On August 2, 1956, Albert Woolson died in Duluth at the age of 106. Woolson was the last surviving member of the Union Army who served in the Civil War. He enlisted at the age of 14 with the First Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment, and served as a drummer boy until he was discharged in September 1865. The organization Grand Army of the Republic, once a powerful political organization made up of Civil War veterans, dissolved upon his death, as he was the last living member.