Capt. Thomas Ambrose, last of Chicago's Civil war veterans, died yesteerday in the Hines veterans hospital. He celebrated his 100th birthday last May 5. Capt. Ambrose's death leaves only one other Union veteran in Illinois. He is Lewis Fablinger, of 6121 Dunham rd., Downers Grove, who was 103 on Oct. 11. Services for Capt. Ambrose will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in the chapel at 6110 Cottage Grove av. He will be buried in Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati, O. Various veteran groups will participate in paying military honor at the services. His only survivor, Mrs. A. Pierson Riker of New York City, flew here yesterday but arrived too late to be with him when he died. Capt. Ambrose was only 16 when he enlisted as a private in Company A, 53d Kentucky mounted infantry, five months before the end of the war. He had been rejected twice earlier as being too young to fight in the Union armies. As a member of the Kentucky home guards, however, he already had been under fire. His unit had been assigned to check the raids of John Morgan's rebel cavalry. He later described his experience as follows: "I was standing at a turnpike in the road when a 22 pound Parrott rifle cannon shell fell in front of me. It left a cavity you could bury a horse and cart in, and rocks flew all around me. What with the ragged edged shells screaming in the air around me and the explosion in front of me, I was plenty scared. I looked around to see if anybody noticed my fright, but they were all too busy. I advanced with them with my knees shaking." After the war he was a captain in the Ohio-Indiana militia for several years. He joined the Grand Army of the Republic almost by accident. A spectator at a Memorial day parade, he suddenly found himself marching beside the 'boys in blue" and at the end of the parade he accepted an invitation to join the veterans' organization. He later became commander of the Illinois department of the G.A.R., serving intermittently from 1935 until his death. He also was a national vice commander of the group. For 15 years he was the grand marshal of the Memorial day parade in Chicago. Capt. Ambrose, born in Kentucky May 5, 1849, was, on Memorial day, one of only 68 Civil war veterans still alive. Capt. Ambrose lived in Chicago for more than 50 years. Until 1941 he was head of the college textbook department of the American Book company. He was one of the founders and a life member of the Izaak Walton league. He was an outspoken and loyal partisan of the Republican party. His wife, Rachel, was fatally injured in an automobile accident in 1929.

Chicago Tribune, 17 Nov 1949