Missouri's Last Rebel

John Graves

(Confederate Memorial State Historic Site)

John Thomas Graves was born on New Year's Day 1842 in Pike County, Missouri.  His father was superintendent of the Clark Tobacco Plantation.  One of his uncles served in the war with Mexico and other ancestors of his fought in the Revolutionary War.

Graves joined Captain Clark's Company A, Burbridge's Regiment in Harris' (2nd) Division of the Missouri State Guard, as a private, in the early summer of 1861.  Because of the advance of Federal forces under General Nathaniel Lyon, Graves found himself cut off with his command from the rest of the Missouri State Guard under General Sterling Price. While Price moved south towards the Arkansas border, Graves and his compatriots remained trapped north of the Missouri river, their way blocked by Federal garrisons watching the main river crossings.  Meanwhile, Price's men combined with Confederate forces under General McCulloch to defeat Lyon at Wilson's Creek.  Price then brought his army northwards, telling the men trapped north of the Missouri to meet him at Lexington. Volunteers flocked to Lexington to join Price's army.  Many years later John Graves referred to this occasion, when the whole army was present together, the bands were playing, the men were marching and the flags were flying, as his greatest experience in the war.  The small Federal garrison under Colonel Mulligan put up a fight but was eventually forced to surrender.  

It turned out that Lexington was John Graves' only major engagement of the Civil War.  He participated in a few minor skirmishes afterward but was discharged, for medical reasons, in January of 1862.  He was just 20 years old. Because of his health issues he did not join the Confederate army. He apparently returned to his home in northern Missouri.  

The next time we hear about John Graves is not long after the end of the war. when he purchased a farm in Lafayette County, Missouri, not far from the site of the future Confederate Home. He also ran a store in nearby Corder.  In 1867 he moved to a farm in Howard County, eventually settling at Fayette, where he became a building contractor and very successful businessman.  He built the new Fayette County Courthouse and became part owner of gold mines in Colorado and California.  He also got married and raised two sons.

After his wife's death in 1929, Graves applied to the Confederate Home but was rejected because his financial assets were above the admission limits.  He applied again in 1933 and this time he was admitted to the Home.  Although already old, he was 91, Graves was not the oldest man then in residence at the Home.  That honor belonged to 105 year old Ben Sparlin!  

Graves received the Southern Cross of Honor not long after entering the Confederate Home.  He was actually quite young for his age and remained in pretty good health until just days before his death.  He was very active with the United Confederate Veterans while at the Home.  In 1938 he was elected commander of the eastern brigade of the Missouri Division of the UCV.  He was one of four men rescued from a fire at the Home's main building in 1940.

After the death of Oscar Cheaney in March 1943, Graves became the last veteran living at the Home.  By now he was called "Uncle Johnny" by the Home's employees and visitors. He was assigned a room in the second story of the building used to house the Home's handful of remaining widows.  He would spend the last seven years of his life there.  Each New Year's Day, which was also his birthday, he would celebrate with ice cream and cake, and "six to eight" highballs, along with copious amounts of chewing tobacco.  During the World War II years he could be found avidly following the progress of the war on the radio.  He still considered himself a ladies man.  Visiting females were warned that he would try to kiss them, if they got too close.  At the age of 102 he was caught sneaking around one of the widow's rooms. But, on the occasion of his 108th birthday, he admitted to a local reporter that his interest in women had declined.

In December 1949 Graves became Missouri's last living ex-rebel.  In March of 1950 he became the nation's oldest living "Boy in Gray".  He didn't hold this honor for long, however.  In the early morning hours of May 9, 1950, "Uncle Johnny" passed away following a brief illness, at the age of 108.  His funeral was held the next day followed by interment in the Confederate Home Cemetery.  The funeral service was attended by a large crowd, including SCV, UDC members, state officials and many friends and family. His six pallbearers were all grandsons of Confederate veterans.