Question: When was the last time the U.S. government paid a Civil War pension payment?
Answer: Would you believe the government is still making payments? Not bad for a war that ended nearly 147 years ago!
According to an article by Lauren Fox published in U.S. News & World Report, records from the Department of Veterans' Affairs show that two children of Civil War veterans, as of September, are receiving pensions from their fathers' service. At that date, both were alive, but in poor health. These payments probably won't last much longer.
Trevor Plante, a reference chief at the National Archives says it's also possible that the beneficiaries were young when their fathers died and had no living mothers to care for them, which would also qualify them for their fathers' pensions.
You can read more at http://goo.gl/PJmFr.
My thanks to Steve White for telling me about this story.
You might also enjoy some of the mysteries of the Civil War published at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/civilwar/.
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