Confederate Widows' Pensions

[18thVirginia]

In the middle of a thread on Civil War Widows Pensions, I realized that it was difficult to cover all the different states for Confederate Widows and that the topic deserved a separate thread. Will try to cover various states, but as always, if anyone has information about their ancestress, please feel free to contribute.

Confederate Pension systems started later than the Federal pension, with disabled veterans starting to receive benefits in 1889 and widows in 1893. Within a couple of years, pensions were awarded to those who were unable to provide for themselves. By 1920, income restrictions were removed and by 1944, widows could get pensions even if they had remarried.

Professor Kathleen Gorman says that southern states continually underestimated the costs of veterans and widows pensions. Georgia had 232 veterans receiving pensions in 1937, but some 1377 widows still eligible to receive a $30 a month pension even in the Great Depression.

Alabama Confederate Veterans and Families, 1902

 

[18thVirginia]

Georgia Confederate Pensions were first granted for widows in 1890. The records can be accessed at http://vault.georgiaarchives.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/TestApps.

Here's the kind of information that can be found at this site.

Pension files can include:

Applications
Correspondence regarding the pensioner
Affidavits
Receipts
Transfer of assignments of pension funds
Military records

Pension applications generally give:

Length of Georgia residence
Place of residence at time of application
Military unit during the war
Date of enlistment and discharge
Any disabling wounds received
Veteran's health at the time of application
Value of personal property.

Widows' pension applications include:

Name of the husband
Name of the husband's military unit
Date of their marriage
The widow's means of support
Some widows' applications include a copy of the couple's marriage certificate.

 

[18thVirginia]

Georgia Pension records also have a supplemental archive from records that were copied later. It can be found at: http://vault.georgiaarchives.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/pension

 

[18thVirginia]

The Georgia Confederate Pension Application of Helen Dortch Longstreet
http://vault.georgiaarchives.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/TestApps/id/86625/rec/1

 

[Drew]

View attachment 170058

The Georgia Confederate Pension Application of Helen Dortch Longstreet
http://vault.georgiaarchives.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/TestApps/id/86625/rec/1

Nice thread, 18th Virginia. Mrs. Longstreet's application is clearly incomplete. Further, these pensions were awarded on the basis of financial need. James Longstreet's widow was not poor, far from it. You might consider finding and posting General Longstreet's will. That might give readers a sense of why his widow may have been denied a pension.

 

[18thVirginia]

Mrs. Longstreet's application was posted to give an example of the kind of information one might find in the archives of the Confederate states. Not having any ancestors from Georgia, I looked for recognizable names to be able to "search" the Georgia Confederate Pension archives. The application does note that General Longstreet had been placed on the pension rolls in 1889.

The sources that I've read indicate that the income restrictions were largely removed after 1920. Perhaps that was due to a smaller number of veterans and widows now asking for pensions, or that they had aged and might be living with sons and daughters and teasing out their income might be a difficult thing.

 

[18thVirginia]

Here's the link for the Virginia Confederate Pension archive.

http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/opac/conpenabout.htm

In Virginia, the General Assembly voted in 1888 to those soldiers, sailors and marines disabled in action and for widows of those who'd been killed in action. Legislation was also passed in 1900, 1902, 1903 and 1934, some of which widened coverage to include widows and unmarried or widowed daughters.

A description of the database:

The database of pension applications is searchable by name of applicant, status of applicant (veteran, widow, or servant, for example), date of pension act, and applicant's place of residence (county or city). In addition, each entry contains links to the digitized images of the actual applications and accompanying material. There are more than 46,000 entries in the database, linked to more than 220,000 application page images digitized from microfilm. This database is a fully searchable version of the Electronic Card Index to the applications.​

 

[18thVirginia]

Here's a pension application from Virginia that was filed in 1902.

 

[Drew]

Mrs. Longstreet's application was posted to give an example of the kind of information one might find in the archives of the Confederate states. Not having any ancestors from Georgia, I looked for recognizable names to be able to "search" the Georgia Confederate Pension archives. The application does note that General Longstreet had been placed on the pension rolls in 1889.

The sources that I've read indicate that the income restrictions were largely removed after 1920. Perhaps that was due to a smaller number of veterans and widows now asking for pensions, or that they had aged and might be living with sons and daughters and teasing out their income might be a difficult thing.

Understood, thank you. For my own part, the veterans in the family applied themselves in Louisiana and Texas in the early 19th century. There were no widows applications that I know of. Now, the men were all denied and had to jump through all kinds of hoops, but once they were finally approved, their pensions were paid without apparent fuss to their widows for the rest of the latter's' lives.

I'd like to think a bureaucrat who cut off a Confederate widow would have met a swift demise, but who knows?

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I'd like to think a bureaucrat who cut off a Confederate widow would have met a swift demise, but who knows?

Did Confederate widows have an even worse time than Union? It's a genuine question. Always seemed to me some special department existed composed of people skilled at pulling wings from flies, put in charge of widows' pensions. If ever ' North ' and ' South ' should have gotten together for a common cause, wish they'd done it over this- bad enough during the war, wives left without support ( hysterical story out of NYC, landlord had a few burly fellows convince him it was a poor idea to evict one soldier's wife when her husband's payroll was not making ends meet ). Like a form of bullying, shoving around elderly widows of men who fought.

 

[18thVirginia]

Did Confederate widows have an even worse time than Union? It's a genuine question. Always seemed to me some special department existed composed of people skilled at pulling wings from flies, put in charge of widows' pensions. If ever ' North ' and ' South ' should have gotten together for a common cause, wish they'd done it over this- bad enough during the war, wives left without support ( hysterical story out of NYC, landlord had a few burly fellows convince him it was a poor idea to evict one soldier's wife when her husband's payroll was not making ends meet ). Like a form of bullying, shoving around elderly widows of men who fought.

From what I've read, a bureaucrat is a bureaucrat is a bureaucrat, and pension examiners were probably like some that I've met/worked with/tangled with, always looking to figure out how to deny legitimate benefits. And feeling sanctimonious that they've saved the government some money. In the previous thread, I had some examples of a pension application from a Confederate veteran's widow, where she was initially denied benefits. I'll recopy them here.

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.

December 18th, 1912.

 

[18thVirginia]

Here's the letter Mrs. Bethard wrote to federal authorities to try and obtain the required records. Noting the date of each document, Sept 29, 1911.

Here's a transcription:

Gents,


Will be so kind as to inform me of date of enlistment of George Washington Bethard who enlisted as a Confedrate soldier in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Was at Alexandria, Louisiana when War ended. As Im the widow of Mr. George Washington Bethard deceased I will be pleased to receive any information you can give that will assist in securing a pension.


Sincerely,
Mrs. George Washington Bethard
White Sulphur Springs Louisiana​

 

[18thVirginia]

The Louisiana Office of Pension Commissioners requested information on G.W. Bethard's military service.

 

[18thVirginia]

November 11, 1913

Response from the War Department about Geo. W. Bethard's documented service in the Confederate military.

 

[18thVirginia]

It was common to get other veterans to assert that the one requesting a pension had served honorably. In the case of G.W. Bethard, it seems that it was necessary to indicate in the absence of records, that he had served in the Confederate Navy.

This is to certify that George W. Bethard served with me in Confederate States Navy for two years under Comodore Carter was on C. S. Gun Boat W. H. Webb. C. W. Read Commanding when she made the run by New Orleans and was burned, where we were all taken prisoner.


George R. Marsh

 

[18thVirginia]

This is a copy of Mary A. V. Bethard, widow of G. W. Bethard's application, filed October 31, 1913.

 

[Drew]

It was common to get other veterans to assert that the one requesting a pension had served honorably. In the case of G.W. Bethard, it seems that it was necessary to indicate in the absence of records, that he had served in the Confederate Navy.

View attachment 170343


This is to certify that George W. Bethard served with me in Confederate States Navy for two years under Comodore Carter was on C. S. Gun Boat W. H. Webb. C. W. Read Commanding when she made the run by New Orleans and was burned, where we were all taken prisoner.


George R. Marsh

Great post. In the absence of records, affidavits from one's fellows would be the way to go. FWIW and it's just my opinion, anyone living in a small community would be subject to huge scrutiny, misrepresenting his war record.

I don't care if you lived in Wisconsin or Alabama, after the war.

 

[18thVirginia]

The application from Mary A.V. Bethard. These pages are all from the Louisiana Archives website and are available online at no cost at https://www.sos.la.gov/HistoricalRe...Records/Pages/ConfederatePensionDatabase.aspx

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Yes, agreed. Especially in the small communities, their boys came home from war ( the ones who did ) and were The Vet forever and ever. They all knew each before the war. You just cannot imagine small town America for what is was- this man's next door neighbor could have written one of these, or someone eight blocks away. Or her grocer. Boy were they proud of their vets- North and South. Maybe just having them home, these men who were probably family to 50 percent there in some way, never wore off. Sorry- Schuylkill County, PA is a ' thing '. Small towns could not have differed much, in other states.

How arduous for her. Just filled out a ton of paperwork- able to scan, fax and email, sign electronically. She had a horse, maybe trains, her feet and a stamp. To have a twerp in DC type a few sentences back, with a husband serving through an entire war- this is so maddening to read.

 

[18thVirginia]

You can see from the dates that Mary Bethard had been working on her pension application since September, 1911 before she was finally awarded the Confederate Widows Pension in December, 1913, so I imagine it was quite an arduous process to deal with the pension examiners. It's likely that many women simply gave up before acquiring the benefits they were due.

The Pension was dated back to 1910, so perhaps she made some original inquiries at that time. She had continued to run the hotel that she and her husband had owned after his death in 1902, but in 1910, Bethard was living with her daughter and son-in-law in another town and like many widows, looking for the pension income to supplement expenses.