George Mentzer's Civil War Pension
A Story of Service, Illness, and Disability When researching a Civil War ancestor, have you looked at their pension file? While military service records document a soldier's time in the army, pension files often reveal what happened after the war. I've been working with the Civil War pension file of my ancestor George Mentzer , who served in Company C of the 24th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The file contains information about his military service, but it also documents his struggles with illness, his efforts to support his family, and his attempts to obtain a government pension. What I found particularly interesting was that George initially applied for a pension based on illnesses he believed were caused by his military service. However, he eventually received a pension under a law that did not require him to prove that connection. George Mentzer's Military Service George Mentzer was born on June 12, 1838, in Stow, Massachusetts. On September 25, 1861, at the age of ...