Civil War Widows' Pensions

18thVirginia

Major
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
I have to get my driver's license renewed this month and received a postcard informing me of all kinds of information that's required, including something that explains if my original name has changed from that on my social security card. It got me thinking about widows of Civil War veterans and the amount of trouble that it must have taken to find all the appropriate documents and deal with bureaucrats in charge of the paperwork at either the Federal level for Union veterans' wives or the state level for Confederate wives.

We have a lot of threads that cite the information in Civil War Pension files, but I thought it might be interesting to look at some individual files and consider what it was like for all the women who weren't very educated or accustomed to dealing with officialdom. Also thought that posters could share information from their own great or great great or great great great grandmothers who were dealing with what must have been a bewildering system in the 1860s-early 1900s.

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Kathleen L. Gorman has written about Civil War pension systems and explains that the first system was put in place in 1862 for Union soldiers. The initial pensions were for soldiers disabled from their service. The wives and children of those killed on duty were also eligible to receive a monthly amount. Gorman notes that the original pension funds for a totally disabled private amounted to only $8/month.

http://essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/civil-war-pensions.html

My great, great, great grandmother was one of the claimants for these initial pensions for widows. Here's her pension claim form, which is a post-war claim, filed in 1866.

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Here's the second page of the application that attests that Ellenor Woods was married to the Union veteran and that she has not remarried and is a widow.

The form at the bottom indicates that she has an attorney, T. R. Stanley, to examine papers, documents, and records relating to her claim. I checked and T. R. Stanley was an attorney practicing in Chattanooga at the time. The claim notes two witnesses who attested that GGG grandmother made her "mark" to sign the form.

I'm sort of amazed that this woman who must have been illiterate found herself an attorney to deal with the federal bureaucrats.
 
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Gorman notes that the first recipients of pensions received funds only from the time of their application. However, the Arrears Pension Act of 1879 allowed veterans to go back and apply for payments to the date of discharge. The rules were still that the pension must be related to disability from their time in the military, but this allowed for lump sum payments to be made to individual veterans, quite a new expenditure of pension funds.



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Here's a transcription of an affidavit that Eleanor Wood submitted about the medical treatment of her husband prior to his death:

State of Tennessee
Hamilton County

On this 27th day of December 1867 before me clerk of the Law Courts of Chattanooga personally came Mrs. Ellenor Wood of said county who being duly sworn stated that she is the widow of Christopher Wood late a Private of Co. “B” 10th Tenn Cav. Vols. That when said Christopher Wood was taken ill, by exposure during a severe rain storm the camp of the Regt. was only about two hundred yards from the house where affiant and her said husband was then living in the outskirts of the City of Nashville. That the Regt. remained there about four weeks after the commencement of his illness and as the house was so near to the camp the Surgeon Dr. Spencer allowed him to stay in his own house, and attended upon him and sent him medicine and Dr. Sims whom affiant now thinks was aft. Surgeon of the Regt. also attended him a part of the time.

Dr. Spencer who lives in the State of Indiana who writes that he has no particular recollection of the circumstances and his letter has been forwarded to the Pension Dept. Where Dr. Sims now lives is to affiant unknown, and affiant has no means of ascertaining, only he formerly lived in Nashville.

About four weeks after the commencement of the illness of said Christopher Wood, the Regt. removed about four miles away on the Murfreesboro Pike and as said Wood was too unwell to be removed he was left in the house. From that time until his death on the 9th of April 1864 he was attended by a citizen physician Dr. Woodward then of Nashville still living there as affiant supposes.

Dr. Woodward prescribed for him & affiant sent to the drug store and procured the medicines, but as Dr. W. was paid at each visit, affiant does not suppose he kept any book containing any memorandum of the case, and would remember writing about the case, and has therefore made no effort concerning his evidence thinking it useless, but if required she will communicate with Dr. W. if still in Nashville, and uncertain more definitely as to his remembrances.

Dr. Sims also visited him once or twice and was at the house after the death of her said husband.

Witness

Joen Wheeler Ellenor Wood X
US Marshall her mark

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 27th day of December 1867, and I certify that affiant is respectable and entitled to credit, that the statements of affiant were carefully read to her and fully understood before she made her mark and further that I have no interest whatsoever in her application.


C. W. Vinson,

Law Courts of Chattanooga
 
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This is the application of the mother of the Union Captain I am hoping to write about. His service is listed as 5 Vt. Inf. and 8 NY Cavalry, having served from 1861 to 1864 when he was killed in Wilson's Raid, Nottoway County, Virginia.
Her name was Eunice G. Sayles, and her dependency stems from the fact that her husband died in 1858 before the outbreak of the CW, and James was her eldest son. She had remarried and divorced after James's death, finally putting in an application for a pension in 1891. I would imagine she was encouraged to do so as this is over two decades since her son's death, and she doesn't appear to have made a prior application. I'm unsure as to whether she succeeded in her application, and she lived for another 7 years after filing this. I thought it was interesting that the mother of a soldier was also able to apply for a pension in the circumstances.
 
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This is the application of the mother of the Union Captain I am hoping to write about. His service is listed as 5 Vt. Inf. and 8 NY Cavalry, having served from 1861 to 1864 when he was killed in Wilson's Raid, Nottoway County, Virginia.
Her name was Eunice G. Sayles, and her dependency stems from the fact that her husband died in 1858 before the outbreak of the CW, and James was her eldest son. She had remarried and divorced after James's death, finally putting in an application for a pension in 1891. I would imagine she was encouraged to do so as this is over two decades since her son's death, and she doesn't appear to have made a prior application. I'm unsure as to whether she succeeded in her application, and she lived for another 7 years after filing this. I thought it was interesting that the mother of a soldier was also able to apply for a pension in the circumstances.


Just curious and it's off thread- why this family, please? Little familiar with the name. Are you related in New York, some section of the lake districts? Hope you do write of him, love to see what it's about!
 
Here's a transcription of an affidavit that Eleanor Wood submitted about the medical treatment of her husband prior to his death:

State of Tennessee
Hamilton County

On this 27th day of December 1867 before me clerk of the Law Courts of Chattanooga personally came Mrs. Ellenor Wood of said county who being duly sworn stated that she is the widow of Christopher Wood late a Private of Co. “B” 10th Tenn Cav. Vols. That when said Christopher Wood was taken ill, by exposure during a severe rain storm the camp of the Regt. was only about two hundred yards from the house where affiant and her said husband was then living in the outskirts of the City of Nashville. That the Regt. remained there about four weeks after the commencement of his illness and as the house was so near to the camp the Surgeon Dr. Spencer allowed him to stay in his own house, and attended upon him and sent him medicine and Dr. Sims whom affiant now thinks was aft. Surgeon of the Regt. also attended him a part of the time.

Dr. Spencer who lives in the State of Indiana who writes that he has no particular recollection of the circumstances and his letter has been forwarded to the Pension Dept. Where Dr. Sims now lives is to affiant unknown, and affiant has no means of ascertaining, only he formerly lived in Nashville.

About four weeks after the commencement of the illness of said Christopher Wood, the Regt. removed about four miles away on the Murfreesboro Pike and as said Wood was too unwell to be removed he was left in the house. From that time until his death on the 9th of April 1864 he was attended by a citizen physician Dr. Woodward then of Nashville still living there as affiant supposes.

Dr. Woodward prescribed for him & affiant sent to the drug store and procured the medicines, but as Dr. W. was paid at each visit, affiant does not suppose he kept any book containing any memorandum of the case, and would remember writing about the case, and has therefore made no effort concerning his evidence thinking it useless, but if required she will communicate with Dr. W. if still in Nashville, and uncertain more definitely as to his remembrances.

Dr. Sims also visited him once or twice and was at the house after the death of her said husband.

Witness

Joen Wheeler Ellenor Wood X
US Marshall her mark

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 27th day of December 1867, and I certify that affiant is respectable and entitled to credit, that the statements of affiant were carefully read to her and fully understood before she made her mark and further that I have no interest whatsoever in her application.


C. W. Vinson,

Law Courts of Chattanooga


This is what was so difficult. Doctors would of course not remember one terribly ill private from ' X ' number of years ago, in the midst of so many other patients, wounds, disease and chaos. If they did, it would have been amazing- given circumstances, you'd have to guess surgeons could not remember names of men whose limbs they amputated much less ill from disease.

Nurses had the same struggle, pension boards demanding evidence which simply did not exists or was almost impossible to obtain- like testimony from doctors. Worse, the docs were frequently no longer alive.

Grgrgrandfather, 50th PA, lost use of his arm at Spotsylvania, was put in the Reserves, talked his way back into the 50th ( no idea how, arm was not functional - if you met Grandpop, may have some inkling how it was achieved. Pips, both of them. ), was able to get pension before he died- 6 bucks a month. I know this is about widows but he was convinced his wife would be left a widow with children , tried mightily to ensure she'd be taken care of.

The paper trail between family and pension board is decades worth of denials despite medical documentation- between a useless arm and disease, they scraped while Washington said ' no, soldier '. Crazy, silly stuff- until 1920. An Army doc finally blew his lid, took the matter personally to someone. Went from 6 bucks a month to 40.
 
It is stunning what some of the Vets had to go through to prove they were in the service....Let alone what a widow would subsequently have to do...

The particular soldier I follow has a pension file about 4 inches thick (about the size of my hand sideways...I did a quick measure one day at the archives as I was digging).

There was often NO documentation that was kept by the govt. My guy was a 4 yr. vet...hurried to Washington right after 1st Bull Run...quickly mustered into Fed service....absolutely NO records preserved by the govt. after the war...He had all sorts of hoops to jump through, post war, to prove his status. He was injured during the war and was claiming a disability pension, as well (injured...not wounded in battle...that added another layer to his paper pushing issue).

Ultimately, the "proof" he ended up submitting as evidence was through personal depositions from comrades from his unit (about 5 people sworn, documented, testifying, notarized),...he dredged up a family bible, held by a cousin a few counties away that had a notation about his birth (yes, I was born and do exist)...then had to transport said bible toting cousin to a courthouse to have her deposed, sworn, notarized in front of a judge...

He then submitted his own service diary, documenting(?) his own daily service....and all of this STILL was not good enough...the govt. fought him all the way to his death in 1920...Each time a bill would go before congress regarding ACW vets and their pension issues...this process would start all over again...this is how you end up with pension files several inches thick.

One good side note out of all this...in his later years, he became a 'go to' guy at his GAR post for help dealing with the govt. and the pension issues....guys would consult him for help on these issues.

Now....take all of this (and then some) when thinking about 'widows pensions'...another, additional, subsequent layer that the surviving wives / family members had to deal with....Good Lord!!
 
Are you related in New York, some section of the lake districts?
No, I read a letter. That letter led me here. Call it one of life's little anomalies JPK :wink: I have absolutely no connection, yet somehow I've become connected. A synchronicity in the circumstances leads me to believe there's a reason for my being drawn to him, and his story, but only time will tell...and, hopefully, the story I write :smile:
 
No, I read a letter. That letter led me here. Call it one of life's little anomalies JPK :wink: I have absolutely no connection, yet somehow I've become connected. A synchronicity in the circumstances leads me to believe there's a reason for my being drawn to him, and his story, but only time will tell...and, hopefully, the story I write :smile:


That is fascinating! Please do not mind my nosiness- it's always so darn interesting, what draws people to where, and why. You're certainly an accomplished researcher, sure no need of help- have an inkling on the deep history, if it's part of your intro. So odd. Well, maybe not. Have a feeling if we all but knew, a vast amount of us here at CWT are related somewhere. There's a thread! Ancestor surnames, war and prewar, see who hits where!

" Hopefully "? I don't know. Here's a story- and since it's not me and I'll never mention who it is, it's no big deal. Let's see, 35 years ago, lived in the UK, a good friend's brother was visiting from London. Such a good guy, very positive person, like a lot of Brits, funny, whip-lash quick, smitten with History. Was talking of writing- ' hopefully ', you'd hear him discussing it on the phone, too. Knew him fairly well. WELL. Haven't kept in touch, maybe sporadically- but has around a gazillion books and a sterling name, and makes me smile every time I see a new one- all History, all the time. Maybe ' hopefully ' means halfway there to you folks! :angel:
 
It is stunning what some of the Vets had to go through to prove they were in the service....Let alone what a widow would subsequently have to do...

The particular soldier I follow has a pension file about 4 inches thick (about the size of my hand sideways...I did a quick measure one day at the archives as I was digging).

There was often NO documentation that was kept by the govt. My guy was a 4 yr. vet...hurried to Washington right after 1st Bull Run...quickly mustered into Fed service....absolutely NO records preserved by the govt. after the war...He had all sorts of hoops to jump through, post war, to prove his status. He was injured during the war and was claiming a disability pension, as well (injured...not wounded in battle...that added another layer to his paper pushing issue).

Ultimately, the "proof" he ended up submitting as evidence was through personal depositions from comrades from his unit (about 5 people sworn, documented, testifying, notarized),...he dredged up a family bible, held by a cousin a few counties away that had a notation about his birth (yes, I was born and do exist)...then had to transport said bible toting cousin to a courthouse to have her deposed, sworn, notarized in front of a judge...

He then submitted his own service diary, documenting(?) his own daily service....and all of this STILL was not good enough...the govt. fought him all the way to his death in 1920...Each time a bill would go before congress regarding ACW vets and their pension issues...this process would start all over again...this is how you end up with pension files several inches thick.

One good side note out of all this...in his later years, he became a 'go to' guy at his GAR post for help dealing with the govt. and the pension issues....guys would consult him for help on these issues.

Now....take all of this (and then some) when thinking about 'widows pensions'...another, additional, subsequent layer that the surviving wives / family members had to deal with....Good Lord!!

Women had to start by proving they were married at the time of the veteran's death and that they had not remarried. Rules changed over the years and in 1901 that one was changed to allow widows who'd remarried but were now widows again to qualify for pensions. One can imagine that getting the documentation to prove marriage might have been quite a task. Here's an example from the pension file of Great Great Great Grandmother:


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This is the application of the mother of the Union Captain I am hoping to write about. His service is listed as 5 Vt. Inf. and 8 NY Cavalry, having served from 1861 to 1864 when he was killed in Wilson's Raid, Nottoway County, Virginia.
Her name was Eunice G. Sayles, and her dependency stems from the fact that her husband died in 1858 before the outbreak of the CW, and James was her eldest son. She had remarried and divorced after James's death, finally putting in an application for a pension in 1891. I would imagine she was encouraged to do so as this is over two decades since her son's death, and she doesn't appear to have made a prior application. I'm unsure as to whether she succeeded in her application, and she lived for another 7 years after filing this. I thought it was interesting that the mother of a soldier was also able to apply for a pension in the circumstances.

Thanks for sharing the application.
 
Thanks for another interesting and thought provoking thread topic. I can't contribute anything of value, but I think it's very interesting. I've read my ancestor's disability application, but I don't know if it was ever granted. He and his wife died within ten days of each other, so she wouldn't have had time to request her own assistance.
 
Thanks, Patrick, we sometimes read that "Mrs. ____ received a widow's pension," but not sure until one sees the documents that one realizes just how involved it must have been for these women to obtain a pension for a deceased husband. Cavalry Charger noted an application that was made in 1891.

Although it would have made no difference in this application, there were some changes for widows as a result of legislation passed in 1890, the Dependent Pension Act. This act extended pensions to those men who were not disabled directly as a result of the war, but in an era when most men performed manual labor, this act assisted those whose ability to support themselves and their families had declined over time. For widows, pensions could now be obtained if husbands had been disabled at the time of their death, no longer just from injuries that happened during the Civil War.

I've included a few pages from my ancestress's fold3 file, which is 31 pages long. It indicates to me just how tough it must have been for these widows to acquire all the documentation of marriage as well as everything pertaining to the death or disability of their spouses. In her case, it appears that she had actually been receiving a pension since 1864, but must go through the process to continue to receive the $8 a month.
 
Thanks, Patrick, we sometimes read that "Mrs. ____ received a widow's pension," but not sure until one sees the documents that one realizes just how involved it must have been for these women to obtain a pension for a deceased husband. Cavalry Charger noted an application that was made in 1891.

Although it would have made no difference in this application, there were some changes for widows as a result of legislation passed in 1890, the Dependent Pension Act. This act extended pensions to those men who were not disabled directly as a result of the war, but in an era when most men performed manual labor, this act assisted those whose ability to support themselves and their families had declined over time. For widows, pensions could now be obtained if husbands had been disabled at the time of their death, no longer just from injuries that happened during the Civil War.

I've included a few pages from my ancestress's fold3 file, which is 31 pages long. It indicates to me just how tough it must have been for these widows to acquire all the documentation of marriage as well as everything pertaining to the death or disability of their spouses. In her case, it appears that she had actually been receiving a pension since 1864, but must go through the process to continue to receive the $8 a month.


You know, one of the nicer things about PA- and I knock the state's current needs towards citizens a lot but someone ensured church records were scanned and recorded. Crazy amounts, from Day 1- marriages, births, deaths from cities to hamlets. Amazing! With all the resources in 2017 to see into an 1870 window, still cannot find my grgrgrandparents marriage docs. How on earth she'd have proved it, unless a certificate was still around decades later is unfathomable.

It must also have been humiliating? I mean think about it. A perfectly nice wife, married x amount of years, part of a couple and a community is forced to prove she was indeed married to her husband- or it simply did not exist, according to her government.
 
I don't know the final resolution of the case, but the widow of Henry A. Walke (the son of the more famous Henry Walke, but for some reason not usually noted as "junior") had difficulties. Her husband was wounded at Fort Donelson, quite probably as the result of the explosion of a 42-pounder gun aboard his father's gunboat Carondelet, and died around 1902 in a servicemens home in upstate New York. His widow applied for a pension, but was turned down because there was no record in the Navy Department of his having served.

The complication was that, at the time of his wounding, the Western Gunboat Flotilla was still under the Department of War, under Army jurisdiction, rather than the Navy (the flotilla was not transferred to Navy control for another six to eight months). The existing paperwork on Fold3 does not indicate if that situation was ever explained to his widow, or if the War Department ever helped her out.
 
The same seems to have happened to many widows if the example of my GGG is typical--and I'd guess it is. Will have to find the records for husband's Great grandmother, who applied for a Confederate pension in Louisiana and was told that her husband hadn't served for enough time in the Confederate military, when he'd been there from the beginning until the very end (June 1861 to June 1865).

There were all kinds of details that were difficult for the widows to provide documentation for. My GGG had a husband who maybe had chronic diarrhea and was sent home to be cared for, where they lived up the street from a military camp. One doctor said that he thought he remembered GGGGrandfather and that they were refugees and that he died of pneumonia. Several statements indicate that he was treated by a civilian physician, but one of the Pension forms states that the latter won't give an affidavit until he gets paid $60, which would be more than half of her yearly pension:

Late Capt. of said Co. swears that while in the service & line of duty, he contracted Chronic Diarrhea & was permitted to go to his home on the outskirts of the city, his disease having assummed so dangerous a character that he was wholly unable for duty & it was thought that he would receive better treatement at his own home than at Genl. Hospital, Nashville. That he lingered along with the disease until Apr. 9th or 10th 1864. Also that the REgt. Surg. has gone to parts unknown & the civil Surgeon, Dr. Woodward, who attended him, declines giving his affidavit until claimant secures to him $60. which he alleges is due him.
 
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Here's the record from the Confederate Pension Office in Louisiana explaining to Mary A.V. Bethard that her husband hadn't completed service in the Confederate military. He had actually served in Texas from 1861 and then transferred to the Confederate Navy in 1864 and was at Shreveport with the Ram Webb, until April 1965 when he was part of the crew of the Webb that made a run toward New Orleans. One difficulty might be that his name was spelled in various ways, Bethard, Bethards, Betherd and even once, Bhutan and that his military unit in Texas changed a variety of times.

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