 As a very old, very poor woman, she must have somehow heard that Levi had served as a soldier in the Union Army and thought, if he died in the war, then let's apply for his pension. And the kind of small but incredible thing here is that since she's been free, there's been no documentation that Viney's ever used the name Nisam. But here in this form, it says name of dependent mother, Nisam Viney.