"Jean Snyder" <jsnyder@ix.netcom.com> wrote: > Can someone on this list tell me whether or not Confederate veterans > received pensions? They could only receive state pensions and these would be in the state in which they were living at the time they became eligible. The pensions allotted varied from state to state. Confederate veterans were not eligible to receive U.S. Civil War pensions until late in 1958, when President Eisenhower pardoned all Confederate soldiers and other officials. The only real effect of this was to make the widows of Confederate soldiers eligible for federal pensions, since all of the soldiers themselves were likely dead by then. In the news last month, it was noted that there still is one woman living today, in Alabama I think, whose husband served in the Confederate Army. The VA here in Washington told me, however, that she is not now receiving a pension, having given it up because she remarried. So you can't automatically assume there is no U.S. pension file for any Confederate soldier, as there could possibly be one if his widow lived beyond 1958. The last widow of a Union Army veteran died in February in Tennessee. Out of curiosity, I have located her pension file in the regional VA office in DC and have sent for a copy of it. The widow was Gertrude Grubb who married John Janeway (aka January) in 1927 when he was 81 and she 18). It will be interesting to see how large and detailed this file is! Regards, Richard "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>