Chapter 263.
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CHAP. 263.— AN ACT making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, and for other purposes.June 18, 1878. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Appropriations.Army. That the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury 146 FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 263. 1878. not otherwise appropriated, for the support of the Army, for the year ending Juno thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, as follows:
For expenses of the commanding general’s office, two thousand fiveCommanding general’s office. hundred dollars. For expenses of recruiting and transportation of recruits, seventy-fiveRecruiting.*Limit of number of recruits.* thousand dollars. And no money appropriated by this act shall be paid for recruiting the Army beyond the number of twenty-five thousand enlisted men, including Indian scouts and hospital-stewards. Nothing, however, in this act shall be construed to prevent enlistments for the *Enlistments is Signal Service.*Signal Service, which shall hereafter be maintained as now organized and as provided by law, with a force of enlisted men not exceeding four hundred and fifty, after present terms of enlistment have expired.
For contingent expenses of the Adjutant-General’s Department atAdjutant-General’s Department. the headquarters of military divisions and departments, three thousand dollars. For expenses of the Signal Service of the Army, purchase, equipment,Signal Service. and repair of electric field-telegraphs and signalequipments, ten thousand five hundred dollars. Pay Department.—For pay of the commissioned and non-commissionedPay of Army. officers, privates (including those employed as Indian scouts), storekeepers, musicians, and veterinary surgeons, artificers, farriers, and saddlers, except as hereinafter enumerated, nine million three hundred and eighty-four thousand dollars.
Miscellaneous.—For the pay of contract-surgeons, one hundredContract-surgeons. and eighty thousand dollars. For the pay of fifty-four paymasters’ clerks, sixty-fourPaymasters’ clerks. thousand eight hundred dollars. For the pay of two hundred hospital-stewards, seventy-two thousandHospital-stewards. dollars. For the pay of two hundred hospital-matrons, twenty-four thousandHospital-matrons. dollars. For one hundred and forty-eight commissary-sergeants, sixty thousandCommissary-Sergeants. three hundred and eighty-four dollars.
For messengers to paymasters, fifteen thousand dollars.Messengers to paymasters.Extra-duty pay. For extra-duty pay to enlisted men, thirty thousand dollars. For travel-pay and commutation of subsistence to discharged soldiers,Travel-pay. three hundred and forty thousand two hundred and sixty-three dollars and sixty five cents. For retained pay to discharged men, two hundred and fifty-fiveRetained pay. thousand eight hundred and thirteen dollars and twenty cents. For commutation of officers’ quarters at places where there are noOfficers’ quarters. public quarters, one hundred and fifty-six thousand dollars.
For pay to soldiers for clothing not drawn, three hundred and fortyClothing not drawn. three thousand two hundred and seventy-eight dollars and thirty-three cents. For additional pay to enlisted men, three hundred and ninety-fiveAdditional pay to enlisted men. thousand one hundred and forty-eight dollars. For mileage of officers of the Army when traveling under orders, twoMileage. hundred thousand dollars. For cost of telegrams; compensation of citizen witnesses attending uponTelegrams, witnesses, etc. courts-martial, military commissions, courts of inquiry; traveling expenses*Proviso.* of paymasters’ clerks, eighty thousand dollars: *Provided*, That the appropriations under the head of “Pay Department” in this act, amounting*Appropriation-account.* to eleven million five hundred and eighty-nine thousand two hundred and eighty-seven dollars and eighteen cents, shall be accounted for by disbursing-officers under the title of “Pay, and so forth, of the Army, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine”; and in case any item of the said appropriations, shall prove insufficient for its purpose, the excess in any other item or items thereof may, with the written consent of the *Proviso.*Secretary of War, be applied thereto: *Provided, however*, That the total amount appropriated under this head shall not be exceeded. 147 Subsistence Department,—For subsistence of regular troops, IndianSubsistence. scouts and guides, and Indian prisoners, which shall include coffee and cooked rations for troops traveling on cars and other conveyances, two million three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, less three hundred thousand dollars, heretofore appropriated, leaving a net appropriation under this act of two million and fifteen thousand dollars.
Quartermaster’s Department.—For the regular supplies of theRegular supplies, Quartermaster’s Department. Quartermaster’s Department., consisting of stoves for heating and cooking; of fuel for officers, enlisted men, guards, hospitals, storehouses, and offices; of forage in kind for the horses, mules, and oxen of the Quartermaster’s Department at the several posts and stations and with the armies in the field; for the horses of the several regiments of cavalry, the batteries of artillery, mounted men of the Signal Service, and such companies of infantry and scouts as may be mounted, and for the authorized number of officers’ horses, including bedding for the animals; of straw for soldiers’ bedding; and of stationery, including blank books for the Quartermaster’s Department, certificates for discharged soldiers, blank forms for the Pay and Quartermaster’s Departments, and for printing of division and department orders and reports, three million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
For incidental expenses, to wit: For postage and telegrams or dispatches;Incidental expenses, Quartermaster’s Department.1819, ch. 45,3 Stat., 488.1854, ch. 247,10 Stat., 576.R. S. 1287, p. 222. extra pay to soldiers employed under the direction of the Quartermaster’s Department in the erection of barracks, quarters, storehouses, and hospitals, in the construction of roads, and other constant labor, tor periods of not less than ten days, 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 headquarters and Signal Service sergeants; expenses of expresses to and from the frontier posts and armies in the field; of escorts to paymasters and other disbursing-officers, and to trains where military escorts cannot be furnished; expenses of the interment of officers killed in action, or who die when on duty in the field or at posts on the frontiers, or when traveling on orders, and of non-commissioned officers and soldiers; authorized office furniture; hire of laborers in the Quartermaster’s Department, including the hire of interpreters, spies, and guides for the Army; compensation of clerks to officers of the Quartermaster’s Department; compensation of forage and wagon masters authorized by the act of July fifth, eighteen hundred and thirty eight; for the apprehension,1838, oh. 162,5 Stat., 257. securing, and delivering of deserters, and the expenses incident to their pursuit; and for the following expenditures required for the several regiments of cavalry, the batteries of light artillery, and such companies of infantry and scouts as may be mounted, and for trains, to wit: hire of veterinary surgeons, medicine for horses and mules, picket-ropes, and for shoeing the horses and mules of the corps named; also, generally the proper and authorized expenses for the movement and operations of the Army not expressly assigned to any other department, one, million dollars.
For purchase of horses for the cavalry and artillery, and for the IndianHorses. scouts, and for such infantry as may be mounted, two hundred thousand dollars. For transportation of the Army, including baggage of the troops,Transportation when moving either by land or water; of clothing and camp and garrison equipage from the depots of Philadelphia and Jeffersonville to the several posts and Army depots, and from those depots to the troops in the field; of horse equipments and of subsistence stores from the places of purchase and from the places of delivery, under contract, to such places as the circumstances of the service may require them to be sent; of ordnance, ordnance stores, and small-arms from the founderies and armories to the arsenals, fortifications, frontier posts, and Army depots; freights, wharfage, tolls, and ferriages; the purchase and hire of horses, mules, oxen, and harness, and the purchase and repair of wagons, carts, and drays, and of ships and other seagoing vessels and boats required 148 for the transportation of supplies and for garrison purposes; for tray-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; for procuring water at such posts as, from their situation require it to be brought from a distance; and for clearing roads, and for removing obstructions from roads, harbors, and rivers, to the extent which may be required for the actual operations of the troops in the field, tour million two hundred thousand dollars.
For hire of quarters for troops, of storehouses for the safekeeping ofQuarters. military stores, of offices, and of grounds for camp and summer cantonments, and for temporary frontier stations; for the construction of temporary huts and stables; and for repairing public buildings at established posts, eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars; of which the Secretary of War be, and he hereby is, authorized in his discretion, to expend the sum of sixty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may Buildings at Omaha.be necessary, in the construction of suitable buildings for storehouses and offices at Omaha, Nebraska; and in case any item of the said appropriations for “regular supplies,” “incidental expenses,” “barracks and *Deficiencies.**Transfers.*quarters,” and “army transportation” shall prove insufficient for its purpose, the excess *Proviso.*in any other of these items may, with the written consent of the Secretary of War, be applied thereto: *Provided, however*, That the total amount appropriated under these beads shall not be exceeded.
For construction and repair of hospitals, seventy-five thousand dollars.Hospitals. For purchase and manufacture of clothing and camp and garrisonClothing, equipage, and for preserving and repacking the stock of clothing and camp and garrison equipage and materials on band at the Philadelphia, Jeffersonville, and other depots of the Quartermaster’s Department, nine hundred thousand dollars. For maintaining and improving national cemeteries, one hundredCemeteries. thousand dollars.
For pay of seventy-one superintendents, fifty-nine thousand dollars. For all contingent expenses of the Army not provided for by otherContingent, Army. estimates, and embracing all branches of the military service, to be expended under the immediate orders of the Secretary of War, forty thousand dollars. Medical Department.—For purchase of medical and hospital supplies,Medical and hospital supplies. medical care and treatment of officers and soldiers on detached duty, expenses of purveying depots, advertising, and other miscellaneous expenses of the Medical Department, two hundred thousand dollars.
For the Army Medical Museum, and for medical and other works forMuseum. the library of the Surgeon-General’s Office, ten thousand dollars. And there is hereby reappropriated the unexpended balance for completinMedical, etc.,history.g the Medical and Surgical History of the War the sum of twelve thousand eight hundred and eighty-three dollars and eighty-five cents. And the unexpended balance of the appropriation made by the act1877, ch. 105,19 Stat., 360. of March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, for preparation of illustrations to complete the second edition of the Medical and Surgical History of the War, Part Three, amounting to seventeen thousand four hundred and fourteen dollars and ninety-eight cents, is hereby reappropriated and made available for the preparation of illustrations tor any part of the work.
Engineer Department.—For engineer depot at Willets Point, NewEngineer depot. York, namely: For purchase of engineering materials to continue the present course of instruction of the engineer battalion in field engineering, one thousand dollars. For incidental expenses of the depot, remodeling pontontraius, repairing instruments, fuel, forage, stationery, chemicals, extra-duty pay, and ordinary repairs, four thousand dollars. 149 Ordnance Department.—For the ordnance service, required to defrayOrdnance service. the current expenses at the arsenals; of receiving stores and issuing arms and other ordnance supplies; of police and office duties; of rents, tolls, fuel, and lights; of stationery and office furniture; of tools and instruments for use; of public animals, forage, and vehicles; incidental expenses of the ordnance service, including compensation of workmen in the armory and museum building connected with the ordnance office, and those attending practical trials and tests of ordnance, small arms, and other ordnance supplies, one hundred thousand dollars: *Provided*,*Proviso.**Limit of use.* That none of the money hereby appropriated shall be expended, directly or indirectly, for any use not strictly necessary for, and directly connected with, the military service of the government; and this restriction shall apply to the use of public animals, forage, and vehicles: *And provided further*,*Proviso*.
That none of the money hereby appropriated shall be expended for the construction or repair of buildings. For manufacture of metallic ammunition for small-arms, seventy-fiveMetallic ammunition. thousand dollars. For overhauling, cleaning, and preserving new ordnance stores onPreserving stores. hand at the arsenals, twenty-five thousand dollars. For repairing ordnance and ordnance stores in the hands of troopsRepairing ordnance. and for issue at the arsenals and depots, twenty-five thousand dollars.
For purchase and manufacture of ordnance stores, to fill requisitionsOrdnance stores. of troops, one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. For infantry, cavalry, and artillery equipments, consisting of clothing-bags,Equipments. haversacks, canteens, and greatcoat straps, and repairing horse equipments for cavalry troops, seventy-five thousand dollars. For manufacture of arms at national armories, one hundred and fiftyManufacture of arms.Magazine gun. thousand dollars. And should the board of ordnance officers now in session under provision of law recommend a magazine gun for the military service, the Secretary of War is authorized to expend not more than twenty thousand dollars of this amount in its manufacture.
For quarters and accommodations for the ordnance board at the provingQuarters at Sandy Honk. ground at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, twelve thousand five hundred dollars. For conversion of ten-inch smooth-bores into rifles and carriages therefor,Couversion of smooth-bores. fifty thousand dollars. That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as mayPost near Black Hills. be necessary be, and the, same is hereby, appropriated for the purpose of building a military post or garrison at the. foothills near the Black Hills, in either of the Territories of Wyoming or Dakota, at such point in that region as may be, in the judgment of the President, best adapted for the protection of the citizens of the Black Hills country from the hostile incursions of the Sioux and other Indian tribes congregated or operating in that locality.
That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof asPost near northern boundary of Montana. may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated for the purpose of building a military post or garrison near the northern boundary of the Territory of Montana, in the vicinity of the point where the Milk River crosses said boundary from the Dominion of Canada, or at such other point in that region as may be, in the judgment of the President, best adapted for the protection of the citizens of Montana from the hostile incursions of the Sioux and other Indian tribes congregated in that region.
Sec. 2. That in every Official Army Register hereafter issued, the*Army Register.**Lineal rank.**Service.* lineal rank of all officers of the hue of the Army shall be given separately for the different arms of the service ; aud if the officer be promoted from the ranks, or shall have served in the volunteer army, either as an eulisted mau or officer, his service as a private aud non-commissioned officer shall be given, and in addition thereto the record of his service as volunteer. 150 Sec. 3.
That hereafter all vacancies in the grade of second lieutenant*Second lieutenantdes.* shall be filled by appointment from the graduates of the Military Academy so long as any such remain in service unassigned; and any *Vacancies, how filled.*vacancies thereafter remaining shall be filled by promotion of meritorious non-commissioned officers of the Army, recommended under the provisions of the next section of this act: Provided that all vacancies remaining, after exhausting the two classes named, may be filled by appointment of persons in civil life.
Sec. 4. That to insure the selection of proper candidates for promotion*Non-commissioned officers.**Promotion of.* from the grade of non-commissioned officers, company and battery commanders will report to their regimental commanders such as, in their opinion, by education, conduct, and services, seem to merit advancement, and who have served not less than two years in the Army; the reports to set forth a description of the candidate, his length of service as non-commissioned officer and as private soldier, his character as to fidelity and sobriety, his physical qualifications and mental abilities, the extent to which his talents have been cultivated, and his fitness generally to discharge the duties of a commissioned officer.
If recommended on account of meritorious services, the particular services referred to must be stated in detail. On receiving the reports of company or battery commanders, the regimental commander will forward the same to the department commanders, with such recommendation of non-commissioned regimental staff as he may deem worthy of promotion; and the department commander shall annually assemble a board to consist of five officers of as high rank as the convenience of the service will admit, to make a preliminary examination into the claims and qualifications of such non commissioned officers.
The board, constituted as above shall submit a full statement in the ease of each candidate examined; and on the said statements, the department commander shall indorse his remarks and forward them to the Secretary of War by the first day of June in each year. The Chief of Engineers and of other staff corps may make similar recommendations of the non-commissioned officers of their respective commands to the Secretary of War, who shall convene a board of officers for like purpose.
Sec. 5. That hereafter women shall not be allowed to accompany*Laundresses.* troops as laundresses: *Provided*, That any such laundress, being the wife of a soldier as is now allowed to accompany troops, may, in the discretion of the regimental commander, be retained until the expiration of such soldiers present term of enlistment. Sec. 6. That hereafter, in time of peace, all military headquarters,*Military headquarters.* except Army headquarters, shall be established and maintained at points where the government own buildings or barracks, within the several Departments and divisions, and in such buildings or barracks, and not otherwise, unless the Secretary of War shall by au order in writing otherwise direct.
Sec. 7. That on and after the passage of this act, all officers of the*Credits for longevity and retirement.**Retired list.* Army of the United States who have served as officers in the volunteer forces during the war of the rebellion, or as enlisted men in the armies of the United States, regular or volunteer, shall be, and are hereby, credited with the full time they may have served as such officers and as such enlisted men in computing their service for longevity pay and retirement.
And the retired list shall hereafter be limited to tour hundred in lieu of the number now fixed by law. Sec. 8. Allowance of or commutation for fuel to commissioned officers*Allowance of fuel and forage.* is hereby prohibited; but fuel may be furnished to the officers of the Army by the Quartermaster’s Department, for the actual use of such officers only, at the rate of three dollars per cord for standard oak wood, or at an equivalent rate for other kinds of fuel, according to the regulations now in existence; and forage in kind may be furnished to the officers of the Army, by the Quartermaster’s Department, only for horses owned and actually kept by such officers in the performance of their official military duties when on duty with troops in the field or at 151 such military posts west of the Mississippi River, as may be from time to time designated by the Secretary of War, and not otherwise as follows:
To the General five horses; To the Lieutenant General four horses; To a major-general three horses; To a brigadier-general, three horses; To a colonel, two horses; To a lien tenant-colonel, two horses; To a major, two horses; To a captain (mounted), two horses; To a lieutenant (mounted), two horses; To an adjutant, two horses; To a regimental quartermaster, two horses. Sec. 9. That at all posts and stations where there are public quarters*Quarters in kind.* belonging to the United States, officers may be furnished with quarters in kind in such public quarters,and not elsewhere, by the Quartermaster’s Department, assigning to the officers of each grade, respectively, such number of rooms as is now allowed to such grade by the rules and regulations of the Army: *Provided*, That at places where there are no public *Proviso.**Commutation.*quarters, commutation therefor may be paid by the Pay Department to the officer entitled to the same at a rate not exceeding ten dollars per room per month, and the commutation for quarters allowed to the General shall be at the rate of one hundred and twenty-five dollars per month, and to the Lieutenant General at the rate of seventy dollars per month.
Sec. 10. That three Senators, to be appointed by the President of the*Committee on reorganization of Army.* Senate, and five members of the House to be appointed by the Speaker of the House, are hereby constituted a joint committee, to whom the whole subject matter of reform and reorganization of the Army of the United States shall be and is hereby referred, and said committee shall have power to send for persons and papers, to employ a clerk and stenographer, and shall have leave to sit during the recess of Congress; and the Secretary of War is hereby authorized to detail, upon the request of the committee, one or more officers to act as secretaries thereof.
The Public Printer shall print such documents as the committee may require. Sec. 11. That said committee shall carefully and thoroughly examine*Matters to be examined.* into the matter with reference to the demands of the public service, as to the number and pay of men and officers, and the proportion of the several arms; and also as to the rank, pay, and duties of the several staff corps, and whether any and what reductions can be made, either in the line, field, or staff, in numbers or in pay, by consolidation or otherwise, consistently with the public service, having in view a just and reasonable economy in the expenditure of public money, the actual necessities of the military service, and in the capacity for rapid and effective increase in time of war.
Sec. 12. That said committee shall assemble as soon as practicable*Meeting.**Report.*Appropriation. at such place as they may select, and proceed to the consideration of the matters with which they are charged, and make report to Congress by the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, with all the evidence, of record or otherwise, which they shall have received and considered. And the sum of five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to defray the expenses of said committee, to be expended under the direction of the chairman thereof.
Sec. 13. That from and after the passage of this act, all promotions*Promotions and appointments.* in the Army, in each and every grade, arm, corps and department thereof, shall cease ; and thereafter no promotions or appointments shall be made to fill any vacancy which may occur, or be created therein, until after such report shall be made and acted upon by Congress: 152 FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Cn. 263, 264. 1878. *Provided*, That this limitation shall not apply to the line of the Army*Proviso.* below the rank of captain.
Sec. 14. That three Senators to be appointed by the President of the*Committee on transfer of Indian Bureau.* Senate, and five Representatives, to be appointed by the Speaker of the House, are hereby constituted a joint committee who shall take into consideration the expediency of transferring the Indian Bureau to the War Department. Said committee shall be authorized to send for persons and papers, to employ a clerk and stenographer and to sit during *Report.*the recess of Congress.
It shall be the duty of said committee to make final report to Congress on or before the first day of January eighteenAppropriation. hundred and seventy-nine. And the sum of five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to de ray the expenses of said committee, to be expended under the direction of the chairman thereof. Sec. 15. From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful*Army as poise comitatus.* to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress; and no money appropriated by this act shall be used to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any troops in violation of this section and any person wilfully violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by flue not exceeding ten thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceeding two years or by both such fine and imprisonment Sec. 16.
That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisionsRepeals. of this act be, and they are hereby, repealed. Approved, June 18, 1878.