Old Age

When it came to old age and life after the Civil War a lot of soldiers lived happy, easy-going lives,  while others suffered and had to change their lifestyle from loss of limbs or injuries suffered during the war. The average age of death for a Union soldier who was a survivor of the Civil War was around 75.9 years of age. Horace Rice died at the age of 43 so he was under the average age of surviving Civil War veterans. 

In terms of occupation during his old age, he was in the 7.5% of Union survivors that worked in the category of manual labor. He worked in a warehouse for 5 years until his illness caused him to stop working. The most common occupation held by a soldier in their older age was farming (24.7%). 

He was given $2 a month for his pension, which was compensation for a gunshot wound to his middle finger during the war. His wife tried after his death to obtain the pension he had been receiving. He got married after the war on December 3rd, 1867 and was among the common 73.5% of civil war survivors that got married after the war. While married, he did not have any children with his wife, Maria.

Another thing that Civil War veterans in their old age battled with was the cities' water treatment,  which caused issues in their health. With the growing population on the rise, the cities could not handle the treatment of their water nor the removal of sewage. The use of lead pipes to distribute water also led to some of the diseases that caused death amongst soldiers in their olde age. 

Horace was a rare case compared to some of the other veterans of the war. He died at an exceptionally young age and worked somewhat of an odd job. Most of the veterans lived peacefully after the war, but Horace was one of those who suffered every day after his injury.