{"value"=>"<p>The records of the Pension Agency reflect the daily work of claims prosecution conducted by Agency staff from its establishment by the USSC’s Special Relief Department in February 1863 to its integration into ANCA in July 1865 (where it was sometimes referred to as the Pension Division). Office staff prosecuted invalid pension claims for disabled soldiers (and a much smaller number of sailors) and, to a lesser extent, applications for pensions for widows, minor children, and other dependent relatives; as well as other types of claims.</p> <p>Records consist of registers recording applications and actions taken in prosecuting individual claims; a register of medical examinations of applicants for invalid pensions, as required by the Pension Office; daily journals recording claim work and other office activities; registers of letters sent by the Pension Agency to claimants, federal government departments, and others; officers’ certificates solicited as evidence in support of soldiers’ claims; and certificate receipts. Incoming correspondence and letters acknowledging receipt of certificates cover an extended period from 1863 into 1866. Many are addressed to pension agent Milton P. Barry, who, having relinquished his role as ANCA local claim agent for Washington, D.C. at the end of 1865, continued working on pension and other claims at ANCA until his departure for work with the Protective War Claim Association of the State of New York. Letterpress copies of outgoing correspondence of the Pension Agency are not found in the collection.</p>"}