False Claims of Service in The Life Guards
Decades after the Revolution it was not uncommon for aged veterans to claim to have served in General Washington's Life Guard. One of the more famous of the false claims was made by Alexander Milliner of New York. When interviewed in 1864 by the Reverend Elias B. Hillard for his famous book The Last Men of the Revolution, Milliner claimed to be 104 and spun several stories of his (imagined) encounters with the general and "Lady Washington" during the last years of the Revolution. Later investigations determined that Milliner was only 94 (b. 1770) when he reminisced for Hillard, and that while he had served for several years as a drummer boy, he did so in a New York regiment and there was no record of a "Milliner" in the Life Guard.
Read more about this topic: Commander-in-Chief's Guard
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