Civil War pensions

[richard petersen]

There was an article in the WSJ 9/8/17 on Entitlements by John Coogan of Stanford University.
Mr. Coogan states that in 1873 8000 were receiving Civil War pensions. Eligibility was limited to soldiers who had been injured in battle or widows of those killed.
By 1890 30 years after the war 1 million were getting pensions and the pensions from the war accounted for 40% of all Federal government spending. The original rules were relaxed and the civil war vets were covered if you were disabled or not.
Mr. Coogan states that once granted benefits multiply.