The last American to collect a Civil War pension died at the age of 90, The Washington Post reported.
Irene Triplett was collecting $73.13 a month – $877.56 a year from the Department of Veterans Affairs – living in a North Carolina nursing home.
Triplett was born in 1930 as the daughter of an 83-year-old private in the Confederate Army, Mose Triplett, who defected to the Union. She was born with cognitive impairments, which qualified her for a lifetime pension, according to the Post.
"Irene could not recall much of her childhood and has no recollection of Mose," Wilkes Genealogical Society in Wilkes County, N.C., reported. "She has virtually no memories of fun, presents, friends, neighbors or such, as they lived so isolated, and she had to work on the farm each day, where they primarily raised chicken[s] and kept some hogs and cows as well."
Irene Triplett died last Sunday from complications after breaking her hip a few days earlier, per the Post.
"Just like the Confederate monuments issue, which is blowing up right now, I think this is a reminder of the long reach of slavery, secession, and the Civil War," Columbia University historian Stephanie McCurr told the Post. "It reminds you of the battle over slavery and its legitimacy in the United States."
There are 33 surviving spouses and 18 children receiving pensions related to the 1898 Spanish-American War, according to the VA.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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