Union Pension Question

[Nick From New York]

Quick question for everyone - I'm reading over the 1862 Pension Act and it looks like as long as you were injured or incurred disease while in the line of duty you received a fixed amount, and the time you spent in service was immaterial, correct? I'm doing some research on an ancestor who seems to have served in two different regiments, but his pension documents mention only the latter one. I still haven't seen any primary sources confirming that he was in both (I currently have requests in to pull his combined service records) but it seems reasonable to say that not seeing both regiments on the pension file isn't necessarily a sign that he didn't serve in both, right?

(Mods: This seemed like a general question to me, but feel free to move this to the ancestor research if it's more appropriate.)

 

[TnFed]

Yep, TN Mounted Infantry USA men received pensions for one year service and in one case three months .

 

[Fairfield]

I'm doing some research on an ancestor who seems to have served in two different regiments, but his pension documents mention only the latter one. I still haven't seen any primary sources confirming that he was in both (I currently have requests in to pull his combined service records) but it seems reasonable to say that not seeing both regiments on the pension file isn't necessarily a sign that he didn't serve in both, right?

Right. In fact, when I was researching local soldiers (this is Maine but I'm sure that the same was true in NY) there were several whose additional service in other regiments showed up only by checking service records.

 

[Nick From New York]

Excellent - thank you both!

Right. In fact, when I was researching local soldiers (this is Maine but I'm sure that the same was true in NY) there were several whose additional service in other regiments showed up only by checking service records.

Yup, that's what I figured. In this case it's made all the more confusing by the fact that there's another guy with the same name (Lorenzo Page) who lived in one of the neighboring towns - and who also seems to have served in two regiments! So I think at this point all I can do is just wait for the records to come back. (Shoutout to @RhinehartRoots for giving me an early leg up here!)

 

[Philip Leigh]

Quick question for everyone - I'm reading over the 1862 Pension Act and it looks like as long as you were injured or incurred disease while in the line of duty you received a fixed amount, and the time you spent in service was immaterial, correct? I'm doing some research on an ancestor who seems to have served in two different regiments, but his pension documents mention only the latter one. I still haven't seen any primary sources confirming that he was in both (I currently have requests in to pull his combined service records) but it seems reasonable to say that not seeing both regiments on the pension file isn't necessarily a sign that he didn't serve in both, right?

(Mods: This seemed like a general question to me, but feel free to move this to the ancestor research if it's more appropriate.)

Eligibility for Union Veterans Pensions was considerably liberalized after the War.

The 1879 Arrears Act enabled new applicants to collect pension arrears back to the date of military service as opposed to the date the veteran applied for benefits. The 1890 Dependent Pension Act provided eligibility to various classes of dependents. In 1893 Union Veterans Pensions alone accounted for over 40% of the federal budget.

The last of the Union Veterans Pensions was paid in May of 2020.