Revealed: Only ONE child of Civil War veteran is still receiving soldiers' pension nearly 150 YEARS after conflict ended



Two children of Civil War veterans received pensions from V.A. of $876 annually

One of the children, a man, died last August at the age of 93



Last verified Civil War veteran died in 1951, meaning their fathers would have to be well into their 70s or 80s

One child lived in Tennessee and the other lives in North Carolina

Only one child of an American Civil War veteran is alive today and receiving pensions for their parents' service, a Veteran's Affairs spokesperson exclusively told MailOnline.

Though it was widely reported this week that two children of the veterans were getting an annual $876 pension from the Department, spokesman Randy Noller said that one of the two, a 93-year-old man living in Tennessee, died last August.

The American Civil War ended on April 12, 1865 with the surrender of the Confederate Army, putting an end to the bloodiest battles ever fought on U.S. soil.

Historic: Two children of Civil War soldiers still receive pensions from the government in the sum of $876 per year; here, casualties from 1862's Battle of Antietam are pictured

Mystery: The two children wish to remain anonymous; one lives in Tennessee and the other in North Carolina; they were likely born in the 1920s or 1930s

While the names of the two children have not been disclosed for privacy reasons, the male who passed away lived in Tennessee and was born around 1920.



The other, a woman, was born around 1930 and lives in a nursing home in North Carolina.

Speaking to MailOnline by phone from the VA's Washington headquarters, Mr Randy Noller said: 'The Department of Veterans Affairs provided benefits to two children of the Civil War veterans for the last several years.

'One unfortunately passed away last summer at the age of 93.'

The story of the veterans came to light this after a larger report was published about the lingering costs of war and veterans' pensions on the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.



Famous last: Gertrude Janeway, the last Union Civil War widow, Gertrude Janeway, passed away in 2003, aged 93; she married husband at age 18 when he was 81

Gail Crosby of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which represents women whose fathers fought for the South during the conflict, told MailOnline that the surviving child qualified for benefits because she was disabled before she turned 18.

‘She is mentally challenged and has a bad limp but I don’t know if she was born that way or if something happened,’ Ms Crosby said.



Veteran: Albert Woolson was the last surviving Union Civil War soldier and died in 1956 at the age of 109

'She is unable to communicate enough to even care for herself and her mother put her in a home before the mother passed away. She's been in this care home for the rest of her life with her little Civil War pension from her dad.

‘If she never married then she would have received this benefit for her entire lifetime, which it seems she has'.

Ms Crosby added that she did not know which home the woman was in, or where exactly in North Carolina it was, as the historian who had kept her up to date died last year.

The pension-holders' fathers would have had to have been in their 70s or 80s if they served in the Civil War, meaning that it is likely they re-married at an older age.

The last verified Civil War veteran, Albert Woolson, was 109 when he died in 1956, while the last Civil War widow, Gertrude Janeway, passed away in 2003, aged 93, though some dispute that she was the last living widow.



Mrs Janeway had married her husband, John Janeway, when he was 81 and she was 18 and received a $70 pension check monthly.

In earlier times, it was not unusual for much older men to marry much younger women, especially those who were widowed and needed support, or even those who were hoping to secure property and assets.



Marrying age for women was also much lower – sometimes even in the teens.

National Archives reference chief Trevor Plante tol d U.S. News last y ear that those in the Civil War era requiring pensions had to prove their relationship to the soldier in question.

Surviving: According to the benefits roster of 2011, there are only two children left from Civil War soldiers, and 63 from the Spanish-American War of 1898

‘Civil War pensions are especially fascinating because of the wide array of things people submitted as evidence,’ he said, adding that there could be anything like marriage certificates, diaries, or photographs to prove that the women and children were related to the soldier in question.

Circumstances similar to the two pensioners allow for the grandchildren of President John Tyler, who was born in 1790, to be alive today.

His grandsons, Harrison Ruffin Tyler and Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr were born nearly 140 years after their grandfather, the 10th president of the U.S.

More than $40billion each year is spent on compensation for veterans of the Spanish-American War of 1898, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the two Iraq campaigns, and the war in Afghanistan.

During the Civil War, 617,000 Americans were killed – approximately the same number as those who died in all of the wars up to that point, including the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.