Busting the myth that Congress made Confederate vets into US vets

[struggle4progress]

... One claim that's been circulating among Confederate apologists in recent weeks would have us believe that Congress passed a law in 1958 giving Confederate veterans status under law equal to U.S. veterans ... This claim was being made even before the violence in Charleston. The Sons of Confederate Veterans cited the 1958 law to make the case that all Americans should honor Confederate veterans. An undated official history of the Department of Veterans Affairs that covers the period up to 2006 goes so far as to claim that the law "pardoned" Confederate service members. A 1997 article in VFW Magazine also referred to the "congressional pardon" of 1958 ... The original legislation was introduced to raise pensions for widows and former widows of deceased veterans of the Spanish-American War. In committee, it was amended to include widows of deceased U.S. veterans of the Civil War and Indian War, as well as widows of Confederate veterans ...

... If you're referring to the 1958 legislation, all it did was make Confederate veterans eligible for the same VA benefits as Union soldiers were. It did not make them U.S. veterans, make any other official change in their status, or extend any particular protections to graves or monuments ...

http://www.southernstudies.org/2015/07/busting-the-myth-that-congress-made-confederate-ve.html

Since all Civil War veterans died prior to 1958, extending VA benefits to Confederate as well as Union veterans could only affect surviving widows and children: in fact, it seems to have helped about 1000 widows in 1958

Gertrude Janeway, the last known widow of a Union veteran, died in 2003; she had married 14th Illinois cavalry veteran John Janeway in 1927 when she was 18

Irene Triplett, the last person known to receive a Civil War pension, was born in 1930 to Moses and Elida Triplett, a Confederate veteran. Moses had married Elida, his second wife, in the 1920s; she was about fifty years his junior. Time magazine reported in early 2014 that Irene Triplett (then 84) was still receiving a monthly $73.13 check from the VA as the child of a Civil War veteran

[Bohunk68]

1. Thanks so much for the post. I appreciate honesty

and fact-telling. I saw the original post go around.

[brewens]

2. I think I read that the last civil war widow died in 1994. How could that be? Because some of

those old guys would marry young girls to pass on their pension to help them out. A search would turn it up easy but I don't have time right now. It was some woman that lived to an old age and had married one of those elderly vets when she was young.

[struggle4progress]

3. Maudie Hopkins (December 7, 1914 – August 17, 2008)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maudie_Hopkins

Alberta Martin (December 4, 1906 – May 31, 2004)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Martin

Gertrude Janeway (July 3, 1909 – January 17, 2003)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Janeway