A friend of mine is the grandson of a black Civil War soldier who had been a slave. His aunt, the soldier’s daughter is still alive. She just turned 100 last year. There were two girls born to this soldier from a second marriage. The aunt was the youngest, and was just a baby when her mother died.
I remember reading about two years ago that the last person receiving veterans benefits from the Civil War had just died.
Seems that around 1918 a soldier who had fought in the Civil War (he was about 80 in 1919) had married a 17-year old young girl, and thus she was entitled to the veterans benefits paid to wives of soldiers.
She eventually passed away around 2003 at age 105 or so, but was the last person in America still receiving benefits DIRECTLY from civil war action.