#368 Women & the Civil War Pension System w/ Kristin Jorgensen
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Civil War was the bloodiest military engagement in American history, and for the wives of those killed or wounded in battle, the struggle for survival continued long after the shooting ceased in 1865. In this episode we speak with longtime friend of the show Kristin Jorgensen about her recently-defended MA thesis, "From Private Misfortune to Public Entitlement: Rural New York Widows and the Civil War Pension System" which tells the story of how the Federal benefits offered to the wives of Union soldiers helped transform women's roles in American politics and society.
To find out more about Kristin's work, you can follow her on linkedin or check out her business Pastward at PastwardHistory.com.
This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Bob Crawford. |
| 0:06.1 | I'm Ben Sawyer. |
| 0:07.6 | And this is the road to now. |
| 0:09.6 | The road to now coming up on 10 years, Bob. |
| 0:12.6 | 10 years. |
| 0:13.5 | When we air this episode, we'll be one week away from our 10 year anniversary. |
| 0:17.6 | Can't believe it. |
| 0:18.4 | Lots happened in 10 years. |
| 0:20.3 | It has. |
| 0:22.0 | And what does they say if you make it past seven years or something like that? You're going to be together forever. Is that what they say? |
| 0:26.1 | Well, that's good. That's good news. It is good news. Well, Bob, when we started this, we hope to get people |
| 0:32.4 | into history. And over the years, we have heard from so many people who have said that the show helped them get into history, that they've started, you know, reading more, that they've learned stuff from the show. |
| 0:43.3 | And today, we have a very special guest that we know a person who is very much part of the story of this podcast and who I couldn't be prouder of |
| 0:54.9 | having any association with. Kristen Jorgensen, welcome to the roads now. Thank you. I'm absolutely |
| 1:01.2 | delighted to be here. Kristen, we are so excited for you. There's a special reason why we brought |
| 1:08.1 | you on today. Can you tell everybody why you're on the road to now |
| 1:11.9 | today? Sure. I am actually graduating with my master's degree in history in two weeks and would not |
| 1:22.1 | have ever started that had it not been for the road to now. |
| 1:33.3 | All of my friends can tell you, I am a huge Avet Brothers fan. |
| 1:39.1 | And when I heard that somebody in the band had a history podcast, I was pretty skeptical and figured I would check it out and see if this was legit. |
| 1:44.1 | And the first episode I listened to was about the Constitution. |
| 1:50.0 | I am a vehement history hater. I never liked history at all. |
... |
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