If we know little about the soldiers and sailors who fought and died in the Civil War, we know even less about those they left behind. Not only did the Civil War produce far more military deaths than any other American war; it left more families without husbands, fathers, and sons. This chapter explores the impact of the federal Civil War pension upon widows. How many women were widowed by the war, and how were widows' lives changed by receiving pension payments? To get some answers to these questions, this study focuses on the household arrangements of widows who received pensions in Kent County, Michigan, and in Essex County, Massachusetts.

The Federal Military Pension System

In the summer of 1862, Congress passed, and President Lincoln approved, pension legislation that became the blueprint for all subsequent pension legislation until 1890 and that instituted unprecedented expenditures by the federal government on military pensions. In addition to providing benefits for injured and disabled veterans, the law provided pensions for widows, children, and other dependent relatives of soldiers who either had died in service or who had died of causes that could be directly traced to military service.