Title: Pension application ledger index

Identifier: 0265-001-b1-i2   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/35521)

Description: This [transcripted?] index serves as a guide to ledgers that contain the claims of blacks requesting compensation for wounds and injuries received or diseases contracted while serving in the Union forces during the Civil War. Most applicants had lived in Craven and surrounding counties prior to the Civil War and fled to Union-occupied New Bern after it fell to Union forces in 1862. The blacks subsequently enlisted in the U.S. Army or Navy and served in a variety of locations during the remainder of the war. Claims for disability pensions were handled by Frederick C. Douglass, a black lawyer, minister, and teacher of New Bern, N.C., who served as a government pension agent between 1889 and 1897.