Thomas Evan Riddle

Summary: His military service is possible

Despite all the confusion Riddle caused, the service of a Thomas Evans Riddle must be genuine - but is he the same man with that name who lived to be 107?

Date of Birth: disputed: 1845 April 1846, 1847, 1848, 1853, 1858, April 1860, 1862, 1864 and 1868 are all stated.

Date of Death: 2nd April 1954

Age at enlistment: disputed, probably fifteen or sixteen.

Rank: private (claimed)

Unit: confused, several possibilities emerge, but the 22nd Virginia Infantry (1st Kanawa Regiment) has him enlisted under his full name and he claimed he was in the 33rd Virginia Infantry. Transfer from the first to the second is possible.

Service: four years in the infantry or eighteen months or twenty months.

Combat Experience: Plenty, both the 22nd and the 33rd Virginia were in heavy fighting.

Length of service: uncertain: 1861 to 1865 in one account, eighteen months in another and from early in the war till after Gettysburg in another.

Evidence for service: He had a census reference from showing him to be born where and when he said he was and with a birthdate in April 1846 that gave him an age creditable for war service. Seventy years later he correctly remembered within one letter the rank and details of the man who enlisted him, Captain W.P. Sampler of Company I 22nd Virginia. This was close to correct; his name was actually William P. Samples. [1] This obscure piece of information was unlikely to be known unless he was there. His supposed lieutenant while named, remains unknown.

While not using his exact full name except in one enlistment, that of the 22nd Virginia, several men called Thomas Riddle are recorded in units where he said he was enlisted. A Thomas Riddle also appears by name in an excerpt from an 1863 diary written by a soldier in his company in the 33rd Virginia. He may also possibly be the Confederate veteran identified in the 1913 reunion photo as Thomas E. Riddle.

No other Thomas Evans Riddle appears in records to show that the man who served and the man who lived to 1954 are two different people, although that is possible. Evan so, no other contemporary named Thomas Evans Riddle appears on the internet.

Evidence against service: His own outrageously impossible stories, claims by descendants that he was too young to have been in the war, the opinion of the writer of his regimental history and some very contradictory censuses, genealogical charts, written facts, documents and his death certificate records are all strong negative evidence.

Riddle can only be the most curious case amongst those who lived into the 1950s or beyond. He has more evidence in his favour than several who are verified, but they do not have such strong evidence against their claim. Like Hard, Mayer, Woolson and Bush, he told tall stories, but he pushed them into the ridiculous and unlike the other three did not know when to stop and to start balancing those stories with real experiences. Like the others, in fact, like almost all of the twenty-nine in this study, his birthdate remains uncertain and mixed in contradictions. Unlike most of the others, many of his supposed birthdates means that he was too young to have served in the war, even as a child soldier. Contradictory information from Riddle family sources and government agencies means that while his claims cannot be disproved, they block him from being verified.

After reading the devastating assorted pieces that make up evidence against his service it seemed charitable to keep his status “as possible/confusing evidence.” All this negative evidence exists here for those who wish to follow it after I establish why he stays listed as a possibility, but cannot go beyond that. The last paragraph is a summary of his importance. Not one of these documents that is evidence for Civil War service comes from Riddle or could be a forgery.

The first primary source is the 1850 census where he is listed as being four years old, born in Blount, Tennessee in April 1846.

The second find and its assessment is largely due to the efforts of John McClure of the Virginia Historical Society. After checking for Riddle in the Tennessee regiments where Riddle claimed to be first, and not finding him enlisted, believed the account by descendants who had stated that although he said he enlisted with the Tennesseans there was no record of him there. They said the same about his enlistment on the 22nd Virginia muster roll, so who was the Thomas Riddle there and in the 33rd and the 53rd ? My double check with Mr McClure got a prompt response. He found a Thomas Evans Riddle was indeed mentioned, as enrolled in the 22nd Regiment Company I under his full name and 1846 was given there as his date of birth. However as Mr McClure pointed out, the author’s note to Riddle’s name stated that he probably did not serve there.[2] Riddle’s full name did not show up in the 22nd in the computerised muster rolls used until then so this important clue was nearly missed. As subsequent pages show the author of the note had a point about distrusting Riddle, but the fact remains - how many soldiers named Thomas Evans Riddle exist in the muster rolls? One.

To remake the previously mentioned point from Part One about muster rolls once again, they do not contain full conclusive proof, are full of unacknowledged double entries for individuals and have omissions for both basic information and for individuals who served. Even so, this book shows them to be much more reliable than the American censuses.

The 22nd Virginia served in the unsuccessful 1861 campaign to reclaim West Virginia where many of the regiment’s soldiers were from, although some were from Riddle’s home state of Tennessee. In early 1862 they moved towards the front, forming in North-East Virginia. Lowry states that Riddle claimed to have enlisted in the 33rd Virginia Infantry in 1863, a unit recruited mainly around Rockingham County. This regiment was part of the famed Stonewall Brigade. This meant it would be in all the war’s major eastern battles until Spotsylvania 1864, when it had taken so many casualties that it was merged into other units. While approximately 6,000 soldiers served in the brigade, only 210 surrendered at Appomattox; their reputation was so high that they led the last parade at the surrender.[3] Riddle was not listed among them there.

Riddle’s claimed service gains more credibility by the third piece of evidence. This was found by this writer as an entry in a serialised diary where nothing was made of it. His move from the 22nd to the 33rd, was perhaps to be with probable relatives James and Harrison Riddle. John B. Sheets, (also of Company I) kept a diary in which Riddle appears with Harrison. In February 1863 they were apparently absent without leave and returned to camp in chains. Riddle slipped out of the chains but returned voluntarily only to be locked up. Considering that Sheets records deserters being shot in this week Riddle was lucky to be alive.[4] Sheets also records the aftermath of Gettysburg and the sheer dreariness of war.

It is a long way from Riddle’s account of getting presents from his relative Robert E. Lee while they amiably chat on the Riddle family farm, being relatives and pals. The last piece of evidence is the 1913 Reunion photo, already mentioned and dealt with in detail on the section on Arnold Murray.

THE RIDDLE IN THE MORASS If the writing here seems convoluted, pedantic and a morass please reflect on the way that I am investigating a man who managed to have nine different birth date years, be born in both Tennessee and Kentucky, have at least two military records and possibly more to come, had no fathers in his first census, had perhaps other parents in two sets and indulged to the full an outrageous and hilarious propensity for telling impossible stories. Even dead he confused to an impossible maximium, gaining two disagreeing death certificates and two disagreeing tombstones. Presumably some merciful archivist buried him under one of them, but after researching him, don’t count on it.

Why couldn’t the aptly named Pleasant Crump have outlived the aptly named Riddle? Anybody else in the over one million serving in Confederate ranks should have lived longer. Riddle may have been the last living Confederate soldier, but he is also the most confusing. Even the Loudermilks or the censuses cause less confusion.

My account initially followed what unbelieving relatives wrote on the website ‘Our Family.’ They stated that in 1931 Riddle tried to get a Confederate pension and to do so initially stated he was in the 12th Tennessee Infantry which was soon merged, then he was in the 22nd Tennessee Infantry - and that still appears on some websites. As late as 1951 he claimed to have served in the 12th Virginia at Gettysburg.[5] In 1931 the War Department could find nothing either. To that point I agreed with their sceptical outlook as I had checked and also found no reference to him there. Other Tennessee units were mentioned by Riddle, but then his descendants said he claimed confusion and to have served in Virginian units.[6]

He presented a memorandum that he said had been written up by his wife about twenty-five years before about his enlistment in the 22nd and said that he remembered he had served in the 33rd Virginia. By their account he got his enrolling captain’s surname right within one letter seventy years on, but the authorities of the 1930s did not know of his named lieutenant, Glarpie Sentendem.[7] Nobody knew anything of that supposed officer back then and nobody does now. Professor Hoar’s doubts about the existence of Riddle’s place of enlistment, Verna, Virginia are borne out by an internet search.[8] In 1932 Government workers then told him that they could find no record of him in the 22nd Virginia, but did find him listed in the 33rd Virginia, so he was granted his pension.[9] A Thomas Riddle is listed there in Company I.[10] If he was a faker after a pension, how did he know the enlisting Captain’s name and task? How did he know that there was indeed a Thomas Evans Riddle enlisted in the 22nd Virginia when the officials did not? Like the 22nd’s muster rolls, the memorandum has since tied in with the other evidence that does not come from him.

In his 22nd Virginia Infantry Terry D. Lowry writes that Riddle claimed to be in various Tennessee units, but finally settled on the 22nd Virginia, but this claim was probably not so.[11] Lowry does however state that the Thomas Evans Riddle was born on April 16th 1846 near Nashville, and so links him to the man who died in 1954 and he gives us Riddle’s dubious claim of enlisting in 1863 and serving to the war’s end.[12] He does not show up on the Appomattox Parole list. Ancestry .com does list him in the 22nd Virginia, Company I, but the Official Records does not, but does list him in the 33rd Company I.

There was another (?) private, Thomas E. Riddle, who also turned out to be Thomas C. Riddle served in Company I 53rd Virginia Infantry. Like the 33rd, this unit was at Gettysburg and the company identifying letter is the same with numbers easily confused, so perhaps he finally ended up here –or perhaps there were three Thomas Riddles in the Army of Northern Virginia.

His potential enrolments look like this:

12th Tennessee Infantry (merged) (claimed without evidence)

22nd Tennessee Infantry (unlisted) (claimed without evidence)

Other Tennessee Units (unknown) (claimed without evidence)

Company I 22nd Virginia Infantry (possible but dubious)

Company I of the 33rd Virginia Regiment (proven on muster roll evidence)

Company I 53rd Virginia Infantry (unlikely. The Riddle here seems to be someone else)

The writers of “Our Family” faced with all this and without the evidence we now have, were quite right then to be sceptical about Riddle’s military life, but the census morass gets Riddle’s descendants and genealogists saying there is “no way” that Thomas Evans Riddle could have served in the Civil War. This sounds a bit too certain, but while much of the evidence is muddled, ambiguous, contradictory and uncertain, enough remains to cause serious doubts about Riddle’s claims.

The morass caused by army rolls appears difficult to beat, but the birthdate documents for Riddle manage to be worse.

It is important to remember that not one of these birthdates has been backed by reference to a birth certificate. No birth certificate, baptismal record or date of birth from a marriage licence can be found on a computer website for Thomas Evans Riddle to the best of my knowledge. The source of evidence, the censuses and his death certificates are full of multiple contradictions, ambiguities and uncertainties, are often incomplete and are difficult to decipher. Even some among those working with the Riddle records frequently admit to these factors.

If the genealogists and the census takers had stuck with one date within the range this would have made for a stronger case, either for credibility or disbelief, but all this confusion does is lower the credibility of the census records. He was born again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again if we believe censuses. I am not joking: we are offered nine birth dates. How can anyone take such evidence seriously?

Some researchers say they have found original documents that prove that he was born on April 16th 1846.[13] Perhaps this referes to the 1850 census, but could be something else. This census clearly shows a Thomas (no middle name) Riddle was born in Blount, Blount County Tennessee, when and where he said he born. His father’s name is not shown and the head of the household is Lucy Riddle, aged forty. While it is possible she is an older sister or half-sister, the age range of over thirty-five years for the listed siblings make this unlikely. She is more likely to be an aunt or their mother. A Thomas Riddle did marry a Lucy Johnston in Virginia in June 1821, but a marriage to a bride of about eleven? Good as this evidence is for Riddle, it shows him as perhaps wrong about his supposed mother’s name at least – surely something people never forget. This census birth year would go into many documents, but not Thomas and Lucy as his parents.[14] He never named them as such, perhaps because they were not his parents. Oddly a fraud with half a brain would have stuck to the same parent as is named on the census, not name people as parents who were not on it, but did he see the document or just know of it? The census document does make him the right age for soldiering. While men called Thomas Riddle abound in the censuses after 1850 and in Civil War records, only one Thomas Evans Riddle shows up in censuses, death certificates and pensions – the man who died in Houston in 1954. This census also lists two men with what some descendants claim was his father’s name, Elias. One was born in 1805 and married twenty years later, the other was born in 1834 and married twice, to sisters.

The family tree record claims the younger Elias as his father. [15] Put together in 2013, it does seem to rely on the 1954 death certificate and census data as it reproduces the 1870 and 1880 censuses. These give a Thomas Riddle (no middle name) contradictory ages of ten in the first and eighteen in the second. This site does reproduce all the usual dates, so Thomas Evans Riddle lives from 1858 to 1954. However it also seemingly lists Elias and Mahala (Mahalia elsewhere in censuses) as his parents and they are listed as being born in 1834 (Mahalia about 1835 elsewhere in censuses) and then list Thomas Evans Riddle’s marriages and children accurately. Elias married in 1852, but after being widowed he married his sister in law in 1868. While the usual census birthdate confusion appears there, the 1870 census does list Thomas as a child of Elias and Mahalia and in 1880 TER is listed with the widowed Mahalia’s children. This cannot be a mistake. What is clear is that the man born in 1846 could not be the child of parents born in 1834, nor did he claim these parents, although the wives and children shown on the genealogical tree agree with one of the death certificates. This comes close to what another family tree shows; but this gives his birth year as 1860. This difference in birthdates between 1858 and 1860 might be explained by the census last birthday rule.

The death certificate issued by the State of Texas in 1954 also accepts this 1846 date, but another document in the same collection from Wichita Falls records a birthdate of 1858 with the names of Elias and Mahalia as different parents to those on the first death certificate![16] If this is not confusing enough, both sets of the parent’s names have an assonance joined in gender, yet they might be different. On one death certificate Lyles Riddle and Hailey Brown were stated as being the parents of the Thomas Evans Riddle born in 1846 in Blount, Blount County. While several Americans named Lyle Riddle show up in the antebellum south, not one Lyles Riddle does and no Hailey Brown is shown married to a Riddle. The same maiden name would be a certain giveaway were it not so common. Both documents are talking about the same man as both give the same death date of April 2nd 1954. After nine birthdates and three sets of possible parents, he would manage two divergent death certificates, each one containing contradictions. Both also list his children. With one Cora B. Riddle, they list her father Thomas as born “Apr 1860 TN in Grayson County. 1900.” These same documents state that Thomas Evans Riddle was born in Kentucky in 1868 and was living with his daughter Cora, whom they name correctly.[17]

One descendant posted an initially devastating blog about Riddle’s birthdate, quoting the 1860 census document that gave Riddle’s birth year as 1853. They are not certain that his father was Elias and in one brief article they also produce different birthdates from the 1860 census for Thomas Riddle, April 11th 1858 and 1853.[18] They also apparently do not know about the 1850 census document, although they do know of his claim to being born in 1846. That evidence is independent from Riddle’s say so and comes from the time.

To worsen the confusion other Texans named Thomas E. Riddle appear in the census records and are of the same vintage. The 1920 census gives a birthdate of about 1864 for one Texan Thomas E. Riddle and “about 1847” for another, but the wife’s name is different, so neither may be Thomas Evans Riddle! One had a wife supposedly named California in some censuses, but then she - or a later wife, is named Virginia next time the census taker called! To keep a belief in census reliability we must believe this Riddle not only had a penchant for changing his birth year, but he also had a penchant for wives named after American states! Or did he persuade them to change their names to suit his eccentric tastes?

Back in the 1950s somebody apparently just compiled documents relating to Thomas E. Riddle in a file without trying to make sense of them. They probably wanted to stay sane.

What Riddle, (like Loudermilk and Murray) unintentionally does prove without a doubt is the ridiculous ways and general unreliability of censuses.

Stronger evidence against Riddle comes from Riddle himself. The 1910 census lists Thomas E. Riddle in Clay County Texas and correctly lists his five children and place of birth. It gives his age as 48 and his estimated birth year as 1862. This matches the age of eighteen on the 1880 census record, even if they disagree with all the other documents. The column asking for yes or no for Civil War service stays blank. In the 1930 census in the column concerning military service Riddle has written “no” and left the involvement in conflicts column blank.

The recently discovered May 1913 Chattanooga United Confederate Veterans reunion group photograph could be good evidence for Riddle. Writing on the back gives several names, but the Thomas E. Riddle of Texas identified here looks more like the Doctor Thomas E. Riddle who served in the Texan Cavalry. A portrait and his details are available under his name in a Find a Grave entry. However enough of a similarity in face and build exists so that Thomas Evans Riddle cannot be discounted or is this the other Texan Thomas E. Riddle?

If any record of Thomas Evans Riddle being born at any other date exists it should be computerised. Perhaps Lucy Riddle on the 1846 census was not his mother. Were it not for the censuses and the information about Elias and Mahalia with Thomas listed as their child, Riddle would be listed as a probable Civil War veteran and the last fighting man, but they do exist and in some detail, and so unless he was born in one of the claimed years 1853, he cannot be both their child and a Civil War veteran.

Riddle did not need bureaucracies, family members or anybody else to lower his credibility. His tall stories included knowing the James Brothers and knowing that Jesse was not shot dead in 1882 but with Frank, took on a secret identity near Riddle’s home.[19] His Civil War anecdotes include being given a birthday gift of a pistol by Robert E. Lee while the general and his army camped out on the Riddle’s Tennessee farm – not that Lee ever really took his army into Tennessee.[20] Riddle also claimed that before enlisting he “worked as a stone and brick mason around General Rob Lee’s camp.”[21] Other tall ones were being oblivious to five bullets in the side until a General told him, about being related to Robert E. Lee and about burying Gettysburg’s fatalities, all thirteen of them! [22] Among his other acquaintances were Lincoln, whom Riddle “knew until he died” surely a unique claim for one supposedly serving in the Stonewall Brigade![23]

Was he just joshing his visitors and merely wanted to stir them up and get some laughs? Or were these stories to cover the horrors of war and his less than glorious attempt to escape from it? Or were they a way of communicating that his whole claim was all bull?

Only Riddle really knew the answers.

He certainly was a colourful character who loved to spin stories for guests as he spent his last years as the last Confederate in a Houston veteran’s home. His large room was decorated with a battle flag and a portrait of Lee. He died on April 2nd 1954, just days before what was perhaps his 108th birthday.

Riddle needs more research, especially reliable information about his wartime service. Getting evidence for who his parents were will be crucial. The perhaps parents born in 1834 cannot be discounted without evidence. Much of the evidence that goes against his claims comes from him.

He was perhaps the last Civil War combatant. Four pieces of strong evidence do indicate that. The 1850 census record, Sheets diary, the 33rd enrolment and knowing of the enrolling officer are all strong evidence. Thomas Riddle being in the 22rd Virginia, backs this. The 1913 photo remains possibly strong evidence. No other Thomas Evans Riddle has ever been revealed to explain these obviously genuine references away. Maybe one will turn up. Were it not for the censuses, the death certificates, the family trees and his stories this would be ample to verify him. He has internet supporters, but no historian can be definite about believing him? Most rightly mix caution and curiosity and at this point, he can only be listed as a strong, controversial and important possibility.

*

This is an abridged excerpt from America’s Last Civil War Participants: An Investigation by Garry Victor Hill. The full and illustrated text can be found for free at my website garryvictorhill.com.au/ Hopefully this will also be an e-book. Twenty eight other claimed Civil War survivors alive after 1951 are also assessed.

[1] David Autry working from research by Margret Gilbreath. Our Family 2/8/2008. http:/Roots/web Project Our Family / The Last Civil War Vets. Our Family p2.

[2] Terry D. Lowry, excerpt from his book. e-mail John McClure 16th April 2014.

[3] Patrick Hook & Steve Smith, The Stonewall Brigade in the Civil War. London: Zenith Press, 2008. p101 p123.

[4] John B. Sheets, The Diary of John B. Sheets. Transcribed by Dale Harter, HRHS Archivist. Harrisonburg – Rockingham Historical Society. Volume 30. No1. p7 entry for Feb 26th 1863.

[5] Associated Press, May 1951 Story

[6] Our Family p2.

[7] Hoar, Affidavit of Thomas Riddle of Feb.24th reduced in part Vol. III p1711.

[8] Hoar, Vol. III p1711; My search for Verna, Virginia went on long after anything remotely possible was coming up. It was a wild goose chase.

[9] Our Family.

[10] Official Records http://www. Nps. Gov/civil war/search –soldiers.html?submitted+1&SDfName+Thomas+&S; John W. Wayland, Muster Rolls of Confederate Soldiers. This is a developed excerpt from his History of Rockingham County.

[11] Excerpt sent by John McClure e-mail 16th April 2014. Unfortunately Lowry’s history is now out of print and the last copy traceable apparently sold for $ 1000 recently.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Judith McGuiness, “Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma: Civil War Veteran Buried in Burknett Cemetery Lived Extraordinary Life’ Times Record News. Wichita Falls, Texas August 16th 2008. http://www. Times record news.com/news aug16/riddle-wrapped-enigma/? Print 1. McGuiness does say that these 1840s documents “supposedly attest” to Riddle’s birth. Lowry also accepts this birthdate, see Citation 107.

[14] Texas Death Certificates 1890-1976. Texas Confederate Home for Men. Austin. Family History and Message Board. p4.

[15] Jane Stewart, Ancestry ® Official Site

[16] Ibid, This does mean one entry down.

[17] Ibid, This is on the bottom of page and the top of the next.

[18] Our Family. Previous Citation.

[19] McGinnis, quoting Riddle, p2.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Hoar, Vol. III p1712 quoting Riddle.

[22] McGuiness p2; Unsigned article, “86 Years After Civil War Only 19 Veterans Remain.” Denver Post 19th June 1951. n.p. Ancestry.com Thomas Evans Riddle Collection. See also Hoar Vol. III p1712.

[23] Ibid, This one made the New York Times on April 3rd 1954.