I finally found an ancestor who fought for the Union in the Civil War! I was so happy.Except then I

I finally found an ancestor who fought for the Union in the Civil War! I was so happy.Except then I requested his pension application from the National Archives and it turns out that John G. Johnston’s battalion – from a Kentucky county that according to the New York Times was “overwhelmingly Unionist in sympathies” – was “never mustered in” to the U.S. service. As a result, neither John nor his widow received a pension for a disease (of the right testicle–ouch) that his application says he contracted from "cold and exposure” during his service. He submitted his first application in 1883, and her pleas after his death ran through 1920, with the last attempt being filed on her behalf by a relative stranger.He enlisted on March 1, 1965, when he was about 38 years old. I don’t know the details of his service, which only ran from May 2, 1865, to October 23, 1865, and I’m just starting to learn about this part of Kentucky, but judging from a portion of the Congressional Edition transcribed by historian Marlitta Perkins, the lack of mustering-in and the consequent denial of invalid pension applications was a predicament for many men who served in state-organized militias in Kentucky. John’s grandson, Zone, my great-grandfather, later became a letter-to-the-newspaper-signing Texan socialist. Coincidence? -- source link

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