Claus Ahrens

I know, the name means nothing to you. Really he is nothing to me, too. My mother's, godmother's grandfather. a real-sounding yet truly non-existant relationship if ever there was one. So. What of him? Why to I have this name in my memory at all? These 5 pieces of paper. The middle one still tells you nothing of Claus. It is a Confederate 20 dollar bill. Claus was in the Union Army in the 39th regiment of the Illinois Infantry. Company A. Really, still nothing. Except his discharge papers still exist. Both sets, on the left, as he fought the entire war except for his time in Andersonville Prison. A notorious prisoner of war camp run by the Confederacy, but there is no evidence in this grouping of that time. The top right is a letter telling his widow that as Claus was a veteran of the Civil War she is entitled to a pension. A not princely sum of 8$ a month. That an attorney for her case will present the information to the Pension board in San Francisco and that after hat has occurred she will receive her pension and his bill. The final letter, that on the bottom left, is the bill of the attorney. His fee is 10$.