Jamie, the Confederate veterans themselves expected no pensions from the Federal government they had fought against. That is why the Southern states enacted their own pension system, to which Union veterans of those states were not entitled.

It was a matter of legality, and had nothing to do with retribution.

It says much about the special nature of our great country that the losing side of the Civil War was allowed to establish a pension system for its veterans, that its veterans were allowed to organize veterans' fraternal organizations, that the veterans' organization of both sides eventually held joint reunions, and that the Federal government eventually authorized the surviving Confederate veterans or their widows to receive Federal pensions.

In every other nation which had a civil war, the victorious side engaged in mass executions, sometimes even genocide. Our country didn't do that. It's just another example of what makes the United States of America unique among nations.