On May 2 2008 143 years after the end of the Civil War a Virginia Civil War relic collector became the last person to die from the Civil War when a cannonball he was restoring exploded in his drive?

Answer 1

You can't say he was the last to die of the civil war. A person who dies in the civil war has to be actually involved in the war, as in fighting. By your logic there can be no defined last casualty because who is to say that there will not be a future incident where someone is fatally shot by an old bullet or an antique pistol. So no the last death in the civil war was at the last glorious battle somewhere in Texas. An old man who unfortunately had an accident with an old relic is not a war death. And also, what if a man gets killed because a bridge from the War of 1812 falls on him? This does not qualify him for the casualty list. But it would be funny to see him on the roster of deaths on wikipedia.