Chapter CLXIX. *making Appropriations for the Support of the Army, for the year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, and for other Purposes.* March 3, 1855. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That the
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Chap. CLXIX.— An Act *making Appropriations for the Support of the Army, for the year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, and for other Purposes.* March 3, 1855. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That the following sums be, 636 THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 169. 1855.and the same are hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the support of the army, for the year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six:— Pay.
For pay of the army, two million six hundred thousand eight hundred and six dollars. For pay, supplies, and travelling expenses of six companies of Texas volunteers, called into service by the governor of Texas, and mustered into the service of the United States, one hundred and thirty-seven thousand seven hundred and fifty-five dollars and thirty-eight cents. For commutation of officers’ subsistence, six hundred and twenty-eight thousand one hundred and sixty-eight dollars. For commutation of forage for officers’ horses, one hundred and four thousand eight hundred and thirty-two dollars.
For payments in lieu of clothing for officers’ servants, thirty-six thousand’ three hundred and fifty dollars. For expenses of recruiting, transportation of recruits, three months’ extra pay to non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, on reenlistment, one hundred thousand dollars. For subsistence in kind, one million three hundred and eighty-one thousand and sixty-eight dollars and seventy-five cents. For clothing for the army, camp and garrison equipage, five hundred and seventy-four thousand eight hundred and seventy-six dollars and fifty-nine cents.
Quarter-master’s department. For the regular supplies of the quarter-master’s department, consisting of fuel, forage in kind for the horses, mules, and oxen of the quarter-master’s department, at the several military posts and stations, and with the armies in the field; for the horses of the first and second regiments of dragoons, the companies of light artillery, the regiment of mounted riflemen, and such companies of infantry as may be mounted, and, also, for the authorized number of officers’ horses when serving in the field and at the outposts; of straw for soldiers’ bedding, and of stationery, including company and other blank books for the army, certificates for discharged soldiers, blank forms, for the pay, and quarter-master’s departments, and for the printing of division, and department orders, army regulations, and reports, eight hundred and ninety thousand dollars.
For the incidental expenses of the quarter-master’s department, consisting of postage on letters and packets received and sent by officers of the army on public service; expenses of courts-martial and courts of inquiry, including the additional compensation to judge advocates, recorders, members, and witnesses, while on that service, under the act 1802, ch. 9.of March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and two; extra pay to soldiers employed, under the direction of the quarter-master’s department, in the erection of barracks, quarters, storehouses, and hospitals; the construction of roads, and other constant labor, for periods of not less than ten days, 1819, ch. 45. 1854, ch. 247.under the acts of March second, eighteen hundred and nineteen, and August fourth, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, including those employed as clerks at division, and department head-quarters; expenses of expresses to and from the frontier posts and armies in the field; of escorts to pay masters, other disbursing officers, and trains, when military escorts cannot be furnished; expenses of the interment of non-commissioned officers and soldiers; authorized office furniture; hire of laborers in the quarter master’s department, including hire of interpreters, spies, and guides, for the army; compensation of clerk to officers of the quarter-master’s department; compensation of forage and wagon-masters, authorized by 1888, ch. 102.the act of July fifth, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight; for the apprehension of deserters, and the expenses incident to their pursuit; the various expenditures required for the first and second regiments of dragoons, the companies of light artillery, the regiment of mounted rifle men, and such companies of infantry as may be mounted, viz: for the 637purchase of horse equipments, as saddles, bridles, saddle-blankets, nose-bags, iron combs, currycombs, and spurs, and straps; of travelling forges, blacksmiths’ and shoeing tools, horse and mule shoes, iron and steel for shoeing, hire of veterinary surgeons, purchase of medicines for horses and mules, shoeing horses of mounted corps, and repairing dragoon and rifle equipments, three hundred and seventy-five thousand three hundred and sixty-eight dollars.
For constructing barracks and other buildings at posts, which it may Barracks, &c.be necessary to occupy during the year, and for repairing, altering, and enlarging buildings at the established posts, including hire or commutation of quarters for officers on military duty; hire of quarters for troops, of storehouses for the safekeeping of military stores, and of grounds for summer cantonments; for encampments and temporary frontier stations, four hundred and ninety thousand four hundred and fifty-eight dollars.
For mileage to officers of the army, for transportation of themselves Mileage.and baggage when travelling on duty, without troops or escorts, one hundred thousand dollars. For transportation of the army, including the baggage of the troops Transportation.when moving either by land or water; of clothing, camp and garrison equipage, and horse equipments, from the depot at Philadelphia to the several posts and army depots; of subsistence from the places of purchase, and from the places of delivery under contract, to such places as the circumstances of the service may require it to be sent; of ordnance, ordnance stores and small arms, from the foundries and armories to the arsenals, fortifications, frontier posts, and army depots; freights, wharfage, tolls, and ferriages; for the purchase and hire of horses, mules and oxen, and the purchase and repair of wagons, carts, drays, ships and other sea-going vessels and boats for the transportation of supplies, and for garrison purposes; for dray age and cartage at the several posts; hire of teamsters; transportation of funds for the pay and other disbursing departments; the expense of sailing public transports on the various rivers, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic and Pacific; and for procuring water at such posts as from their situation require that it be brought from a distance, and for clearing roads and removing obstructions from roads, harbors, and rivers, to the extent which may be required for the actual operations of the troops on the frontier, one million two hundred thousand dollars.
For the purchase of horses for the first and second regiments of dragoons, Horses.the companies of light artillery, the mounted riflemen, and such infantry as the commanding officers at the frontier posts may find it necessary to mount, two hundred thousand dollars. For contingencies of the army, six thousand dollars. Contingencies. For the medical and hospital departments, fifty-two thousand five hundred dollars. For contingent expenses of the adjutant-general’s department, at division and department head-quarters, four hundred dollars.
For armament of fortifications, one hundred and twenty-five thousand Fortifications.dollars. For ordnance, ordnance stores, and supplies, one hundred thousand dollars. Ordnance. For the current expenses of the ordnance service, one hundred thousand dollars. For the manufacture of arms at the national armories, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Arms. For repairs and improvements and new machinery at Harper’s Ferry, Armories and arsenals.thirty-two thousand six hundred and seventy-three dollars.
For repairs and improvements and new machinery at Springfield armory, fifty-four thousand dollars. For new machinery at Harper’s Ferry armory, twenty thousand dollars. 638 For repairs, preservation, and contingencies of arsenals, fifty thousand Compensation of superintendents.dollars, and for continuing the construction of the arsenal at Benicia, California, forty thousand dollars. And it is hereby provided, that the annual compensation of the civil superintendents of the national armories be two thousand five hundred dollars, without perquisites, allowances, or additions of any kind, quarters excepted, and that the same be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Surveys of lakes. For continuing the survey of the northern and northwestern lakes, including Lake Superior, fifty thousand dollars. Surveys. For surveys for military defences of the sea and inland frontier, fifteen thousand dollars. Books of tactics. For printing a new system of light infantry and rifle tactics, to be stereotyped, with engraved plates, and for procuring for distribution to the militia of the United States, books of tactical instruction, including the system of regulations now in course of preparation, thirty thousand dollars.
Miscellaneous. For compensation of the clerk and messenger in the office of the commanding general, two thousand dollars. For contingent expenses of the office of the commanding general, three hundred dollars. Arrearages. 1820, ch. 62. For arrearages prior to July first, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, payable through the office of the Third Auditor, under an act approved May the first, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, in addition to the balance undrawn in the treasury, two thousand dollars.
Capitol extension. For the Capitol extension, three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. To complete the road from Point Douglass, on the Mississippi River, Roads.to the mouth of the St. Louis River, of Lake Superior, in Wisconsin, thirty-four thousand two hundred and thirteen dollars and fifty cents. To complete the road from Point Douglass to Fort Gaines, now Fort Ripley, thirteen thousand four hundred and ninety-four dollars and nine cents. To complete the road from Swan River to the Winnebago Agency, two thousand five hundred and thirty-five dollars and thirty-nine cents.
To complete the road from Wabashaw to Mendota, thirteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-one dollars and seventy-six cents. The said road to be completed under the direction of the Secretary of War. To complete the road from Mendota to the Big Sioux River, twenty-seven thousand four hundred and seventy-five dollars and sixty-eight cents. That the sum of thirty-two thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War, in the manner following, namely:
Sixteen thousand dollars for the improvement of the road from Fort Union to Santa Fé; ten thousand dollars for the improvement of the road from Secalote to Albuquerque, via Canon Blanco and Canon Carnue; and six thousand dollars for the improvement of the road from Canada to Abiquea; all the said roads being in the Territory of New Mexico. Board established under act of 1852, ch. 110, §6, abolished. Sec. 2. *And be it further enacted,* That the board of officers appointed under the sixth section of the act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, approved August thirty-first, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, is Appointment of officers authorized by this act.hereby abolished:
Provided, that it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to appoint, during the recess of Congress, such of the commissioned officers authorized by this act below the grade of field officer, as may not be appointed during the present session whose commissions shall expire on the first day of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-six. 639 Sec. 3. *And be it further enacted,* That the provisions of an act Claim of J. M. Washington.entitled “An act for the payment of the civil officers employed in the Territory of New Mexico, while under military government,” approved July seventeenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, be, and the same are 1864, ch. 80.hereby, extended to embrace the case of Lieutenant-Colonel J.
M. Washington, deceased, late of the army, for and during the period of his appointment and service as military governor of New Mexico, ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs, and commander of the troops, prior to the formation of the civil government. Sec. 4. *And be it further enacted,* That the sum of thirty thousand Camels and dromedaries.dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated, to be expended under the direction of the War Department, in the purchase and importation of camels and dromedaries, to be employed for military purposes.
Sec. 5. *And be it further enacted,* That the provisions of the first section Extra pay to troops at Fort Laramie and to the escort of the Mexican boundary commission. 1860, ch. 78.of the act entitled “An act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one,” approved September twenty-eight, eighteen hundred and fifty, granting extra pay to the officers and enlisted men of the army serving in Oregon and California, be extended to the officers and men composing the garrison of the post of Fort Laramie, on the Oregon route, for the same period of time as was allowed by the sixth section of the act [of] third March, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, to the officers 1863, ch. 98.and men of the two companies of regiment of mounted riflemen that garrisoned Fort Laramie; and that the provisions of the same section of the same act be also extended to the officers and men composing the escort to the Mexican boundary commission, while they were serving as such escort.
Sec. 6. *And be it further enacted,* That the laws granting extra pay Extra pay of chaplains in California. I860, ch. 78.to officers and soldiers who had served in California, apply to chaplains who were attached to the army in California during the period embraced by such laws. Sec. 7. *And be it further enacted,* That the annual distribution of arms Distribution of arms to the States. 1808, ch. 55.to the several States, under the act approved April twenty-third, eighteen hundred and eight, entitled “An act making provision for arming and equipping the whole body of the militia of the United States,” shall be here after made according to the number of their representatives and senators in Congress, respectively; and that arms be distributed to the Territories and the District of Columbia, in such quantities and under such regulations as the President, in his discretion, may prescribe: *Provided,* That Proviso.the Secretary of War shall first equalize, as far as practicable, the number of arms heretofore distributed and now in possession of the several States, so that each State which has received less than its pro rata share shall receive a number sufficient to make an equal pro rata proportion for all the States, according to the present number of their representatives and senators in Congress, respectively.
Sec. 8. *And be it further enacted,* That there shall be added to the Additional regiments to be raised. *Ante,* § 2.army two regiments of infantry and two regiments of cavalry, organized as in the existing force; and there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, one brigadier-general, and that the officers and men authorized by this act shall be entitled to the same provisions for wounds and disabilities, and the same provisions Pensions.for widows and children, and the same allowances and benefits, in every respect, as are allowed to other troops composing the army of the United tales.
They shall be subject to the rules and articles of war, and the men shall be recruited in the same manner as other troops, and with the same conditions and limitations. Sec. 9. *And be it further enacted,* That to enable the President of Appropriation for additional regiments.the United States to carry into effect the provisions of so much of this act as relates to the employment of an additional military force, such sum of money, not exceeding two millions five hundred thousand dollars, as 640 THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS.
Sess. II. Ch. 170, 171. 1855.may be necessary, be, and the same hereby is, appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Approved, March 3, 1855.