"if we can provide for everybody else why not the children orphaned by that war?"

The States took car of pensioners when they had the money, but your answer is fairly simple.

The United States wasn't in the business of taking care of "everybody else" after the War. You have a modern day question attached to a 140 year old problem. Welfare was in the home, not the government. If you couldn't pay your bills they put you in the "poor house", a paupers prison.

Our people fought for the Confederate States of America, those States were the ones who should have picked up the bills. But with that thought, the Federal Government did the "ole flip flop". They didn't recognize Southern States Rights but they recognized Southern States Obligations,,,