March 3, 1849.
Chap. CXXIX. — An Act to provide for the Payment of Horses and other Property lost or destroyed in
the Military Service of the United States.
Payment for horses, and other property lost or destroyed in the military service of
the United States provided for.
Proviso.
Proviso.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America
in Congress assembled, That any field, or staff, or other officer, mounted militia-man, 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 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
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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 afer 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.
Payment provided for horses, mules, oxen, wagons, carts, &c. captured or destroyed
by the enemy.
Proviso.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, 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 sustain, 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.
Claims provided for under this act, to be adjusted by Third Auditor of the Treasury.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, 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.
Adjudications upon claims to be recorded by Third Auditor, and when favorable, to
be paid at the Treasury upon his certificate.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, 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.
Parents or guardians to be allowed for lost horses, &c., provided for minors.
Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, 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
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has been, or shall be, lost, captured, destroyed, or abandoned in the manner before
mentioned, said parent or guardian 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.
When persons other than minors have been provided with horses, &c., the owners to
be paid.
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, 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 equipment, or with military accoutrements by any person, the owner thereof, who
has risqued, or shall take the risque 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 risque on himself.
Horses condemned as unfit for service, in consequence of want of forage, to be paid
for.
Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, 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.
Printed Document, 3 page(s), Public Acts, 30th Cong., 2nd sess., George Minot, Statutes at Large 9, 414-16