Permission to publish material from Wythe County, Virginia, Soldier Benefit Receipts, must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Collection is open for research.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Wythe County, Virginia, Soldier Benefit Receipts, Ms2011-028, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
The Wythe County, Virginia, Soldier Benefit Receipts were purchased by Special Collections in 2010.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Wythe County, Virginia, Soldier Benefit Receipts, was completed in March 2011.
In 1861, shortly after the Civil War began, Congress, in large part to attract recruits to the military, enacted legislation providing pensions for soldiers who suffered war-related disabilities, as well as the widows and orphans of soldiers killed in action. Congress amended the law in 1862 to provide a maximum pension of $8 per month for total disability, with proportionately reduced awards for partial disability. The same award was made for widows and orphans, although amendments to the law increased the allowance to widows by $2 per dependent child. Where a veteran left no widow or children, the law provided benefits to dependent mothers or sisters, and eventually, if there were no dependent mother or sister, dependent fathers and brothers.
The collection contains four receipts from Wythe County Court for funds paid to the families of 3 soldiers: William Ayers, Andrew Aker, and Wiliam Landers.