Jane Howard

Pension: 1131824, 833797
P.O.: Birmingham, New York
Service: Columbian College, Harewood Hospital, Slough General Hospital, and Alexandria
Applied: 1892
Status: Accepted

As promised, here is Jane Howard's pension file.  I managed to find both a special act file and a general pension file for Howard.  The general file reveals that Jane Howard was one of Dix's corps of nurses, and served from October, 1864 to 1865.  There was no mention of her service exhausting her or destroying her health like so many other women; instead, she suffered mainly from "advancing age."  And for witnesses: Ellen S. Tolman, pension attorney, and Caroline Burghardt, M.D.
While having Tolman and Burghardt as witnesses is certainly not typical (I'd dearly love to know how she pulled that off), the rest of the file isn't anything special.
Ah, but don't forget the special act file!  It's three papers, nice and substantial.  And it conveniently reports that "the official records show that Jane Howard, colored female nurse, was on duty at the Patent Office general hospital...November 15, 1862."  Problem is: it's not this Jane Howard.  So I have to be doubly careful checking records now to make sure I don't mix them up!
I've tried to track Howard down using the census records, and apparently she had a family bible which hopefully someone kept, but the lack of information in the pension file and the destruction of the 1890 census means I've come up with nothing so far.  But I will definitely be looking into her more when I have the chance.