353. Pensacola's Last Union Veteran 1936

Updated: Mar 23, 2022

Our last article was on Pensacola's last Confederate veteran who passed away in 1938. But who was our last known Union veteran in this area? Being a southern town, the number of Confederates certainly outnumbered the number of Union soldiers that were born here or chose to relocate here after the war. The last known Union soldier was John K. Davis who was born in Clearfield, Pennsylvania on May 22, 1844, the son of David Davis (1808-1904) and Dolly Finch (-1880). By 1850, John's family was living in Westfield, PA where his father was a "sawyer" at one of the local lumber mills. In 1860, the family had relocated to Huston, PA where his father had obtained work as a carpenter.

By the time the Civil War erupted, John was 18-years old and decided to enlist on August 22, 1862 in Wabasha Co., Minnesota in Company "I" of the 8th Minnesota Infantry Regiment. At the same time, his two brothers were doing the same thing. Orlando P. Davis (-1908) enlisted with the 13th Pennsylvania while his brother Abraham S. joined the 42nd Pennsylvania. Orlando would survive the war but not so Abraham. He was wounded at Gettysburg on July 3rd and would succumb from his wounds on the 24th and was buried in the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

In the meantime, John's regiment was kept in Minnesota to keep the peace on the frontier. Even so, a Sioux Indian uprising, called the "Dakota War of 1862," erupted leading to numerous casualties. In the spring of 1864, the regiment took part in two battles with the Sioux Indians before being transferred to the Department of the Cumberland in Tennessee. It took part in the 3rd Battle of Murfreesboro before heading to Alabama, then to Washington D.C., and then again to North Carolina where the war ended for the regiment. Because of their mobility during the war, the regiment received the title of having "traveled more miles during the war than any other" in the Union Army. After CSA General Joseph Johnston's surrender on April 26, 1865, the regiment was stationed in Raleigh, Goldsboro, and Charlotte, NC before being mustered out on July 11, 1865.

After the war, John moved to Huston, Pennsylvania to live with his brother-in-law in 1880, while he was employed in a local lumber mill. Six years later, John relocated to Pensacola, Florida where he met and married Alice Georgan "Georgie" Cowan (1871-1945) in 1890. By 1900, John was a fireman and ten years later he had become a retail merchant. By 1930, he and Alice had moved to Muscogee, Florida where they owned a home valued at $3,000. Alice's widowed father, James C. Cowan had also moved in with them. By this time, Alice was 59-years old with her aging father and husband the same age.

Around 1936, he and Alice moved to Klondyke (Beulah area) to be with family because of John's declining health. There, John would pass away on Sunday, March 15, 1936 at 8:15 AM, the last known Union war veteran in Escambia County, Florida. Alice's father would join him on the 25th of December. Two years later, the last Confederate veteran passed into the pale nations as Pensacola said goodbye to the last of the men of both sides that marched off to those faraway battlefields!