{"value"=>"<p> Historical note</p> <p>The United States Sanitary Commission established the Army and Navy Claim Agency (ANCA) in Washington, D.C. on April 1, 1864 to serve as the USSC’s central office to assist Union soldiers, sailors, and their families in prosecuting claims on the federal government for pensions, back pay, bounty, commutation of rations, prize money, and other benefits, without cost. They sought both to protect claimants from agents charging exhorbitant fees and to assist the government by identifying and turning away false claims. To further this goal, they established a system of local claim agencies in many states across the nation. By helping servicemen and their families to obtain monies due to them, the USSC’s claim agencies did much to prevent and alleviate poverty in local communities.</p> <p>Its existence dates to the opening of the USSC’s Pension Agency, established in Washington on February 10, 1863 by the Special Relief Department to serve the pension needs of invalid soldiers and the relatives of deceased soldiers who were located in Washington. The Pension Agency was incorporated into ANCA in July, 1865, and a local agency was established to serve Washington DC needs. In the summer of 1864 ANCA established a network of local agencies in many states to provide more convenient access to its services. At that time, some independent claim agencies, such as the Protective War Claim Association of the State of New York, located in New York City, and the Protective War Claim Agency of Philadelphia (later the Protective War Claim and Pension Agency), became affiliated with ANCA. At some USSC relief stations and agencies, early claim work handled by relief agents was turned over to ANCA local agents.</p> <p>After the war, as the USSC evaluated the scope of its future operations, and foreseeing a large expansion of claim work, it decided to cease accepting new claim applications after December 31, 1865. Most local agencies ceased operations at that time. Its Washington agency was reincorporated into ANCA, while the agencies in New York and Philadelphia continued their operations. ANCA and USSC staff continued processing existing claims through the spring of 1867, and made arrangements with former staff members William F. Bascom and Charles W. Seaton to bring the prosecution of most applications to their conclusion on a commission basis, without charge to the claimants. The bulk of ANCA’s records were shipped to New York in 1869; work by USSC staff on a small number of inquiries extended to about 1871.</p> <p>ANCA worked closely with the nearby Special Relief Department, which assisted soldiers, sailors and veterans in filing various back pay and bounty claims, throughout the war. (The majority of the USSC’s claim work concerned soldiers.) In November, 1865, ANCA took over the filing of all new back pay and bounty claims, while the Special Relief Department concluded work on existing claims, turning over that work to ANCA in late January, 1866. At that time, they transferred back pay and bounty registers and certain other records to ANCA. The Special Relief back pay and bounty claim registers have not been found in the collection.</p> <p>The creation of ANCA represented the culmination of efforts by Frederick Knapp, the USSC’s Superintendent of Special Relief, to establish a central USSC office to guide soldiers, sailors and veterans through the process of obtaining money due to them as a result of their service in the U.S. military. Sanitary Commission agents in hospitals and USSC homes and lodges assisted soldiers and sailors in making out claim applications on an ad hoc basis in the first months of the war. In 1862, the USSC’s Special Relief Department (also known as the Special Relief Service) opened a small house at 210 F Street, Washington, DC, close to the Paymaster General’s new office. Under the direction of Knapp’s Chief Assistant Joseph B. Abbott, agents at the home helped soldiers too weak or enfeebled to present their own claims for back pay and bounty. Several USSC branches in Northern cities set up their own claims offices to provide claim assistance locally for returning soldiers and their families. The USSC’s Western Department established a pension agency in Louisville in the spring of 1863.</p> <p>On February 10, 1863, the Special Relief Department opened a new soldier’s lodge at 389 H Street in Washington, near the relocated Paymaster General’s office, that also included the office of the USSC’s new Pension Agency. William F. Bascom, a former District Attorney from Middlebury, Vermont, was engaged to head the office, which helped veterans to secure invalid pensions, primarily at first for discharged or furloughed soldiers and sailors who were staying in Washington until they could arrange travel home or to a next post. Bascom worked under Abbott’s aegis, who continued to coordinate the prosecution of back pay and bounty claims for living soldiers.</p> <p>Milton P. Barry replaced Bascom as Pension Agent on April 14, 1864, when Bascom returned to Vermont on family business. After the establishment of the Army and Navy Claim Agency in April 1864, ANCA often referred to the Pension Agency as its “local agency” in Washington and listed it as such in directories to local USSC claim agents. On July 10, 1865, the claims work of the Pension Agency was officially transferred to ANCA’s central office in Washington, at 244 F Street. Barry then became ANCA’s local agent in Washington, DC, taking applications from service members and relatives of the deceased located in the area.</p> <p>The Army and Navy Claim Agency opened for business in April 1864, with Darius Forbes as its General Agent. Forbes, a Universalist minister and journalist, had previously served as Examiner-in-Chief at the U.S. Pension Bureau. Augustus Forbes, Darius’ son, served as chief clerk during his father’s tenure.</p> <p>The different types of claims were administered by various federal government offices. ANCA clerks and agents had to correspond with each one separately, often making the application process a lengthy one, due to the large number of claims handled by the government. The Pension Bureau, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, dealt with pensions for invalid soldiers and sailors, as well as the widows, minor children, and other dependents of the deceased. The Treasury Department’s Second Auditor handled claims for back pay and bounty for the family members of deceased soldiers; its Fourth Auditor handled claims for prize money and other benefits for sailors and their surviving family members. The Army’s Paymaster General’s office handled claims for back pay and bounty for living soldiers and veterans; correspondence with that office was often necessary for Second Auditor claims as well. ANCA also pursued a smaller number of claims through the Treasury’s Third Auditor and the Army’s Commissary General of Prisoners.</p> <p>With the organization of ANCA, the USSC sought to bring existing USSC or USSC-related claim offices under one organizational structure, although several offices, particularly those in the West, maintained some independence. In its efforts to expand its services, ANCA hired former Pension Agency manager William F. Bascom as Superintendent of Local Agencies in May, 1865. Local agents were responsible for taking applications from claimants, organizing required evidence, forwarding the necessary paperwork to ANCA’s central office (from which they were sent to the government departments), and serving as liaison between local claimants and the central office. They maintained claim registers and reported claims and office expenses to ANCA on a monthly basis.</p> <p>Forbes was compelled to resign as General Agent in September 1865, and Bascom succeeded him in October, serving until the close of the agency in April 1867. Former New Orleans local agent Charles W. Seaton joined ANCA’s Washington office as chief clerk in December 1865, a position he retained (with the exception of a brief stint in November-December 1866 as acting secretary for the Protective War Claim Association of New York) until ANCA’s closing in April 1867. With the consolidation of the USSC’s Washington premises and staff in 1865-1866, former Department of the Gulf superintendent George A. Blake served as cashier for both the Central Office and ANCA during that time.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p>Scope and content note</p> <p>The Army and Navy Claim Agency’s claim prosecution activities, office administration, and the work of its local agencies are documented in correspondence, claim registers, claim files, registers and receipts for remittances to claimants, and general office records, 1864-1870. ANCA’s incoming and outgoing correspondence with claimants, federal and state government departments, USSC staff, ANCA’s local agents and others concern the filing and status of claims, and to a lesser extent, administrative matters. Also present are letters sent and received at the Cashier’s Desk, and incomplete registers of ANCA’s letters received. Claim registers provide a comprehensive record of claim applications submitted by ANCA or by ANCA on behalf of it local agents; these include registers of new applications beginning in the fall of 1865 for types of claims previously handled by the USSC’s Special Relief Department. Local agents’ own record books are found in Series III. Local agent registers and cash books. Claim files comprise the bulk of the series, documenting over 30,000 individual applications for claims against the government, filed by ANCA on behalf of servicemen or the relatives of deceased servicemen. Files typically consist of the original file jacket noting the name of the serviceman and, if deceased, related claimant, noting actions taken, and any correspondence or evidentiary documents contained within. Remittance records consist of registers, receipt files and partial name index volumes, documenting ANCA’s receipt and forwarding of government funds and other items to claimants or their agents. Receipt files consist of signed forms or letters from claimants or agents acknowledging same.</p> <p>General Office records document ANCA’s tracking of the number and type of claims filed on a regular basis, and cash value of claims allowed, as well as the administration of its local agencies, represented by legal agreements, records of their monthly transactions, and indexes listing agencies by place and name. Also present are a list of Confederate ships captured as prizes by the U.S. Navy, a record of office mailings, sample ANCA forms, and miscellaneous items.</p>"}