The Southern Claims Commission was created by Congress in 1870 as a result of pleas from citizens who had sustained losses during the Civil War (1861-1865). This commission addressed claims (for personal property only) from residents of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Southern Claims Commission appointed local commissioners to hear these claims, determine the authenticity of the claim, and decide if indeed the claimant had been loyal to the Union during the war. Yes, you read correctly: The claimant had to answer that he/she had been loyal to the Union and had not provided aid of any kind in support of the Confederacy. Before you say, “Not MY southern ancestor!” you should consider that people did what they had to do to receive compensation for losses suffered during the war. Many southerners did not consider it “lying” to “lie” to a Yankee (especially a bureaucrat).

A case in point is that of the Reverend Isaac Madison Hicks, claim #11,760, of Bibb County, Alabama. Rev. Hicks was a Baptist preacher, had been a county tax collector, and had an eldest son, Joseph Newton Hicks, who fought as a member of the 8th Alabama Cavalry for the Confederate cause. This is not the type of person one would expect to file a claim, but the National Archives has 44 pages of sworn testimony of Rev. Hicks and two witnesses. This particular claim gives an account of General James H. Wilson’s troop movements in the march to Selma and tells of Union soldiers taking horses, feed, and cooked food from the slave quarters and burning crops but sparing Rev. Hicks’s house because he was a Mason. Supporting testimony was given by a witness who says he is Rev. Hicks’s son-in-law. Another witness, a former slave, gives an account of seeing one of the stolen horses and saddle “under a Union soldier near Selma.” Both whites and blacks filed claims and gave testimony in support of claims made by others.

There are three types of claims:

• Allowed. The U.S. paid the claim, and the only records that survive are the name of the claimant, place of residence, and amount paid.

• Barred. Claim was either filed too late or the commissioners ruled the claimant a Confederate supporter. In this case, only the name, place, and description of loss are given.

• Disallowed. Claim was not paid, but for reasons other than late filing or the fact that the claimant was a Confederate supporter.

How do you determine if your ancestor had a claim and how do you get it? There are three finding aides to these claims at Clayton. The first is an index (on microfilm) from the National Archives titled Consolidated Index of Claims Reported by the Commissioner of Claims Southern Claims Commission 1871-1880 (cabinet 48, drawer 8). The second and third are books by Dr. Gary B. Mills: Civil War Claims in the South, An Index of Civil War Damage Claims Filed Before the Southern Claims Commission, 1871-1880 (GEN 973.7 M657 USA) and Southern Loyalists in the Civil War (GEN 973.7 M657 USA). All these indexes give the name of the claimant, the claim number, and state. The first book also gives the claimant’s county of residence. Once you find your ancestor’s name and claim number, write to the General Reference Branch, National Archives, Washington, D.C. 20408. Be sure to specify that this is a Southern Claims Commission claim, give the name of the claimant, the state, and the claim number. Send no money. The National Archives will reply with the number of pages and the cost for obtaining the claim file. You have 30 days to send for the claim before it is re-filed.

If you do not find your ancestor listed, try this technique: Go to the 1860, 1870, or 1880 federal censuses, write down the names of your ancestor’s neighbors (head of households) 5 to 10 households before your ancestor on the census and the same number of households following. Then see if any of these neighbors had claims and send for them. There is a very good chance your ancestor was one of the witnesses for the neighbor.

These claims are a good source of genealogical and historical information for ancestors in the “burned counties,” and if a claimant died during the claim process, often the heir(s) took up the claim. The heir(s) would then have to prove their relationship to the deceased claimant using Bible records, depositions, etc., all of which may hold valuable genealogical information.

In some cases, the claim was sent to the U.S. Court of Claims. If this happened with your ancestor’s claim, the National Archives will notify you of this and will send you a new case number to use to pursue the claim from the U.S. Court of Claims (Index Section, 717 Madison Place NW, Washington, D.C. 20005). All this may sound complicated, but all you have to do is send in the initial request and follow the instructions. The last claim I requested took about three months, including the time taken for the National Archives to locate the claim, the time taken to notify me of the cost—they accept credit cards—and the time taken to respond to my order for the claim. But believe me: It is worth the effort!