The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1910-09-08
PENSIONERS ARE DECREASING

Rate of Ninety Day.-No Sur
.vivors of War of 1912, and
Only One Revolutions
airy Pensioner.
About ninety names day are
dropped from the pension rolls. This
average is equivalent to about 200
deaths month, or about 1000 an
nually, among federal survivors OF
the lists.
How many survive who are not on
the pension roll are not recorded in
the pension Office or the adjutant gen.
erals office of the war department.
The officials refer to these unrecord
ed soldiers as the unknown army"
Many of them belong to Grand Army
posts or Confederate Veteran camps
but there are undoubtedly number
who are neither pensioners nor iden-
titled with organizations. Every once
in awhile survivor of the war who
has been lost sight of turns up in
some out-of-the-way corner of the
world and applies for pension
through a congressman or under gen.
eral statutes.
The old soldiers of both armies
are vanishing rapidly. Just how
many survive will not be known un-
til after the completion of the thir-
teenth census, and can only be APP
proximated now outside of those
names now carried on the pension
roll as having served in the Union
Army. There is no such record of
the confederates, for they get no gen
eral pensions, and their names and
places of residence are not a matter
of official record. A number of con-
federate soldiers can be located
through the rolls of the veteran
camps in the south, but these records
are not nearly so complete as those
of the Grand Army of the Republic.
The law providing for the taking
of the census for 1910 stipulated
that there should be included tab
ulation of the number of Union and
Confederate soldiers and sailors liv-
ing. The census of 1900 contained
no such tabulation.
Union Forces, 2,213,365.
The most generally accepted esti-
mate of the total number of "individ-
uals'' serving in the Union army and
navy during the civil war is 2,213,-
365. This estimate was prepared by
Major General Ainsworth, adjutant
general of the army, fourteen years
ago, and is one toward which pen
sion offiials and others turn for data
relative to the size of the Union
forces in the war; But it was only
an estimate The records showed
that the various States and Terri
tories during the civil war under
President Lincoln's various calls ag-
gregated 2,778,304. But of this
number there were 105,963 enlist
ments of seamen and marines, leav
ing 2,672,341 enlistments credited
to the army alone, exclusive of 49,
422 men who were serving in the
regular army. 1t is estimated that
of these 2,672,341 there were $780,
1913 re-enlistments, which, when sub
tracted, leaves the estimate of in
dividual soldiers in the war 2,128,-
948. There were enough re-enlist-
ments in the navy to bring the act
ual number serving in the war on
the Union side 2,213,365. This is
the only official estimate ever made
and how far it varies from the actual
number can never be determined.
General Ainsworth in his estimate
of fourteen years ago stated that it
appeared that at the close of the war
there were 1,727,353 individuals of
the Union army surviving, deserters
excluded. He estimated that the
number of survivors in 1890 should
be 1,285,471 and 1,125,175 in 1896.
while he predicted that at the rate of
which the men were passing the army
would be reduced to about 100000
survivors in 1900
Civil War Pensioners, 593,961.
The actual number of survivors of
the Civil War on the pension rolls
June 80, 1909, was 493,961. At the
close of the Spanish war, in 1898,
there were 726,446 Civil war survi-
yors on the pension rolls. These fig
ures relate only to soldiers and sail
ors who actually fought in the war
and do not include widows, children
or orphans The number of names
of Civil war survivors stricken from
the pension rolls on account of death
last year was 1881; in 1908, 3d.
333; in 1907, 31,201; in 1906, 49,
2OS, or total of 127,573 dropped
from the rolls on account of death
in four years, and the fiscal year,
which will close with the end of the
present month, will show about 49,
900 dropped on account of death.
This is the rate at which the pen
stoned old soldier is passing.
An Army of Boys.
Senator McCumber of the senate
pension committee has just caused to
be prepared an interesting table rel
alive to the ages of soldiers at the
times of enlistment. This table shows
that OF the total number of enlist