The Union Civil War widow’s pension application indicated the soldier died in Memphis, Tennessee. Another document in the pension application indicated the soldier died in Springfield, Illinois. The soldier’s compiled military service record also indicated he died in Springfield. The document in the service record was created close to the time of his death–within a few weeks.
That’s more contemporary to the event than the documents in the pension file.
Generally speaking, for there are always exceptions, one wants to get a document that is as contemporary as possible.
One response
As far as I know I have copies of my Civil War gggrandfathers death certificate & benefits. But since he wasn’t in it for the whole time the Civil War was going on., his death benefits were cut to his wife. It was an ongoing process which I now have time to research. Thank u 4 ur continued help & support for our research.