While researching some of my Louisiana Smith/Richardson family I discovered that the Louisiana Confederate pension records were on family search! I had no clue! I found my 3x great grandfather Joseph Richardson widow's pension application as well as my 4x great grandfather Alfred Jones Smith's application also done by his widow. They are great finds for me!
This is my 4x great grandpa Alfred Jones Smith. He fought for the CSA in McNeil's Louisiana Cavalry which later became the Louisiana 4th Calvary. Below is his widow's application for pension.
Under what circumstances did he die his widow Elizabeth put A man of small means Old age General breakdown I love that! This record also gives their date of marriage, where they were married, and who married them. Lots of genealogical information can be gleaned from this records and lead you to others or at least where to look. Just remember this is all secondary information and might not be right. Example below with Joseph Richardson.
This letter lead me to fold3 where I was able to find one service record for Alfred.
I also found my 3x great grandpa Joseph Richardson's widow's application.
Joseph and Eugenia (McGehee) Richardson
I haven't done a lot of military research on my Richardson line but if I had I would have assumed Joseph Richardson would have fought for Louisiana but as you can see from the application his widow puts he went to Rolling Prairie and enlisted and fought for Arkansas in Company H 3rd Regiment. I haven't been able to find any service records for him in the 3rd regiment. This is what I was talking about above about the information might not be right. I found a wonderful website that listed every company and soldier and he is not listed in any company of the 3rd regiment. http://www.couchgenweb.com/civilwar/3rd-his.html I'm going to have to do more research on him to figure it out. If he was in the 3rd then he would have been only one of 150 out of over 1300 men who survived from the Arkansas 3rd regiment. He would have been at Gettysburg and at Appomattox for the surrender. That's amazing!!!
You can find Louisiana Confederate Pension records here Just click on the surname of you ancestor and then search away. :)
I really wish Arkansas had theirs online. I'm waiting right now for a copy of my 3x grandfather Llewellyn Jeremiah Hollis's pension application. This application would have been done by him so I'm hoping it will have a lot of good information in it about his service in the war.
