More From That War of 1812 Pension File

These records are filmed in no particular order. So consider my surprise when I found the following letter about my ancestor.

U. S. Pension Agency

        Lexington, Ky., Sep 30 1871

Sir:

    Joseph G. Chinn, to whom a Pension Certificate has been granted (which I returned for correction) under Act 14 Feby '71, is represented to me by some of the best loyal men of Kentucky, as being during the war, one of the bitterest enemies of the government, an open and avowed rebel, and so far as talk and moral support & encouragement could go he was one their strongest aiders and abettors.

    I can send you affidavits of the best men in Kentucky substantiating these facts, and I thought it my duty to inform you of them and respectfully ask their consideration.

    Men who were in the wear of 1812 were of course too old to go in the Rebel Army, if the loyal are to be separated from the disloyal, it seems to me that the universal opinion of the community that Chinn is or was a rebel and the proof of reliable loyal men as to his rebel sentiments & utterances is about the only way to determine his loyalty or disloyalty.

        Very Respectfully,

            Your obedient servant

                A. H. Adams
                Pension Agent

Hon. J. H. Baker
Commisioner of Pensions
Washington D. C

Suspend payment & request agent at Lexington, Ky. to submit affidavits which he says can be furnished. 
O.W. & cc.

I'm surprised because his biography that appeared in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky tells a much different story about his allegiance. I think it important to inject here that in the late 1860's Dr. Chinn was actually mayor of Lexington, Kentucky.

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