Acton Memorial Library
Civil War Archives

Pension Files and Service Records

Military pensions dated to colonial times. The Civil War caused a broadening and standardization of the pension system.

Congress passed an act on July 14, 1862 for the granting of pensions to disabled men as well as to widows of men who had died in military service. For the first time, there was compensation for those suffering from diseases, such as tuberculosis, contracted while in service. The act also provided pensions for parents who had been dependent on their son's wages for support.

Acton soldiers and their families benefited from the pension system. Thomas Kinsley, Jr. was a fifteen year old farm laborer who turned over his wages to support his parents and his seven younger siblings. When he signed up for the army, he gave his enlistment bounty to his parents to pay off the mortgage on the family home, but died of disease before collecting any pay as a soldier. As his father was disabled and his older brother Francis also died in service, his parents received a pension.

Men who had been disabled by wounds, illness, or other accident, could apply for an invalid pension. The amount was determined by the extent of the injury. Acton veteran John F. Blood, Jr., was given a disability pension of $4 per month for being 50% disabled by a rupture he suffered while drilling with a heavy pack in the sands of Ship Island in Mississippi. The surgeon of the 26th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry also attested that Blood was suffering from malaria.

Not every man who was wounded or took sick was discharged. Most soldiered on. If their wounds were severe but not disabling, they were sometimes assigned to less rigorous posts. James Richardson, who lived in Acton after the war, was shot through the mouth. After hospitalization, he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps and assigned provost guard duty in Washington. Richardson was awarded an invalid pension when the war was over.

The G.A.R. lobbied Congress for improved pension benefits. Many veterans were suffering from ailments and injuries, the negative effects of which increased as the mean aged. In 1890 Congress amended the pension system to allow invalid pensions for veterans whose disability was not a direct result of their wartime service. Annual visits to an approved physician were required, and inspectors sometimes came to the home unannounced to check for fraud. One Acton veteran had his 100% disability pension reduced when an inspector found him working in his garden. By 1907 the rules allowed any veteran to apply for a pension based on age alone.

The pages presented here were were selected and copied from pension application files at the National Archives in Washington D.C. Service records were copied when pension files were not found.  Complete pension files may be ordered from the National Archives (for ordering information see: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/pre-ww-1-records.html)

Selected pages from individual pension files (PDF):*

* Note: PDF files can be rotated on screen by using the Adobe Reader "Rotate Clockwise" tool.  To add the tool to the Adobe Reader toolbar, right-click on the toolbar, click "More Tools" and check "Rotate Clockwise" to add the tool to the Adobe Reader toolbar.":