McCracken's Pension Fight

According to the National Park Service, the 83rd Pennsylvania lost a total of 435 men over the course of the war. Of those, 271 enlisted men and 11 officers were killed or mortally wounded. 151 enlisted men and 2 officers died as a result of disease.  William McCracken suffered from chronic diarrhea and piles, a common complaint of soldiers during the Civil War.  McCracken contracted these ailments during the summer of 1862 while serving at Harris Landing, Va.  He began a fight for a pension in October of 1886. By 1889, he had been awarded $4.00 a month, and applied for an increase.  He applied for several pension increases, sometimes rejected and sometimes awarded. His file has many affadavits from physicians and even a former commander. At his death in 1911, his pension was $15.00 per month.