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Excerpt from History of the Civil War Military Pensions, 1861-1865 This demand became all the more imperative because of the disturbed condition of the pension system in the southern states. Shortly after hostilities began in the spring of 1861 Commissioner B arrott ordered the payment of pensions to be suspended at all the different agencies located in those states then in rebellion. And by an act passed on February 4, 1862, the Secretary of Interior was directed to strike from the pension rolls the names of all such persons who had taken up arms against the United States Government, or who had in any manner encouraged the rebels or mani fested a sympathy with their cause.li Thereafter, when money was appropriated for the payment of pensions, a provision was always inserted to the effect that no part of it was to be paid to disloyal persons. During the first year of the war, over two thousand pensioners living in the southern states were dropped from the rolls. After the Union f orces regained control of certain points in these states, the pension agencies were reestablished, and provision was made for paying those who were justly entitled to a pension. In order to have their names restored to the rolls, persons had to prove by act and sympathy, their continued loyalty to the Union. At the close of the year 1865, agencies had been. Reopened in Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Each successive year saw new agencies Opened at other points throughout the South, and finally by 1872 the pension system was again in operation in every southern state. To meet the situation in 1861, Congress decided to act upon the Commissioner's recommendation. The first step taken was to ascertain exactly what laws were then in Opera tion governing the payment of pensions. Neither the Com missioner of Pensions nor the Secretary of Interior was able to furnish the information desired; but the latter called up on attorney-general B ates for an interpretation of certain act