Civil War Widow’s Pensions

If your ancestor was born between 1801-1849 in the U.S., there is a good chance that they served in the Civil War. Pensions were granted to widows and those dependent upon the soldier that served in the Union Army. For Union soldiers, the pension system began in 1862, (Confederate veterans were not eligible for pensions from the federal government, and their home states had to take care of them). More than a million men were on the pension rolls by 1893. These pension records include information that may help you extend your family lines and understand what the war was like for these ancestors.

These pension records may include the soldier’s full name, name of widow or dependent, rank, company, regiment, infantry unit, when and where the soldier enlisted, amount of pension, death date, and cause of death. This information may lead to death certificates and burial records. The resident of the dependent can lead to census, church, and land records.

Unfortunately, Fold3.com has only been able to digitize 21% of the pension files. The files are very fragile, and digitizing was halted until the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) felt assured that these records would not incur damage during scanning. Fold3.com has the digitized pension records and is available at the FamilySearch Center. There is a Civil War Pension Index available on FamilySearch and Ancestry. If you locate your ancestor in the index and their file has not been digitized, you can go to the nara.gov website and request a copy of the files referenced in the index.

I did find an uncle (John F. Swap) whose mother applied for a pension and luckily this pension was digitized. I discovered that John was the sole provider for his mother as his father had died when he was young, and she was able to receive a pension. He enlisted in 1863 in Norwich, Connecticut and died the 3rd of February 1865 of starvation, exposure, and diarrhea at the Salisbury, North Carolina prison camp. Information found in his 36-page pension file include handwritten letters from his mother and uncles. There is a handwritten letter from his Sargent who was present when John died.

The information I found in John’s pension file, along with the handwritten letters, has helped me to put “meat on the bones” of my ancestor, John F. Swap. Hopefully, you will find such a treasure too.