The Civil War is Alive Today (A Story about Adele Miller)

By Michael H. Miller · Originally published May 2019 · p. 19

The United States recently completed a four year cycle commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil. This seems like long ago, particularly to Americans. Certainly, no Civil War veterans are around today, but consider the following questions: Is there someone who was alive in 2018, who had direct contact with living Civil War veterans? Could this have occurred in a place far removed from the Civil War such as Los Angeles, California? On July 29, 2018, my mother, Adele Miller, died just before turning 105. In 1927, when Adele Miller, nee Solomon, was fourteen years old, she attended Hollenbeck Junior High in Los Angeles. That year she played the piano for a school orchestra selected to entertain at the Sawtelle Veterans Home in West Los Angeles, across the street from the Los Angeles National Cemetery. Both were established in the 1880s and still exist near the Westwood area. In the first row at the performance venue were approximately a dozen old men, some with horns placed by their ears. The orchestra was told that these men were Civil War veterans. My mother has never forgotten this experience and the fact that she saw and entertained men who fought in the American Civil War. The National Cemetery honors the Civil War veterans who died

Soldiers’ Home [Sawtelle Veterans Home] Repository: California Historical Society Digital object ID: CHS2013.1297 Collection: Views of Los Angeles, California Photographer: Putnam and Valentine Date: Undated Format: Photographic print: b&w; 20 x 25 cm. General notes: Putnam & Valentine was a partnership of J.R. Putnam and W.S. Valentine, stereo photographers active in Los Angeles, circa 1898-1912. Preferred citation: Soldiers’ Home, Views of Los Angeles, California, courtesy, California Historical Society, CHS2013.1297.

Adele Miller at the Veterans home with a Civil War Monument and street names such as Gettysburg and Shiloh Drive. Amongst the Civil War graves are many veterans buried after 1927, up to 1933, including Vermont medal of honor recipient James Sweeney who was born in 1845, fought in the Civil War during 1864, and died in 1931 just prior to his 86th birthday. After the Civil War, the West became a magnet for thousands seeking a new home or refuge. Over the years, Southern California housed many veterans including those who were disabled and in need of care at Sawtelle where Civil War veteran case files cover the years 1888 to 1933. My mother remembers being told by the people at Sawtelle that the Civil War veterans enjoyed their entertainment. She saw them smile and applaud. It is an important memory to a person whose first recollection is waving a small American flag as soldiers returning from World War I marched through her Brooklyn neighborhood. The longevity of some Civil War veterans to ages beyond 80 and the longevity of my mother to 105 changes our idea of history. What seems a long time ago, is not. It is recent history; even though we may think of that time and those places as far in the past, they are within the grasp of people still alive. The lessons learned, the tribulations suffered, the lives lost, and its meaning for all Americans is not that far back. Abraham Lincoln was not officially memorialized until the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922 with Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, in attendance. This occurred when my mother was nine years old.

An intriguing question is whether my mother was the only living American in 2018 who could legitimately claim having seen and communicated with veterans of the Civil War. Was she the last American alive to see a living Civil War soldier? There are probably living relatives of Civil War veterans who saw them in their lifetime, but she is certainly amongst the very few. When these few die, it will mean that no one survives who can claim contact with veterans of the Civil War. When you realize that this story about my mother and her personal link to Civil War veterans ended in 2018, it is a reminder that the recent anniversary tribute to the preservation of our Union pays homage to the history of a young nation. I knew that Adele Miller was in her twenties during the depression, a young house wife during the Second World War, a mother of teenagers when John Kennedy was elected, and so on. It is her relationship to the Civil War that is the most surprising. I am glad she reminded me about it in her later years as it triggered my research at Sawtelle and the

Los Angeles National Cemetery enabling me to tell others. [Editorial comment: While they are not in California, there are several current members of the North-South Skirmish Association who talked with Civil War veterans in the early 1950’s]