Chapter 35. making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty, and for other purposes
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CHAP. 35.— An Act making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty, and for other purposes.June 23, 1879. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Appropriations. That the following sums be, and Military service.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 June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty, as follows:
Command’g general’s office.For expenses of the commanding general’s office, two thousand five hundred dollars. Recruiting.For expenses of recruiting and transportation of recruits from rendezvous to depot, seventy-five thousand dollars. And no money Number of recruits.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; and thereafter there shall be no more than twenty-five thousand enlisted men in the Army at any one time, unless otherwise Enlistments in Signal Service.authorized by law.
Nothing however, in this act shall be construed to prevent enlistments for the 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. 31 FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 35. 1879. For contingent expenses of the Adjutant-General’s Department at theAdjutant-General's Department. 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 signal equipments, 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 eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
Miscellaneous.—For the pay of contract surgeons, one hundred andContract Surgeons.Pay mas tors’ clerks. sixty-five thousand dollars. For the pay of fifty-four paymasters’ clerks, sixty-four thousand eight hundred dollar’s. For the pay of one hundred and eighty-six hospital-stewards, sixty-sixHospital-stew-ards. thousand dollars. For the pay of two hundred hospital-matrons, twenty-four thousandHospital-ma- trons. dollar’s. For one hundred and forty-seven commissary-sergeants, fifty-nineCommissary-ser-geants. thousand dollars.
For messengers to paymasters, fifteen thousand dollars.Messengers to paymasters. For extra-duty pay to enlisted men, thirty thousand dollars.Extra-duty pay. For travel-pay and commutation of subsistence to discharged soldiers,Travel-pay. three hundred and seventy thousand dollars. For retained pay to discharged men, three hundred and forty thousandRetained pay. dollars. For commutation of officers’ quarters at places where there are noOfficers’ quarters.*No allowance for servant»,**Rate of commutation.* public quarters, one hundred and fifty-six thousand dollars: *Provided, *That no allowance shall be made for claims for quarters for servants heretofore or hereafter; and that the rate of commutation shall hereafter be twelve dollars per room per month for officers’ quarters, in lieu of ten dollars, as now provided by law.
For pay to soldiers for clothing not drawn, four hundred and fiftyClothing not drawn. thousand dollars. For additional pay to enlisted men, four hundred and forty thousandAdditional pay to enlisted men. dollars. For mileage of officers of the Army when traveling under orders, oneMileage. hundred and seventy thousand dollars. For cost of telegrams; and telegrams are authorized to be transmittedTelegrams.*Transmitted by railroad companies.*R. S., Title 65. by railroad companies which may have telegraph lines, and which shall file their written acceptance of the restrictions and obligations imposed on telegraph companies by title sixty-five of the Revised Statutes, for the government and for the general public, at rates to be fixed by the government, according to the provisions of title sixty-five of the Revised Statutes; and also for compensation of citizen witnesses attendingWitnesses. upon courts-martial, military commissions, courts of inquiry; traveling expenses of paymaster’s’ clerks, seventy thousand dollars: *Provided,**Proviso.**Appropriation-ac-count.* That the appropriations under the head of “ Pay Department” in this act, amounting to twelve million two hundred and ninety-nine thousand eight hundred dollars, shall be accounted for by disbursing officers under the title of “ Pay, and so forth, of the Army, eighteen hundred and eighty”.
Subsistence Department.—For subsistence of twenty-five thousandSubsistence, enlisted men, one hundred and twenty additional half-rations for sergeants and corporals of ordnance, women to companies (laundresses), one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five civilian employees, one hundred and twenty-five contract-surgeons, two hundred hospital-ma-trons, one hundred and ten military convicts, and five hundred prisoners of war (Indians), in all ten million nine hundred and one thousand four hundred and fifty-five rations, at twenty cents each; for difference be- 32 tween cost of rations and commutation thereof for detailed men, and for enlisted men and recruits at recruiting stations, and for cost of hot coffee and cooked rations for troops traveling on cars; for subsistence stores for Indians visiting military posts, and Indians employed without pay as scouts, and guides, two million three hundred thousand dollars; of which amount three hundred thousand dollars shall be available from and after the passage of this act, for the purchase of stores necessary to be transported to distant posts in advance of the thirtieth of Juno, anno *Stores sold to officers, etc.*R.
S., 1149.Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-nine: *Provided,* That to the cost of all stores and other articles sold to officers and men, except tobacco, as provided for in section one thousand one hundred and forty-nine of the Revised Statutes, ten per centum shall be added to cover wastage, transportation, and other incidental charges. Regular supplies, Quartermaster’sDepartment.Quartermaster’s Department.—For the regular supplies of the 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 held; 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 six hundred thousand dollars.
Incidental expenses, Quartermaster’sDepartment.For incidental expenses, to wit: For postage and telegrams or dispatches; 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, for periods of not less than ten days, 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 order’s, 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 1838, ch. 162,5 Stat., 157.and wagon masters authorized by the act of July fifth, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight; for the apprehension, 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 the trains, to wit: hire of veterinary surgeons, medicine for horses and mules, picket-ropes, and for shoeing the horses and mules; 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.
Horses.For purchase of horses for the cavalry and artillery, and for the Indian scouts, and for such infantry as may be mounted, two hundred thousand dollars. Transportation.For transportation of the Army, including baggage of the troops, when moving either by land or water; of clothing and camp and gairt- son 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 ord- 33 nance, 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 for the transportation of supplies, and for garrison purposes; for drayage and cartage at the several posts; hire of teamsters; transportation of funds for the pay and other disbursing departments; the expenses 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, four million two hundred thousand dollars.
For hire of quarters for troops, of storehouses for the safe keeping 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: *Provided,* That*Proviso.*Buildings at Omaha. of said sum thirty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as shall be necessary, in the discretion of the Secretary of War, be expended in the construction of a necessary storehouse and depot building at the city of Omaha, in the State of Nebraska: *And provided further,* That no part of*Proviso.* said sum shall be used in the purchase of the ground required for such purchase.
The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to receive, by*Donation of lots.* donation of citizens or others, the title for any lots or tracts of land necessary to the proper location of the building or buildings hereinbefore provided for. For the construction of a military post near the Niobrara River in Northern Nebraska or Dakota, at a point to be selected by the General of the Army, with the approval of the Secretary of War, fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary.
For construction and repair of hospitals, as reported by the Surgeon-GeneralHospitals. of the Army, seventy-five thousand dollars. 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 hand 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.
And the Board of Managers of the National Homo for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers may charge the regulation stone to be used in the Central Branch at a cost not exceeding one dollar and fifty cents additional for each one. For pay of seventy-one superintendents of the same, 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 andhospital 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. Engineer Department.—For engineer depot at Willets Point, New York,Engineer depot. 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 ponton-trains, repairing instruments, purchasing fuel, forage, stationery, chemicals, extra- 34 duty pay to soldiers engaged in special skilled labor, and ordinary repairs, four thousand dollars. Ordnance service.Ordnance Department.—For the ordnance service, required to defray 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 and ten *Proviso.*thousand dollars: *Provided,* That none of the money hereby *Limit of use.*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.
Metallic ammunition.For manufacture of metallic ammunition for small-arms, seventy-five thousand dollars. Preserving stores.For overhauling, cleaning, and preserving new ordnance stores on hand at the arsenals, twenty-five thousand dollars. Removing armaments.For dismounting guns and removing the armament from forts being modified or repaired, including heavy carriages returned to arsenals for alteration and repair’s, and other necessary expenses of the same Repairing ordnance.character, and for repairing ordnance and ordnance stores in the hands of troops and for issue at the arsenals and depots, and for extra duty for enlisted men detailed for ordnance service, thirty thousand dollars.
Ordnance stores.For purchase and manufacture of ordnance stores, to fill requisitions of troops, one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. Equipments.For infantry, cavalry, and artillery equipments, consisting of clothing-bags, haversacks, canteens, and greatcoat straps, and repairing horse equipments for cavalry troops, seventy-five thousand dollars. Site for powder-depot.For purchase of site tor powder-depot, and commencing the erection of suitable buildings, fifty thousand dollars.
Manufacture of arms.For manufacture of arms at national armories, two hundred and fifty-thousand dollar’s. Smooth-bore guns.For conversion of smooth-bore guns, fifty thousand dollars. Range ground at Sandy Hook.For leveling, clearing, and grading range ground at Sandy Hook common, building plank roads, targets, cranes, and similar necessaries, and for telegraph poles and wires for ballistic instruments, five thousand dollars. Quarters at Sandy Hook.For quarters for superintendent of the proving ground at Sandy Hook, two thousand five hundred dollars.
Sec. 2. *Regulations and general orders.* That the Secretary of War is authorized and directed to cause all the regulations of the Army and general orders now in force to be codified and published to the Army, and to defray the expenses thereof out of the contingent fund of the Army. Sec. 3. *Examiner of Slate claims.* And the examiner of State claims in the office of the Secretary of War shall have, while on such duty, the pay, emoluments, and allowances of mounted officers one grade higher than that held by him in his regiment or corps.
Sec. 4. *Military Academy professorships.* That when a vacancy occurs in the office of professor of the French language or in the office of professor of the Spanish language in the Military Academy, both these offices shall cease, and the remaining one of the two professors shall be R. S. 1336, *Amended.*professor of modern languages; and thereafter there shall be in the Military Academy one, and only one, professor of modern languages; and that section thirteen hundred and thirty- six of the Revised Statutes be, and is hereby, amended by inserting, after the word “service” in the first line, the words “as professor”.
Sec. 5. *Military Academy graduates.* That each member of the graduating classes of the Military Academy, of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, and eighteen hundred and eighty, after graduations, may elect, with the assent of the Secretary 35 FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, Sess. I. Cn. 35, 38, 39, 40. 1879. of War, to receive the gross sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars and mileage to his place of residence; and the acceptance of this gross sum shall render him ineligible to appointment in the Army, except in the event of war, until two years after his graduation; and the amount required to defray the expenditure herein provided for shall be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Sec. 6. That no money appropriated in this act is appropriated or*Troops al polls.* shall be paid for the subsistence, equipment, transportation, or compensation of any portion of the Army of the United States to be used as a police force to keep the peace at the polls at any election held within any State. Sec. 7. That the Secretary of War shall be authorized to detail*Indian education.* an officer of the Army, not above the rank of captain, for special duty with reference to Indian education.
Sec. 8. That section six of the act approved June eighteenth, eighteen1878, ch. 263,20 Stat., 150,*Repealed**Proviso.* hundred and seventy-eight, making appropriations for the support of the Army, be, and is hereby, repealed: *Provided,* That when the economy of the service requires, the Secretary of War shall direct the establishment of military headquarters at points where suitable buildings are owned by the government. Approved, June 23, 1879.