Chapter XIII. to provide for the Organization of a Regiment of Mounted Volunteers for the Defence of the Frontier of Texas, and to authorize the President to call into the Service of the United States two additional Regiments of Volunteers
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Chap. XIII.— An Act to provide for the Organization of a Regiment of Mounted Volunteers for the Defence of the Frontier of Texas, and to authorize the President to call into the Service of the United States two additional Regiments of Volunteers.April 7, 1858. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* That the President of theRegiment of Texas mounted volunteers to be received into the United States service for eighteen months, unless sooner discharged.How composed.
United States be authorized to receive into the service of the United States one regiment of Texas mounted volunteers, to be raised and organized by the State of Texas for the defence and protection of the frontier thereof, to continue in service from the time that the whole regiment shall be mustered into service, for the term of eighteen months, unless sooner discharged by the President. Said regiment shall be composed of one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, one major, one adjutant with the rank of first lieutenant, one quartermaster and commissary with similar rank, one surgeon and two assistant surgeons, one sergeant-major, one quartermaster and commissary sergeant, and ten companies—each of which shall be composed of one captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, four sergeants, four corporals, two buglers, one farrier, and seventy-four privates.
Each of said officers below the rank of major—non-commissionedOfficers and privates to supply themselves with horses and equipments. officers, musicians, farrier, and privates—shall furnish and keep himself supplied with a good serviceable horse and horse equipments, for the use and risk of which, in addition to the pay and allowances herein provided, he shall receive forty cents a day while in service with his horse; and if any non-commissioned officer, musician, farrier, or private shall, from carelessness or neglect, injure, or render his horse unfit for service, and shall fail to supply a serviceable horse within the period of ten days from the loss, such soldier shall, from such time until he shall furnish himself with a horse, be entitled only to the pay of a private of infantry.
Sec. 2. *And be it further enacted,* That the officers, non-commissionedOfficers and men subject to the rules of war. officers, musicians, farrier, and privates of said regiment shall, when mustered into the service of the United States, be subject to the rules and articles of war. They shall be armed at the expense of the United 263THIRTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 10. 1858. States, as the President shall direct. They shall be allowed the samePay and allowances. pay, rations, and allowances in kind, including clothing, and be subject to the same rules and regulations as are provided for the regiments of cavalry now in the service, but no field officer shall receive forage for a greater number of horses than he may from time to time actually have in service.
No pay or allowances shall be due until said regiment shall beWhen due. received into the service, but each officer and man shall then be entitled to one day’s pay and allowance for every twenty miles he may have been required to travel from his residence to the place of muster. Sec. 3. *And be it further enacted,* That, for the purpose of quellingTwo regiments of volunteers authorized, to quell disturbances in Utah, to protect emigrant trains, &c. To be infantry or mounted. To serve eighteen months, unless sooner discharged. disturbances in the Territory of Utah, for the protection of supply and emigrant trains, and the suppression of Indian hostilities on the frontiers, the President of the United States be and he is hereby authorized to call for and accept the services of any number of volunteers, not to exceed in all two regiments, of seven hundred and forty privates each; the same, or any portion thereof, to be organized into mounted regiments or infantry, as the President may deem proper, to serve for the term of eighteen months from the time of their being received into service, unless sooner discharged by the President.
Said volunteers, if called for and received as mounted men, shall be constituted in the same manner as is provided in the first section of this bill for the Texas regiment of mounted volunteers, and shall receive the same pay and allowances, shall be subject toPay and allowances. the same rules and regulations as are provided in this bill for said corps; and if called for, and if received as infantry, they shall be placed on the same footing in every respect with the infantry regiments now in the service, shall receive the same pay and allowances, and be governed by the same rules and regulations; and the said regiments, whether organized as mounted men or infantry, shall be subject to the rules and articles of war.
Sec. 4. *And be it further enacted,* That the volunteers provided for byNot less than a regiment to be accepted.Officers, how appointed. this act shall not be accepted in bodies of less than one regiment, whose officers shall be appointed in the manner prescribed by law in the several States or territories to which said regiments shall respectively belong, except the quartermasters and commissaries, who shall be detailed from their respective departments of the regular army of the United States.
Sec. 5. *And be it further enacted,* That the pay of said volunteersPay, when due. shall not be due until received into the service, but each officer and man shall then be entitled to one day’s pay for every twenty miles he may have been required to travel from his residence to the place of muster. Approved, April 7, 1858.