If a Confederate veteran was wounded during the Civil War, was he eligible for veteran benefits like Union soldiers were? Part of me says no, since he was rebelling against the US government. Too bad, so sad; next time you won’t rebel.
Another part of me says, as wounded, they would have the same needs for aid as Union soldiers, but the Confederate government obviously was not around to pay anymore. The US would want the reconstructed southern citizens to be productive by helping them out.
There is still one living Civil War veteran widow alive, Maudie Celia Hopkins of Arkansas, or at least there was two years ago (the celebrated Alberta Martin of Alabama was found not to be the last after she died). Both she and her late husband have received pensions based upon his Civil War veteran status and she does to this day.
“I actually went to Mrs. Hopkins home and interviewed her after I found out she lived a mere 40 miles from me. It was really something! I check up on her from time to time, and she is still doing fairly well, considering she’s 90 and has a couple of ailments. She received a Confederate widow’s pension from the state of Arkansas starting in October of 2004, thanks to the help of the local Daughters of the Confederacy. Mrs. Hopkins is a very nice and very Southern lady. She didn’t have hardly anything when she was growing up, and she still doesn’t have much. I am glad she got the pension.”
Yes, the states paid pensions. One of the buildings at the Arkansas School for the Blind used to be “The Confederate Soldiers Home” My Grandmother, born in 1900 told me she visited some of them there when she was a child. She was born in Illinois, BTW.
Re: Confederate Widows
Aging veterans would make a business proposal to a young woman in financial need. The marriage was not a sexual relationship;, she would care for him in his infirmity and inherit not only his land and possessions, but his Confederate pension as well.
It could be expensive. Shelby Foote was fond of bringing up the fact that a year after the war ended, the state of Mississippi paid out 20% of its total income for artificial legs and arms for Civil War veterans.
