Kentucky Confederate Records are Digitized

Historians and genealogists now have digitized Confederate Army Pension Applications to comb through to aid their research. The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives have them all available online. . State archivist Barbara Teague says the pension program was open to indigent veterans and their widows.

“They had to prove that they had less than $300 income per year and own less than $2,500 worth of property. So you had to prove that you really didn’t have any money and you needed this pension, which may have been $15 to $25 a month.”

Kentucky passed the Confederate Pension Act in 1912. Other southern states approved similar legislation in the 1880’s. The pension applications include information like when and where a soldier served, statements from witnesses, and whether or not he took the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. Click here to see the  Confederate Pension Database.