Short Synopsis
Journalist Richard A. Serrano details the mystery surrounding the last two veterans of the Civil War—one real and one a fraud.

Full Synopsis
In the late 1950s, as America prepared for the Civil War centennial, two very old men lay dying. Albert Woolson, 109 years old, slipped in and out of a coma at a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital, his memories as a Yankee drummer boy slowly dimming. Walter Williams, at 117, blind and deaf and bedridden in his daughter's home in Houston, Texas, no longer could tell of his time as a Confederate forage master. The last of the Blue and the Gray were drifting away; an era was ending.

Unknown to the public, centennial officials, and the White House too, one of these men was indeed a veteran of that horrible conflict and one, according to the best evidence, nothing but a fraud. One was a soldier. The other had been living a great, big lie.

"Told with clarity and skillfully paced, Serrano's story of two old men and the mythology that grew up around them is intimate, expansive, and thoroughly entertaining." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"In the Last of the Blue and Gray, [Serrano] has found a hidden gem worthy of his narrative skill." ---James Risen, author of State of War

"This is a great story, easy to read and full of wonderful detail, one that sheds light not only on the past but on our shifting memories of it." ---James Mann, author of The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan

"Miller's easygoing and expressive voice does well in reading both narrative and quotations, for which he sometimes provides a distinct voice or accent." ---AudioFile

Publishers Weekly Review