FEDERAL PENSION APPLICATIONS

The Civil  War was one of America's greatest tragedies. The number of young men killed entered into the millions. Many suffered life-long injuries resulting from the war. To compensate the soldiers for their service in the Union Army, the Federal  Government passed five Acts between the years 1862 and 1907 granting them eligibility for a pension. Acts passed before 1862 provided pensions for soldiers who were either disabled or killed. For a soldier who was killed in the war, his widow, his children, or in some cases his parents were eligible for a pension. A parent of an unmarried son, who could prove that his son contributed substantially to his support, was eligible.

Union pension applications are generally a goldmine of genealogical data. They typically include applicant's name, military unit, place of residence, his age and/or date of birth, date and place of his marriage, date and place of his death, the maiden name of his wife, and the names and birthdates of his surviving children. Occasionally, it will include the date of death of the veteran and the date of death of his wife.

Union pension applications are indexed in the National Archives micropublication T288, called the General Index to Pension Files, 1881-1934. The index is organized by by surname and then by state from which the soldier served. This series contains 544 rolls of microfilm, and the roll description is online at the National Archives Web Site. There are two ways to order a pension application: online or by mail.

• Online: The National Archives provides an online order form for ordering pension applications.

• By Mail: The National Archives will send copies of Form NATF-85 to you by mail. Fill out the form and mail it back. Within 6 - 12 weeks, they will notify you if they have a pension application for that veteran.

Ancestry.com has an index to and the images of the entire US Civil War Pension Application Database (requires a fee). These are not transcriptions of pensions, but rather images of the cards used to locate the pension application.

  To determine, if a man served in the Federal Forces, use the tools below:

• Soldiers and Sailors System Online Searchable Index
• The 1890 Veterans Census
  • National Archives Microfilm: Series M123, Rolls 95-98 (Search for Tennessee).
  • 1890 Civil War Veterans Census - Tennessee, Byron & Barbara Sistler, 1978
  • Ancesty.com - 1890 Veteran's Census Images (requires a fee)
•  Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Tennessee, of the Military Forces of the State, from 1861 to 1866, Adjutant-General's Office, 1866.
• Tennesseans in the Civil War, Part 2, Civil War Centennial Commission, 1965. The latter part of the book contains an alphabetical listing of the Union Veterans who served from Tennessee.
• Indexes and Compiled Service Records for Union Army Volunteers
  • Index: Series M392, 16 Rolls
  • Compiled Service Records: Series M395 (Search for Tennessee)
• The Roster of Union soldiers, 1861-1865, Broadfoot Publishing

  The Tennessee and the Civil War Site has online a database for entering Union Pension Application Numbers. You can search for and add your ancestor's pension application number. These are pension application numbers submitted by descendants.

For more information concerning the laws that applied Pension request, see the following websites. (Note: both require Adobe Acrobat Reader).

 

Pension Summary

Pension Laws

 

CONFEDERATE PENSION APPLICATIONS

Pensions for Confederate soldiers were not granted by the Federal Government, but rather were left to the discretion of the individual Confederate States. On March 10, 1891, the Tennessee State Legislature passed the "Act for the benefit of the indigent and disabled soldiers of the late war between the States". This act established the Board of Pension Examiners, established the eligibility requirements for receiving a pension, set the rates of the pension, and fixed attorney's fees for filing the pension application. At first, the eligibility requirements were fairly stringent. However as time went on, subsequent acts passed by the Tennessee Legislature relaxed the requirements, thus allowing more soldiers to qualify for a pension. On March 29, 1905, the Tennessee Legislature passed the "Act to provide relief for the dependent and indigent widows of soldiers who served in the Civil War". This act established the eligibility requirements for widows of deceased Confederate veterans, the proof required of the widow, and the amount of pension for the widow. 

While Confederate pension application do contain some genealogical information, they are generally not as detailed as Union pension applications. An example of the questions asked of a Confederate Veteran is given online. Although the actual pension application changed over the years, the questions required to be answered remained fairly similar throughout the years. Widows pension applications contain more genealogical data, because the widow was required to prove that she was indeed married to the veteran and had not remarried since his death. She also had to have two witnesses fill out questions as well. Usually, these witnesses were men who served in the military with her husband. An example of the questions asked of the widow and her witnesses is given online. To obtain a copy of a veteran's pension application, contact the Tennessee State Library & Archives. You will need to specify the name of the veteran and the pension application number. The TSLA now has online the complete index to the Tennessee Confederate Pension applications.

• Tennessee State Library and Archives Confederate Pension Application Index
• Sample of a Confederate Pension Application
• Online Mail Services Information
• University at Martin Searchable Database
• Ancestry.com Searchable Database (requires a fee)

Several Indexes have been published that list the names of the veterans and/or widows who applied for a Veteran's Pension and the pension number assigned to the application. A pension number that begins with an "S" indicates that the soldier applied for the pension, and a pension number that begins with a "W" indicates that the widow applied for the pension.

•  Index to Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications, Tennessee State Library and Archives, (1964). This book contains the name of the veteran and/or widow, the pension number, and the county from which he/she filed.
• Index to Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications, transcribed and edited by Samuel Sistler, (1995). This book contains the name of the veteran and/or widow, the pension number, and the county from which he/she filed.
• Tennessee's Confederate Widows and Their Families: Abstracts of 11,190 Confederate Widows Pension Applications, abstracted by Edna Wiefering; edited by Charles A. Sherrill. This book is an excellent resource for locating not only the pension number assigned to the widow's pension but also for locating the maiden name of widow. It abstracts all of the widow's pension applications submitted to the State of Tennessee.

The following libraries in Tennessee have copies of the microfilm that contains the pension applications. However, they DO NOT answer mail requests regarding pension applications. If you would like to visit their libraries, their staff would be happy to help you locate and obtain copies of Confederate Pension Applications.

• Hamiliton County Bicentenniel Library in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• McClung Historical Collection in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• Memphis/Shelby County Library & Information Center in Memphis, Tennessee. (Although the library will not answer mail requests, i.e. send a copy of the pension application, they will look up a pension number in their index. For this lookup, you can contact them either by email, telephone, or snail mail.)

Willie L. Robinson has put online an index to TN "Colored" Pension Applications for CSA Service. The index contains the name of the veteran, place and year of birth, military unit, and whether or not the pension was accepted.

For more information on Confederate Pension Applications, see the National Archives site.

What about those veterans who served in a Tennessee Military Unit but moved to another state after the war? Did they received a pension?

The answer to this question is that it depends on state in which the veteran was living during the late 19th century. If the veteran was living in a state that remained part of the Union and was not a border state, then he probably did not receive a pension. If the veteran was living in one of the former Confederate States of America, then he may have received a pension from that state. For example, a Tennessee veteran living in Texas would have had to apply to Texas for a pension. The payment of pensions was generally reciprocating between the former Confederate states. Some border states did provide pensions after the turn of the century. Below is a list of Confederate and border states with links to information about Confederate Pensions within their state.

• Alabama Confederate Pensions - Confederate State
• Arkansas Confederate Pensions - Confederate State
• Florida Confederate Pensions - Confederate State (Pensions Authorized 1885)
• Georgia Confederate Pensions - Confederate State (Pensions Authorized 1879)
• Kentucky Confederate Pensions - Border State (Pensions Authorized 1912)
• Louisana Confederate Pensions - Confederate State
• Mississippi Confederate Pensions - Confederate State (Pensions Authorized after 1900)
• Missouri Confederate Pensions - Border State
• North Carolina Confederate Pensions - Confederate State
• South Carolina Pensions - Confederate State
• Texas Confederate Pensions - Confederate State (Pensions Authorized 1863)
• West Virginia Confederate Pensions - Border State (filed at Virginia)
• Virginia Confederate Pensions - Confederate State

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Tennessee and the Civil War Pensions Project

This page was last updated on  Monday, July 11, 2005.

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