Thirtieth Congress,
thiSecond Session,
BE IT ENACTED
By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress Assembled.

(That the act entitled “an act to amend an act entitled an act to provide for the payment of horses or other property lost and destroyed in the military service, of the United States,” approved the eighteenth day of January eighteen hundred and thirty-seven,” approved March second eighteen hundred and forty-seven, and all other acts or parts of acts relating to the same subject, and now in force, be, and the same are hereby continued in force for the period of five years from and after the third day of March A.D. eighteen hundred and forty-nine, Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed to revive or continue in force, the proviso to the second section of the act approved the fifteenth of June eighteen hundred and forty four, entitled “an act making an appropriation for the payment of horses lost by the Missouri Volunteers in the Florida War.”)

In Senate of the United States,
March 1, 1849.

Resolved, That the Bill from the House of Representatives entitled
“An Act further to continue in force the acts for the payment of horses and other property lost in in the military service of the United States.” do pass, with the following

Amendments.

Strike out all after the enacting clause, and, in lieu thereof, insert: , 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 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, praries, 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 there after show by proof that he was re-mounted, 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 abovementioned, 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. 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.

Section 3. And be it further enacted, That the claims provid 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 individual justice as to the interests 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

Section 4. And be it further enacted, That in all adjudications of said auditor upon the claims above mentioned, whether such judgment 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 judgment shall be in favor of such claim, the claimant, or his legal representatives, 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.

Section 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 accoutrements, by his parent or guardian, and has died or shall die without paying for said property, and the said has been or shall be lost, captured, destroyed, or abandoned, in the manner before mentioned, said parent or guardian ^x^ 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.

Section 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 equipments 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.

Section 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 Quarter Master of the Army, whether any receipt therefor was given and produced or not.