11/11/2025
Here is one of Seafords Finest !
The Last Drumbeat — Seaford’s Final Civil War Veteran
When George S. Parks passed away in March of 1936 at the age of 94, Seaford lost more than just one of its oldest residents — it lost its last living link to the Civil War. With him went the final firsthand voice of a generation that had marched in blue and gray, who had seen cannon smoke roll across Virginia fields and then lived long enough to see motorcars, radios, and even airplanes pass over the Nanticoke River.
A Young Man of New York and the Stage
Born and raised in New York, young George Parks once dreamed of footlights, not frontlines. Before the war, he performed Shakespearean roles on New York stages, reciting lines from Hamlet and King Lear before audiences who could not yet imagine how soon the country would tear itself apart.
But when war came, art gave way to duty. Parks enlisted in the 16th Heavy New York Artillery, serving under General Ulysses S. Grant at City Point, Virginia, and later at Fort Pocahontas. There, he saw battle and hardship — part of the brutal struggle that would decide the nation’s fate.
A Life Rebuilt in Seaford
Fifty years before his death, Parks moved to Seaford, Delaware, where he made his home and name as a man of public service and quiet humor. He served as justice of the peace and notary public, a position granted by Governor S. S. Pennewill around 1910. Locals remembered him as a dignified man with a steady voice — the kind who carried both the weight of history and the patience to sign your papers or listen to your troubles.
A Familiar Face at Every Veterans’ Gathering
When Armistice Day (what we now call Veterans Day) was first marked in 1919, George Parks was there. Dressed in his faded blue coat, he stood straight beside younger veterans of the Spanish–American War and the Great War.
Each year, until his health began to fail, he marched — or when he could no longer march, he rode — in Seaford’s Veterans Day and Memorial day ceremonies.
To see him was to remember: the old soldier with the white mustache, the steady gaze, and the quiet pride of one who had seen the beginning of America’s modern story.
Children were told, “That man fought with Grant.”
And for decades, his presence gave the town’s parades their deepest meaning.
The Final Salute
In his last years, Parks spent summers in Seaford and winters with his son and daughter-in-law, Spencer and Mrs. Parks, in Pennsylvania. It was there he passed away one cold March night in 1936. His body was brought home by train and met at the Seaford station by members of Nanticoke Post No. 6, American Legion, who carried his flag-draped casket to Odd Fellows Cemetery.
He was laid to rest with full military honors, the last Civil War veteran of Seaford, and an honorary member of both the Nanticoke Post and the Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post of Wilmington.
Two years later, in 1938, Armistice Day became a national holiday.
George Parks did not live to see that recognition — but in Seaford, the memory of his salute on those early November mornings lived on.
In time, other wars came, and other veterans took their places in Seaford’s parades. But the old-timers would still point down Market Street when the drums began to roll and say:
“I remember when the last man who fought with Grant marched right there — George Parks — Seaford’s last Civil War soldier. He saw it all.”
So today as the ceremony is held at the high school...Remember George Parks and all those that have served and are still serving.
And in that way, his memory remains — a living thread between the smoke of 1865 and the flags that still wave each Veterans Day over Seaford in their honor!
