CHAPTER 207.-Approved, March 3, 1855.-Vol. 10, p. 701.

An Act in addition to certain Acts granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States.

That each of the surviving commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, whether of regulars, volunteers, rangers, or militia, who were regularly mustered into the service of the United States, and every officer, commissioned and non-commissioned, seaman, ordinary seaman, flotilla-man, marine, clerk, and landsman in the navy, in any of the wars in which this country has been engaged since seventeen hundred and ninety, and each of the survivors of the militia, or volunteers, or state troops of any state or territory, called into military service and regularly mustered therein, and whose services have been paid by the United States, shall be entitled to receive a certificate or warrant from the department of the interior for one hundred and sixty acres of land; and where any of those who have so been mustered into service and paid shall have received a certificate or warrant, he shall be entitled to a certificate or warrant for such quantity of land as will make, in the whole, with what he may have heretofore received, one hundred and sixty acres to each such person having served as aforesaid: Provided, The person so having been in service shall not receive said land warrant if it shall appear by the muster rolls of his regiment or corps that he deserted, or was dishonorably discharged from service: Provided, further, That the benefits of this section shall be held to extend to wagon-masters and teamsters who may have been employed, under direction of competent authority, in time of war in the transportation of military stores and supplies.

SEC. 2. That in case of the death of any person who, if living, would be entitled to a certificate or warrant as aforesaid under this act, leaving a widow, or, if no widow, a minor child or children, such widow, or, if no widow, such minor child or children, shall be entitled to receive a certificate or warrant for the same quantity of land that such deceased person would be entitled to receive under the provisions of this act, if now living: Provided, That a subsequent marriage shall not impair the right of any such widow to such warrant if she be a widow

at the time of making her application: And provided, further, That those shall be considered minors who are so at the time this act shall take effect.

SEC. 3. That in no case shall any such certificate or warrant be issued for any service less than fourteen days, except where the person shall actually have been engaged in battle, and unless the party claiming such certificate or warrant shall establish his or her right thereto by record' evidence of said service.

SEC. 4. That said certificates or warrants may be assigned, transferred, and located by the warrantees, their assignees, or their heirs at law, according to the provisions of existing laws regulating the assignment, transfer, and location of bounty land

warrants.

SEC. 5. That no warrant issued under the provisions of this act shall be located on any public lands, except such as shall at the time be subject to sale at either the minimum or lower graduated prices.

SEC. 7. That the provisions of this act, and all the bounty land laws heretofore passed by Congress, shall be extended to Indians, in the same manner, and to the same extent, as if the said Indians had been white men.

SEC. 8. That the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war, or their widows or minor children,' shall be entitled to the benefits of this act.

SEC. 9. That the benefits of this act shall be applied to and embrace those who served as volunteers at the invasion of Plattsburg, in September, eighteen hundred and fourteen; also at the battle of King's Mountain, in the revolutionary war, and the battle of Nickojock, against the confederated savages of the south.3

SEC. 10. That the provisions of this act shall apply to the chaplains who served with the army in the several wars of the country.

SEC. 11. That the provisions of this act be applied to those who served as volunteers at the attack on Lewistown, in Dela

1 Where no recorded evidence exists, parol evidence may be taken, by sec. 3, chap. 26, 1856.

2 See sec. 8, chap. 26, 14 May, 1826.

3 To Major D. Bailey's battalion, by chap. 115, 3 March, 1857.

ware, by the British fleet, in the war of eighteen hundred and twelve-fifteen.

[Approved, March 3, 1855.]

[By chapter 208, sec. 2, March 3, 1855, vol. 10, p. 703, the yearly allowance of the professor of French and Spanish, and of the professor of drawing, at West Point Military Academy, to be the same as is now allowed' to the other professors.]

RESOLUTION 9.-Approved, February 15, 1855.-Vol. 10, p. 723. A Resolution authorizing the President of the United States to confer the title of lieutenant-general by brevet, for eminent services.

That the grade of lieutenant-general be, and the same is hereby, revived in the army of the United States, in order that when, in the opinion of the President and senate, it shall be deemed proper to acknowledge eminent services of a major-general of the army in the late war with Mexico, in the mode already provided for in subordinate grades, the grade of lieutenant-general may be specially conferred by brevet, and by brevet only, to take rank from the date of such service or services: Provided, however, That, when the said grade of lieutenant-general by brevet shall have once been filled, and have become vacant, this joint resolution shall thereafter expire and be of no effect.3

CHAPTER 15.-Approved, April 5, 1856.-Vol. 11, p. 8.

An Act making appropriations for the payment of invalid and other pensions of the United States for the year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven.

[So much of acts of 1828, chap. 53, 1832, chap. 126, part of 1848, chap. 155, as provides for payment out of any money not otherwise appropriated, be repealed.]

1 $2000 by 3 March, 1851, chap. 22; now $2240 per annum.

2 The appointment of lieutenant-general had been provided for by act of 28 May, 1798, chap. 47, and repealed by 3 March, 1799.

[For pay and emoluments of lieutenant-general, see 3 March, 1857, chap. 106, sec. 16.]

3 Under this resolution, Major-General Winfield Scott was appointed brevet lieutenant-general by President Pierce; and Lieutenant-General Scott retired, with his full pay and allowances, on 1st November, 1861.

CHAPTER 26.-Approved, May 14, 1856.-Vol. 11, p. 8.

An Act to amend the Act in addition to certain Acts granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States, approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-five.

That in all cases where a certificate or warrant for bounty land for any less quantity than one hundred and sixty acres shall have been issued to any officer or soldier, or to the widow or minor child or children of any officer or soldier, under existing laws, the evidence upon which such certificate or warrant was issued shall be received to establish the service of such officer or soldier in the application of himself, or of his widow or minor child or children, for a certificate or warrant for so much land as may be required to make up the full sum of one hundred and sixty acres, on proof of the identity of such officer or soldier, or, in case of his death, of the marriage and identity of his widow, or, in case of her death, of the identity of his minor child or children: Provided, nevertheless, That if upon a review of such evidence the commissioner of pensions shall not be satisfied that the former certificate or warrant was properly granted, he may require additional evidence, as well of the term as of the fact of service.

SEC. 2. That in all cases where a pension has been granted to any officer or soldier, the evidence upon which such pension was granted shall be received to establish the service of such officer or soldier in his application for bounty land under existing laws; and, upon proof of his identity as such pensioner, a certificate or warrant may be issued to him for the quantity of land to which he shall be entitled; and in case of the death of such pensioned officer or soldier, his widow shall be entitled to a certificate or warrant for the same quantity of land to which her husband would have been entitled, if living, upon proof that she is such widow, and in case of the death of such officer or soldier, leaving a minor child or children and no widow, or where the widow may have deceased before the issuing of any certificate or warrant, such minor child or children shall be entitled to a certificate or warrant for the same quantity of land as the father would have been entitled to receive if living, upon proof of the decease of father and mother: Provided, nevertheless, That if upon a review of such evidence the commissioner of pen

sions shall not be satisfied that the pension was properly granted, he may require additional evidence, as well of the term as of the fact of service.

SEC. 3. That so much of the third section of the "Act in addition to certain acts granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States," approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-five,' as requires the party claiming a certificate or warrant, under the provisions of said act, to establish his or her right thereto by record evidence of the service for which such certificate or warrant has been or may be claimed, be, and the same is hereby, repealed, and parol evidence, where no record evidence. exists, may be admitted to prove the service performed, under such rules and regulations as the commissioner of pensions may prescribe.

SEC. 4. That the eighth section of the act above mentioned, approved the third day of March, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-five, shall be construed as embracing officers, marines, seamen, and other persons engaged in the naval service of the United States during the revolutionary war, and the widows and minor children of all such officers, marines, seamen, and other persons engaged as aforesaid.

SEC. 5. That the provisions of the said act shall extend to all persons who have served as volunteers with the armed forces of the United States, subject to military orders, for the space of fourteen days, in any of the wars specified in the first section of the said act, whether such persons were or were not mustered into the service of the United States.

SEC. 6. That the widows and minor children of all such persons as are specified in the last preceding section of this act, and are now dead, shall be entitled to the same privileges as the widows and minor children of the beneficiaries named in the act to which this is an amendment.

SEC. 7. That when any company, battalion, or regiment, in an organized form, marched more than twenty miles to the place where they were mustered into the service of the United States, or were discharged more than twenty miles from the place where such company, battalion, or regiment was organized, in all such

1 Chap. 207.

2

Chap. 207.