Twenty year-old Gilbert Hadley slipped away from the Wilson County farm on which he had been held in bondage. On 31 January 1864, he, John Hadley (who may have been his brother), and Freeman Blunt presented themselves to a recruiter in Washington, North Carolina, and enlisted in Company D of the 37th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops.
Twenty-eight years later, crippled with rheumatism and pained by an inguinal hernia (a “rupture”), Hadley filed for a veteran’s pension from his Wilmington home. On 25 November 1892, having been adjudged partially disabled, he was awarded twelve dollars per month, an amount later reduced to eight dollars. In July 1897, Hadley applied for an increase, asserting increased disability and a new “trouble of the head.” A year later, he notified the Bureau of Pensions that his wife had died. Finally, in July 1899, the Bureau rejected his application.
Freeman Blunt died in May 1904.
File #1,098,636, Application of Gilbert Hadley for Invalid’s Pension, National Archives and Records Administration.