Where to Find Confederate Pension Records

From May 28, 2014, About.com Genealogy by Kimberly Powell.

Civil War pension records offer a rich source of details.

Union records are  fairly easy to come by as they were from the U.S. government.

Confederate pension records were issued by the states in which they lived at the time of his application.  Some states only offered pensions to maimed, wounded or indigent soldiers.  Others were eventually extended to veterans' widows as well.

Some states eventually opened pensions to all Confederate veterans for old age.

In 1958, the U.S. government opened up federal pensions to surviving Confederate veterans and their widows even though they had fought against the government.  Considering this was over 100 years after the war was over, the gesture was largely symbolic, but even so two Confederate veterans and more  than 1,000 widows were added to the rolls.

Many southern states have Confederate pension records on line and some even have digitalized copies of the whole pension record.

You can also check About.com Genealogy Confederate Pension Records: Where to find Confederate Pension Records: State by State.

--Old Secesh