Friday, November 4, 2011

Civil War Pension Files from the National Archives


I ordered my Civil War ancestor's pension files from the National Archives and received 125 pages of information like the above documents.  Private Terman was a walking skeleton when he came back from 17 months of prison life at Belle Island, Andersonville, Savannah, and Millen.  Incredibly, he waited until 1897 to apply for a pension that he received until his death in 1926.  His Civil War service gave him heart problems, rheumatism, stomach, and bowel problems his entire life and he also suffered from what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.  I am researching these files in hopes of writing a sequel to Hiram's Honor about his and his comrades post Civil War lives.

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