“The Confederate Veteran (long published in Nashville, Tenn.) states: “In the Confederate Army and Navy in 4 years there were 605,000 men. In the Union Army and Navy in 4 years there were 2,778,000 men. When we entered the World War in 1917 our Government was sending across to Germany $83,000 a year in pensions. Of this sum $67,000 was for Civil War pensions paid to aliens hired to subjugate the South. If this sum was still being sent 52 years after Appomattox, how much more must have been sent to these hirelings 10 or 15 years after the struggle ended?"

The source is --- (Some Things For Which the South Did Not Fight, Henry Tucker Graham, Bowman Printing, 1946, pp. 10-11)

************************************
I wrote the Library of Congress and this is the reply---

Regrettably, the Law Library of Congress is unable to provide advice on specific legal issues and problems, or to conduct legal research for correspondents.

Although Mr. Graham quoted from The Confederate Veteran, he did not provide a more exact citation. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to review The Confederate Veteran which was published for over a 39 year period to locate the quote and the Confederate Veteran's source of information: see http://lccn.loc.gov/2007219356 http://lccn.loc.gov/2007219356 .

We have located some resources that may help you with your research on this point. The National Archives provides information about various publications that cover the several war and are available in public libraries throughout the country: see http://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/resources.html http://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/resourc
es.html . This page also provides information about civil war military records. From this it would appear that soldiers, or their surviving family, had to apply for pensions and so we infer that Congress did not pass a law for pensions on mass. However, the United States Statutes at Large which contain the laws passed by the U.S. Congress are available online and can be searched: see http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsl.html http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsl.html .

We hope this information has been useful.
Public Services Division
Law Library of Congress

I did try to run down this statement by the recommended sources, no luck. Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,
GP