Qualifying for pension

[MsJan]

Charles F Morris was a "100 Days Man" who was not married at the time he served. He was not injured or disabled during his service. Since he married some years later, would his widow have been able to receive a pension after he died?

 

[redbob]

If he was given a pension than I would think his widow would qualify for a pension. When my G-G Grandfather applied for a pension, it was quite an extensive process and required quite a bit of information.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Yes, she would have been eligible for a widow's pension, assuming that Morris was otherwise eligible for an old-age pension himself.

 

[John Winn]

It depends on when she applied. Originally, a vet could only get a pension if his disability was a direct result of his military service. A spouse could only inherit a pension if she was married to the vet at the time of his service. In the decades after the war the GAR was able to get the laws changed such that a vet could get a pension even if his disability wasn't the result of his service and any spouse could inherit such.

One was eventually eligible for a pension if one served for at least 90 days between 1861 and 1865 and received an honorable discharge.

So, if the widow was applying for a pension shortly after the war she'd only inherit if he got one due to his service and she was married to him while he was in service. If she didn't apply until, say, the 1890s then she'd definitely be eligible no matter when they married (assuming her husband actually was granted a pension).

 

[BCS1973]

Charles F Morris was a "100 Days Man" who was not married at the time he served. He was not injured or disabled during his service. Since he married some years later, would his widow have been able to receive a pension after he died?

Eligible or not, it was quite an arduous process to get a pension for a soldier who survived the war. After 1890 or so, it got a little easier for widow's and children to receive one, but it was still a fight and I think it still had to be proven that the soldiers disability and or death was a result of wartime activities. One widows pension I read (post 1890) had so many witnesses and was rejected so many times, that I think they finally felt sorry for her and granted her one in the last years of her life.

In many of the pension files I've read I've felt like the lawyers and the officiant's time / salary probably exceeded the amount paid out to the pensioner even for the successful ones.

 

[Bruce Vail]

It depends on when she applied. Originally, a vet could only get a pension if his disability was a direct result of his military service. A spouse could only inherit a pension if she was married to the vet at the time of his service. In the decades after the war the GAR was able to get the laws changed such that a vet could get a pension even if his disability wasn't the result of his service and any spouse could inherit such.

One was eventually eligible for a pension if one served for at least 90 days between 1861 and 1865 and received an honorable discharge.

So, if the widow was applying for a pension shortly after the war she'd only inherit if he got one due to his service and she was married to him while he was in service. If she didn't apply until, say, the 1890s then she'd definitely be eligible no matter when they married (assuming her husband actually was granted a pension).

Quite right. Widow pensions were hard to get when pension systems were first established but became progressively easier to get as requirements were loosened over time. The system reached an extreme when a teenager married a very old veteran in the 1920s and she was able collect her Civil War widow's pension into the 1960s.