Flush with national pride after the War of 1812, U.S. lawmakers decided to show their gratitude to the redoubtable men who had won the first war against Great Britain. In 1818, Congress passed a law granting a lifetime pension to anyone who served for at least nine months in the Continental Army, Navy, or Marines during the American Revolution, provided the individual was “in need of assistance from his country for support.” Overwhelmed by the number of applications for pensions, Congress in 1820 revised the law to require claimants to supply proof of their financial distress.
Even under these more stringent terms, more than 15,000 Revolutionary War Veterans qualified for a pension. Joseph Winter was one of the unlucky few who did not. The German-born Winter lived in a settlement among his fellow immigrants near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania before the war, where he supported himself and his family as a weaver. His wife and children died sometime after the Revolution. As he grew older, his vision deteriorated and he could no longer perform the work required by his chosen trade. With no family to turn to, no means of earning a livelihood, and no pension, Winter became homeless.
On a snowy night in December 1829, portrait painter John Neagle encountered Winter on the streets of Philadelphia. The sight of the destitute Revolutionary War Veteran saddened and dismayed Neagle. Despite communication difficulties, as Winter’s first language was German, Neagle invited him home to hear his story.
Neagle used his local grocer as a translator. After learning the details of Winter’s life and his services in the Revolution, Neagle decided to paint his portrait. While many artists had produced portraits of Revolutionary War veterans, the subjects were all shown in the prime of their lives. Neagle chose to represent Winter as he was in 1829, old, downtrodden, wearing threadbare clothes, his face lined with the hardships he had experienced. At the same time, Neagle was careful to portray Winter with dignity, in a manner calculated to invite sympathy for his situation and his suffering.
The completed portrait attracted a great deal of attention. Another artist, John Sartain, created an engraving of the picture that was sold under the title Patriotism and Age. Through the portrait and the engraving, Winter became the symbol for thousands of elderly veterans. The popularity of the engraving drew the government’s attention to the plight of these men who earlier in their lives had fought for the nation’s independence. In 1832, Congress passed a comprehensive pension act, which offered a monthly payment to almost all surviving Veterans of the conflict, the members of the state militias included and without regard to finances or disabilities. Four years later, Congress extended the same benefits to widows of Revolutionary War Veterans.
What became of Winter after his meeting with Neagle is unknown. However, his image, captured in the portrait and engraving, serves as a powerful reminder that the problem of Veteran homelessness is as old as the nation itself.
By Olivia Holly-Johnson
Virtual Student Federal Service Intern, Veterans Benefits Administration
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History of VA in 100 Objects
Object 87: Shoulder Patch for Veterans Administration Military Personnel in World War II
For a time during and after World War II, active duty military personnel were assigned to the Veterans Administration.
That assignment was represented by a blue circle with a golden phoenix rising from the ashes. This was the shoulder patch worn by the more than 1,000 physicians, dentists, and other medical professionals serving in the U.S. Army at VA medical centers.
This was the same patch worn by Gen. Omar Bradley during his time as VA administrator after the war concluded.
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Object 86: The Roll of Honor
“The following pages are devoted to the memory of those heroes who have given up their lives upon the altar of their country, in defense of the American Union.”
So opened the preface to the first volume of the Roll of Honor, a compendium of over 300,000 Federal soldiers who died during the Civil War and were interred in national and other cemeteries. The genesis of this 27-volume collection published between 1865 and 1871 can be traced to Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and the department he oversaw for a remarkable 21 years from 1861 to 1882.
History of VA in 100 Objects
Object 85: Congressman Claypool’s “$1 Per Day Pension” Ribbon
Founded in 1866 as fraternal organization for Union Veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) embraced a new mission in the 1880s: political activism. The GAR formed a pension committee in 1881 for the express purpose of lobbying Congress for more generous pension benefits.
An artifact from the political wrangling over pensions is now part of the permanent collection of the National VA History Center in Dayton, Ohio. The item is a small pension ribbon displaying the message: “I endorse the $1 per day pension as recommended by the Departments of Ohio and Indiana G.A.R.” The button attached to the ribbon features two American flags and the phrase “saved by the boys of ’61-65.” The back of the ribbon bears the signature of Horatio C. Claypool, a Democratic judge who ran for the seat in Ohio’s eleventh Congressional district in the 1910 mid-term elections.
