This question comes from searches that I have done on my Civil War relatives. Every one of them that survived the war collected an "invalid" pension, claiming that their health was ruined due to conditions they endured while enlisted. I have no idea if this was true or if they were "gaming the system", but it does bring up a question - what source of income would a retiree have at the time? Obviously not Social Security. Did businesses provide pensions of any kind? Or did they depend on their adult children for support? One particular individual who did not have children spent the remaining 60 years of his life filing for pension increases, and the impression I got from his pension file is that the pension examiners got pretty weary of the process. His pension file was about 700 pages, and I am still slogging through it!