The Louisiana law was pretty specific in limiting pensions to veterans and their widows. It was also specific as to the nature of a man's service. He was supposed to have served until the end of the war unless discharged prior to that. Many applicants were told by the Board of Pension Commissioners that there was no record of their service or that the records did not show their service to the end. In these cases, the applicants (or their widows) had former comrades submit affidavits to support their claims. I will not say that no civilians received pensions because I did not look at every application when I worked at State Archives, but my guess is that few, if any, did. The one application by a civilian that sticks in my mind was one filed by a free black man who said he had served in a non-military capacity on a couple of gunboats in south Louisiana. His pension was not granted.