On Sunday, April 19, the Parma Hilton Historical Society opened the James A. Hard Exhibit in the Museum at 1300 Parma Hilton Corners Road (Rt. 259), Hilton. Several items in the collection, including Hard’s Civil War Springfield Rifle, bayonet, bayonet holster, and G.A.R. hat, are on loan to the museum from the Eksten family, Hard’s descendants.
James Hard was the nation’s last combat veteran of the Union Army during the Civil War. The Union Army once had 2,100,000 soldiers. Some gave their lives for the cause; others survived; and a few lived long lives to tell their stories firsthand. Someone had to be last, and in this case, there were two. James Hard was the last combat veteran, and Albert Woolsen of Duluth, Minnesota, was the very last veteran. Woolson was with the 1st Minnesota Regiment as a drummer boy, but the war had ended before he saw action.
Hard was born between 1841 and 1843 in Victor, New York. When he was four, the family moved to Windsor, New York, near Binghamton. He grew up on the family farm with nine siblings. Children in those days were expected to begin earning their living at 16. At the time the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter in 1861, Hard was working at a sawmill in Dryden, New York. There, he learned of Lincoln’s first call for volunteers, and he, with some friends, enlisted on May 14, 1861, and joined the 32nd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. It is believed that the lack of clarity about his birthdate stems from his claiming to be older than he actually was in order to enlist…