The Virginia General Assembly passed several Confederate pension acts beginning in 1888. The initial act provided pensions to Confederate soldiers, sailors, and marines disabled in action and to the widows of those killed in action. A 1900 act broadened the coverage to include veterans disabled by “infirmities of age” and widows whose husbands died after the war. African Americans who had served “faithfully” as servants, cooks, laborers, hostlers, or teamsters for the Confederate army were eligible for pensions beginning in 1924. District of Columbia residents became eligible in 1926; previously, all pension applicants were required to be residents of Virginia.
Pension applications summarize the applicant's service record and may include medical evaluations; information about income and property; and, in the case of widows, the date and place of marriages. Applications are available in the following formats:
In 1914, the General Assembly passed an act for the relief of “needy Confederate women” who were not already on the pension rolls. Eligibility was determined by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a private organization. Applications for relief include the name, address, and condition or need of each beneficiary, along with her relationship to and the service of a Confederate soldier husband, father, or brother. These records should not be confused with those of the Home for Needy Confederate Women.
Pension applications dating from 1915 to 1967 are available in the following formats:
The Confederate Pension Records, part of the records of the Virginia Department of Accounts, document pension payments to Confederate veterans, widows, daughters, and African American laborers. These records should not be confused with the Confederate Pension Applications, which should be searched before any examination of these Confederate Pension Records.
The Confederate Pension Records include applications submitted from 1967 to 1977 by unmarried or widowed daughters of Confederate veterans, as well as applications from 1905 to 1929 by veterans seeking to be “rerated” from partial to total disability. In addition, the Confederate Pension Records document pension payments forty years beyond the documentation in the Confederate Pension Applications.
Pensions for Civil War veterans of the Union armed forces were administered by the federal government.
Acts of the General Assembly from 1867 to 1894 provided artificial limbs or, after 1882, cash payments to Virginia’s disabled Confederate veterans. Applicants submitted certificates from their county court stating that they were Virginia citizens, that they had lost a limb or an eye in the war, and describing the nature of assistance needed.
Applications include the unit in which individuals served; information on when, where, and how they were wounded; and details about medical history. The applications are arranged by date of the act, and then alphabetically by name of applicant.
Confederate Disability Applications are available in the following formats:
The Home for Needy Confederate Women, a private institution chartered and partially financed by the Virginia General Assembly, opened in Richmond in 1900 to assist needy widows, sisters, and daughters of Confederate veterans. The home operated in the city at several locations until it closed in 1991.
The Library has the following records:
This home in Richmond opened in 1885 as a benevolent society to aid hundreds of needy Confederate veterans. Later taken over by the Virginia Department of Public Welfare, it remained open until the death of the last resident in 1941.
Robert E. Lee Camp Soldiers' Home records are available in the following formats:
Confederate Veteran, published in Nashville, TN from 1893 to 1932, includes obituaries and reminiscences of veterans as well as news of veterans’ organizations and articles about the war.