Because someone hid my last comment by mistake:

The last Civil War veteran died in 1956; the last to have seen combat died in 1953.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Woolson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hard

And the last Revolutionary War veteran died in 1866. (The year after our Civil War ended, in case you don't know much American history.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuel_Cook