New York State Comptroller's Office Entry Documentation Relating to Pension Claims, First N.Y. Regiment Volunteers, Mexican War

This series is arranged alphabetically by claimant. Documents pertaining to multiple claimants and documents in which no claimant is specified are filed under the name of correspondent.

In 1870, the State Legislature passed a bill entitled "An act for the relief of surviving members of the first regiment of New York Volunteers who fought in the Mexican War" which awarded pensions to veterans according to their length of service and the amount of available funds. This act was amended and further money was appropriated in 1874, 1875, and 1878. Applicants were instructed to send proof of their service to the comptroller. This evidence could consist of signed testimony of comrades or commanding officers, discharge certificates, or medals. Most applications contained information about the veteran's rank, company, and commanding officers, which was submitted to expedite the verification process. Applicants' names were checked against muster roll lists or copies of land warrant grants held in the Pension Office. A commission composed of the comptroller, the governor, and the treasurer was created to review and award claims. An approved applicant would receive a voucher or a receipt for a sum of money which he would sign and return along with a confirmation of his address in order to receive his check.

Due either to underestimation of the number of surviving veterans, or a shortage of funds, the 1870 appropriation and its successors were insufficient to accommodate all of the eligible claimants, resulting in the renewal of many applications with each new influx of funds. Following each appropriation, claimants were paid, though only some were paid in full.

This series contains petitions and correspondence relating to the "Act for the relief of surviving members of the first regiment of New York Volunteers who fought in the war with Mexico," which was first enacted in 1870 and subsequently amended in 1874, 1875, and 1878. The documents usually take the form of letters and affidavits written from petitioners or their lawyers to the comptroller, as well as notes of identification written by comrades or commanding officers on a claimant's behalf. The documents contain information about the claimant's service, including his rank, his company, the battles he engaged in, and any wounds he received. Many of the more formal applications were notarized and contain official stamps, seals, and attachments related to the authority of the notary public. In many cases where an application was approved by the commission created to verify claims, a petitioner's file contains a note he enclosed with his signed voucher, confirming his address so that he might receive his check. Letters of inquiry or applications initially sent to the wrong government agency and forwarded to the comptroller occasionally contain attached notes summarizing contents.

The 338 documents in this series were completely unarranged when they were transferred to the State Archives. To facilitate access, documents pertaining to each claimant's case were united in a single folder bearing his name. Documents pertaining to multiple claimants and documents in which no claimant is specified were filed under the name of the correspondent, typically an attorney or government agent who corresponded on claimants' behalf. There are 114 folders in this series.

The letters, though frequently in the form of formal affidavits, expose the often desperate conditions under which these veterans lived, having survived the course of the years surrounding the Civil War. They provide insight into a societal cross-section of mid-nineteenth-century America and reveal the relationships between comrades, between lawyer and client, and between soldier and officer.

High resolution images of all original documents in this series are available in State Archives Digital Collections.

The index to series A1254 contains 361 entries. Each entry includes the claimant's name, regiment and link to a digitized copy of the document containing the claimant's name. Each record also provides a pointer to the location within the records series.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this series.