Pensions

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Florida Confederate Widow’s Pension Claim, 1909

Photo Credit: courtesy of the State Archives of Florida

In 1885, the Florida legislature passed one of the first true pension laws in the South, authorizing payments to Confederate veterans unfit to work as a result of wounds. An 1887 revision authorized pensions to current state residents who had served in units from other Confederate states, greatly increasing the number of pensioners. The legislature next authorized pensions to the widows of veterans who had been killed or died of wounds. Eventually, pension rules permitted widows who had married their husbands decades after the war to receive pensions. By 1910, Florida had 5,905 veterans and widows on its pension rolls, and paid out $644,606 in benefits.

The last surviving veteran pensioner was William A. Lundy, who claimed service in the Alabama Home Guard. During the last years of his life, Lundy reached celebrity status as one of the last Confederate veterans, although recent research casts strong doubt on his service claim. His death in 1957 ended 72 years of benefits to Confederate soldiers. The number of widows dwindled until April 1985, when Nena Feagle of Columbia County died, marking the end of a century of welfare provided by Florida to Civil War veterans and widows.

To learn more, see: “Florida Confederate Pension Application Files,” State Library & Archives of Florida. Available online at:  http://www.floridamemory.com/collections/pensionfiles