Confederate Pension Records

Kimberly Powell is a professional genealogist and the author of The Everything Guide to Online Genealogy. She teaches at the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.

Civil War pension records offer a rich source of details for anyone researching U.S. Civil War soldiers and their wives. Unlike Union pensions which were issued by the federal government and are held by the National Archives, Confederate pension records were issued by the states in which the veteran lived at the time of his application. Some states only offered pensions to maimed (lost a limb), wounded or indigent soldiers, while others eventually extended pension rights to veterans' widows as well. Some states did eventually open up pensions to all Confederate veterans for old age, etc. It wasn't uncommon for a Confederate veteran to move to a nearby state for better pension benefits.

In 1958, the U.S. government opened up federal pensions to surviving Confederate veterans and their widows even though they or their husbands had fought against the government. Given that this was almost 100 years after the start of the Civil War, more people took advantage of this mostly symbolic gesture than you might think; two Confederate veterans and more than one thousand Confederate widows were added to the federal Civil War pension rolls in 1958. 1

Confederate pensions prior to 1958 were not awarded by the U.S. federal government and are not in the custody of the National Archives. Instead, Confederate pension records are typically found in the custody of the state archives or library. Many southern states have indexes to the Confederate pensions available online, and some (including North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Virginia) even have digitized copies of the full pension applications or other pension records. In most cases these records are nowhere near as in-depth or rich as federal Union pension records, but they still offer the opportunity for genealogical discoveries.

Alabama

Alabama Department of Archives and History
624 Washington Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36130-0100
334-242-4363

Alabama began granting pensions in 1867 to Confederate veterans who had lost arms or legs. In 1886 Confederate pensions were also extended to veterans' widows. Alabama pension law was amended in 1891 to grant pensions to indigent veterans or their widows. Alabama Confederate pension records are not yet available online from the state archives, but Ancestry.com (subscription) has a database of Alabama, Confederate Pension and Service Records, 1862-1947 which includes selected records such as applications and warrants. Use the browse feature to see what's available before searching.

Alabama Civil War Records Online:
Alabama Civil War Service Database (free)