Uzal Knapp was a Revolutionary War veteran. Although still widely referred to as George Washington's last surviving bodyguard from the Revolutionary War, this assertion was debunked in the early twentieth century.

Uzal Knapp and his alleged service as Washington's bodyguard is referenced in Dr. Carlos Emmor Godfrey's book, The Commander-in-Chief's Guard, Revolutionary War, Washington, D.C.: Stevenson-Smith Company, 1904, pages 14-15. It is now in the public domain and is transcribed below.

"I can readily understand the motive which prompts the descendants of these Revolutionary sires to connect their ancestor's service with this famous command if possible, but I fail to comprehend why numerous unsupported pretensions should be made unless they are deliberately done with the knowledge that the records of the Guard have heretofore been regarded as a sealed book, or by a perversion of the facts communicated to them by tradition or otherwise. A conspicuous example of the manner in which many of these abuses have arisen is manifested in the case of Uzal Knapp, whose alleged service in this corps is noticed and confirmed as a fact by eminent authors, who have emblazed his portrait and autograph upon the pages of history for all time as the last surviving member of the Commander-in-Chief's Guard. It is related that Sergeant Knapp was transferred to the Guard at Morristown in the winter of 1780, with which command he continued to serve until his discharge in June, 1783; and after his death, which occurred at New Windsor, New York, January 11, 1856, his body was laid in state in the reception-room of the Hasbrouck House at Newburgh, when it was appropriately interred with military honors the following Wednesday at the foot of the flag-staff in the lawn before the former head-quarters of Washington, which he had previously so faithfully guarded. At an earlier date, nevertheless, Dr. Lossing admits that the narrative of Sergeant Knapp's public life was obtained in the lifetime of the latter through another person. As a matter of fact the records show that Uzal Knapp enlisted for the war at Stamford, Connecticut, May 1, 1777, in Captain Stephen Butts's Company, Second Connecticut Regiment; and after being successively promoted a corporal and a sergeant, was honorably discharged from his regiment June 8, 1783; and subsequently died at New Windsor, New York, July 10, 1856. In his application for pension he negatives any service in the Commander-in-Chief's Guard, which is supported by the rolls of the organization."