each man Nicholas Gerrit Veeder, William Hutchings, Lemuel Cook, Daniel F. Bakeman, John Gray and many others were American heroes in their youth, who through their longevity lived long enough to become living links to history and the last members of a dying generation, one of America’s greatest generations, the one that founded the remarkable American Republic that has now endured for two and a half centuries.

Even to this day each one of us is forever indebted to all of the patriotic heroes who served in the “Glorious Cause”, the cause of American Independence so long ago…