CHAPTER 126.-Approved, March 3, 1849.-Vol. 9, p. 412.

An Act to provide for the settlement of the accounts of public officers and others who may have received moneys arising from military contributions, or otherwise, in Mexico.1

SEC. 2. That where an officer has had the supervision of the collection of the military contributions at any of the ports in Mexico, and has, at the same time, exercised civil functions, under the temporary government there established, or where and officer or other person shall have performed the duties of collectors at such ports, such officer or person shall be allowed a compensation which shall be assimilated in amount, as nearly as may be, including the regular pay and emoluments of such officer, to that allowed by existing laws to officers of the customs in the United States where the services are similar in amount and importance; such allowance, in all cases, to be determined by the President of the United States. And all officers of the army and other persons in public employment, who have received payment for their services in collecting, keeping, or accounting for said moneys, and for other necessary services, are authorized to retain so much of the amounts so received as, in the opinion of the President of the United States, may be a fair compensation for said services.

CHAPTER 129.-Approved, March 3, 1849.—Vol. 9, p 414. An Act to provide for the payment of horses and other property lost or destroyed in the military service of the United States.

1. Payment for horses and other property lost or destroyed in the military service of the United States provided for. Proviso. Proviso. 2. Payment provided for horses, mules, oxen, wagons, carts, &c., captured or destroyed by the enemy. Proviso. 3. Claims provided for under this act, to be adjusted by third auditor of the treasury. 4. Adjudications upon claims to be recorded by third auditor, and, when favorable, to be paid at the treasury upon his certificate. 5. Parents or guardians to be allowed for lost horses, &c., provided for minors. 6. When persons other than minors have been provided with horses, &c., the owners to be paid. 7. Horses condemned as unfit for service, in consequence of want of forage, to be paid for.

That any field, or staff, or other officer, mounted militiaman, volunteer, ranger, or cavalry, engaged in the military service of the United States since the eighteenth of June, eighteen hundred and twelve, or who shall hereafter be in said service, and has sustained, or shall sustain, damage, without any fault

1 All these accounts are presumed to be settled.

2 This act supersedes all the expired acts on the same subject of 9 April, 1816, chap. 40, vol. 3, p. 261,-3 March, 1817, chap. 110, vol. 3, p. 397,-3 March, 1825, chap. 66, vol. 4, p. 123,-20 April, 1818, chap. 124, vol. 3, p. 456,-19 Feb. 1833, chap. 33, vol. 3, p. 613,-3 June, 1834, chap. 153,-18 Jan. 1837, chap. 5, vol. 5, p. 142,-14 Oct. 1837, chap. 5, vol. 5, p. 204, and 2 March, 1847, chap. 39, vol. 6, p. 154, none of which are inserted in this compilation.

or negligence on his part, while in said service, by the loss of a horse in battle, or by the loss of a horse wounded in battle, and which has died or shall die of said wound, or, being so wounded, shall be abandoned by order of his officer and lost, or shall sustain damage by the loss of any horse by death or abandonment because of the unavoidable dangers of the sea when on board an United States transport vessel, or because the United States failed to supply transportation for the horse, and the owner was compelled by the order of his commanding officer to embark and leave him, or in consequence of the United States failing to supply sufficient forage, or because the rider was dismounted and separated from his horse and ordered to do duty on foot at a station detached from his horse, or when the officer in the immediate command ordered, or shall order, the horse turned out to graze in the woods, prairies, or commons, because the United States failed, or shall fail, to supply sufficient forage, and the loss was or shall be consequent thereof, or for the loss of necessary equipage, in consequence of the loss of his horse, as aforesaid, shall be allowed and paid the value thereof, not to exceed two hundred dollars: Provided, That if any payment has been, or shall be, made to any one aforesaid, for the use and risk, or for forage after the death, loss, or abandonment of his horse, said payment shall be deducted from the value thereof, unless he satisfied, or shall satisfy, the paymaster at the time he made, or shall make, the payment, or thereafter show, by proof, that he was remounted, in which case the deduction shall only extend to the time he was on foot: And provided, also, If any payment shall have been, or shall hereafter be, made to any person above mentioned, on account of clothing to which he was not entitled by law, such payment shall be deducted from the value of his horse or accoutrements.

SEC. 2. That any person who has sustained, or shall sustain, damage by the capture or destruction by an enemy or by the abandonment or destruction by the order of the commanding general, the commanding officer, or quartermaster, of any horse, mule, ox, wagon, cart, boat, sleigh, or harness, while such property was in the military service of the United States, either by impressment or contract, except in cases where the risk to which the property would be exposed was agreed to be incurred by the owner; and any person who has sustained, or shall sus

tain, damage by the death or abandonment and loss of any such horse, mule, or ox, while in the service aforesaid, in consequence of the failure on the part of the United States to furnish the same with sufficient forage, and any person who has lost or shall lose, or has had or shall have destroyed by unavoidable accident, any horse, mule, ox, wagon, cart, boat, sleigh, or harness, while such property was in the service aforesaid, shall be allowed and paid the value thereof at the time he entered the service: Provided, It shall appear that such loss, capture, abandonment, destruction, or death, was without any fault or negligence on the part of the owner of the property, and while it was actually employed in the service of the United States.

SEC. 3. That the claims provided for under this act shall be adjusted by the third auditor, under such rules as shall be prescribed by the secretary of war, under the direction or with the assent of the President of the United States, as well in regard to the receipt of applications of claimants as the species and degree of evidence, the manner in which such evidence shall be taken and authenticated, which rules shall be such as in the opinion of the President shall be best calculated to obtain the object of this act, paying a due regard as well to the claims of individuals' justice as to the interest of the United States; which rules and regulations shall be published for four weeks in such newspapers, in which the laws of the United States are published, as the secretary of war shall direct.

SEC. 4. That in all adjudications of said auditor upon the claims above mentioned, whether such judgments be in favor of or adverse to the claim, shall be entered in a book provided by him for that purpose, and under his direction; and when such judgments shall be in favor of such claim, the claimant or his legal representative shall be entitled to the amount thereof, upon the production of a copy thereof, certified by said auditor, at the treasury of the United States.

SEC. 5. That in all instances where any minor has been, or shall be, engaged in the military service of the United States, and was, or shall be, provided with a horse or equipments, or with military accoutrement, by his parent or guardian, and has died, or shall die, without paying for said property, and the same has been, or shall be, lost, captured, destroyed, or abandoned in the manner before mentioned, said parent or guar

dian shall be allowed pay therefor, on making satisfactory proof, as in other cases, and the further proof that he is entitled thereto by having furnished the same.

SEC. 6. That in all instances where any person other than a minor has been, or shall be, engaged in the military service aforesaid, and has been, or shall be, provided with a horse or equipments, or with military accoutrements, by any person, the owner thereof, who has risked, or shall take the risk of such horse, equipments, or military accoutrements on himself, and the same has been, or shall be, lost, captured, destroyed, or abandoned in the manner before mentioned, such owner shall be allowed pay therefor, on making satisfactory proof, as in other cases, and the further proof that he is entitled thereto, by having furnished the same, and having taken the risk on himself.

SEC. 7. That in all cases where horses have been condemned by a board of officers, on account of their unfitness for service, in consequence of the government failing to supply forage, all such horses and their equipage shall be allowed and paid for, whenever the facts shall be proven, by legal and satisfactory evidence, whether oral or written, that such condemned horse and the equipage was turned over to a quartermaster of the army, whether any receipt therefor was given and produced or

not.

[Approved, March 3, 1849.]

[By resolution 12, 2 March, 1849, vol. 9, p. 418, the Secretary of War authorized to furnish arms and ammunition to emigrants to California. Provisoes.]

RESOLUTION 14.-Approved, March 3, 1849.-Vol. 9, p. 418. Joint Resolution relative to evidence in applications for pensions by widows of deceased soldiers, under the act of July twenty-first, eighteen hundred and forty-eight. That in all applications for pensions by the widows of deceased soldiers under the act of July twenty-first, eighteen hundred and forty-eight,' the returns on the rolls of the dis1 Chapter 108.

ease of which the soldier died, and the official opinion of the surgeon-general founded thereon, that from the nature of the disease it was contracted while the soldier was in the line of his duty, shall be considered satisfactory evidence thereof, without the proof now required at the Pension Office; and that it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Pensions, in all cases of application for pensions under said act, to apply to the proper officers for said evidence, without requiring the applicant to furnish the same.

[Approved, March 3, 1849.]

CHAPTER 20.-Approved, June 17, 1850.-Vol. 9, p. 438.

An Act to increase the rank and file of the army, and to encourage enlistments.

1. Each company of artillery to consist of a specified number. 2. Increase of privates by voluntary enlistment, authorized. Proviso.

That hereafter each company of artillery designated and serving as light artillery shall, during such service, consist of the commissioned officers as now provided by law, and of four sergeants, four corporals, two artificers, two musicians, and sixtyfour privates.

SEC. 2. That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized, by voluntary enlistment, to increase the number of privates in each or any of the companies of the existing regiments of the army, at present serving, or which may hereafter serve, at the several military posts on the western frontier, and' at remote and distant stations, to any number not exceeding seventy-four, and to cause such portions of the army as may, by law, be serving on foot, to be properly equipped and mounted whenever, in his opinion, the exigency of the public service may require the same: Provided, That the said enlistments shall be for the term of five years, unless sooner discharged.

1 See 2 March, 1821, chap. 13, and 3 March, 1847, chap. 61.

2 This has been done in the companies serving in Texas, California, New Mexico, and Oregon, and some western forts. See notes to Army Register.