Establishment of the Southern Claims Commission

After the Civil War, Union men that resided in the Confederate states asked Congress for compensation of goods that were given to, or taken by, Federal forces during the occupation of the South throughout the War. Many of these Union men did not have vouchers from the army officers or the treasury department that confiscated their goods. In numerous petitions through bills introduced to Congress, the Treasury Department, the Secretary of War, the Offices of the Quartermaster and Commissary General, and to the Court of Claims, these Union men tried to reclaim their property. Until 1871, there was no legislative recognition of these claims. The Southern Claims Commission was established by Congress on March 3, 1871 which would serve to recognize the claims of Southern loyalists for quartermaster supplies and commissary stores furnished to the Union army during the War. This legislation was the first legislation that recognized claims exclusively from the South.