Chapter 217. making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-five, and for other puposes
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CHAP. 217.— An Act making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-five, and for other puposes.July 5, 1884. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Array appropriations for year ending June 30, 1885. That the following sums be, 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 June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-five, as follows:
For expenses of the Commanding General’s Office, one thousandCommand tog General’s office. seven hundred and fifty dollars. For expenses of recruiting and transportation of recruits from rendezvousRecruiting. to depot, one hundred and ten 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; and thereafter there shall be no more than twenty-five thousand enlisted men in the Army at any one time, unless otherwise authorized by law.
For contingent expenses of the Adjutant-General’s Department atContingencies. the headquarters of military divisions and departments, two thousand five hundred dollars. For expenses of the Signal Service of the Army: Purchase, equipment,Signal Service. and repair of field-electric telegraphs; signal equipments and stores; binocular glasses, telescopes, and other necessary instruments; telephone apparatus, and maintenance of same, five thousand dollars. Pay Department.—For pay of the Army:
For one Lieutenant-General;Pay. three major-generals; fifteen brigadier-generals; twenty-three aids-de-camp, in addition to pay in the line; one military secretary, in addition to pay in the line; sixty-six colonels; eighty-five lieutenant-colonels; two hundred and forty-one majors; three hundred and eleven captains (mounted); three hundred and one captains (not mounted); thirty-four chaplains; fourteen store keepers; forty adjutants; forty regimental quartermasters; adjutant and quartermaster of Engineer Battalion, in addition to pay in the line; two hundred and eighteen first lieutenants (mounted); three hundred and fifty first lieutenants (not mounted); one hundred and forty five second lieutenants (mounted); three hundred second lieutenants (not mounted); one hundred and eighty acting commissaries of subsistence, in addition to pay in line; additionalAdditional pay. pay to officer in charge of public building and grounds in Washington; additional pay to officer in command of the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, one thousand dollars; additional pay to officers of foot regiments while on duty which requires them to be mounted; additional pay to officers for length of service, to be paid with theirLongevity pay current monthly pay; pay to enlisted men for length of service, payable with their current monthly pay; retired officers; for the payment of any such officers as may be in service, either upon the active or retired list, during the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-five, in excess of the numbers for each class provided for in this act; enlisted men of all grades, not exceeding twenty-five thousand men; the allowances for travel, retained pay, and clothing not drawn,Mileage. payable to enlisted men on discharge; two retired ordnance-sergeants; and for interest on deposits of enlisted men; for mileage of officers of the Army for travel, over shortest usually traveled routes, not to exceed one hundred and sixty thousand dollars; for miscellaneous expenses,Miscellaneous. to wit:
Hire of not exceeding seventy-five contract surgeons and one hundred and sixty hospital-matrons; extra-duty pay to enlisted men for service in hospitals; pay of fifty paymaster’s clerks, at the rate of one thousand four hundred dollars each per annum, and fourteen veterinary surgeons; hire of paymasters’ messengers, not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars; post quartermaster sergeants; cost of telegrams on official business received and sent by officers of the Army; compensation of citizen clerks and witnesses attending upon courts-martial, military commissions, and courts of inquiry; for reimbursement 108 f traveling expenses of paymasters’ clerks actually paid by them; and for commutation of quarters to commissioned officers on duty without troops at places where there are no public quarters; in all, twelve million *Proviso*; relative to retirement of certain paymasters; reduction of number of.one hundred and fifty thousand dollars: *Provided*, That hereafter any paymaster of the rank of major who has served twenty years in the United States Army as a commissioned officer may, upon his own application or by direction of the President, be placed upon the retired-list of the Army, until the Pay Department shall be reduced to thirty-five members, as follows:
One Paymaster-General, with the rank of brigadier-general; two assistant paymasters-general, with the rank of colonel; three deputy paymasters-general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and twenty-nine paymasters, with the rank of major; and no more appointments of paymasters shall be made in the Pay Department until the number shall be reduced below twenty-nine majors, and thereafter the number of officers in the Pay Department shall not exceed thirty-five: *Proviso*.R. S. 1225, 216.Detail of officers as professors to colleges, number of increased, etc.*Provided further*.
That nothing herein shall be construed to change the present relative rank of any officer now in the pay corps: *And provided further*, That section twelve hundred and twenty-five of the Revised Statutes, relating to the detail of officers of the Army to act as presidents, superintendents, and professors of colleges and universities, be so amended as to read “ but the number of officers so detailed shall not exceed forty at any time,” instead of thirty, as now provided by act of July fifth, eighteen bundled and seventy-six, amendatory of said section.
Subsistence.Subsistence of the Army.—For rations for twenty-five thousand enlisted men, one thousand five hundred and five civil employees, seventy-five contract surgeons, one hundred and sixty hospital-matrons, two hundred military convicts, one thousand prisoners of war (including such Indian prisoners as are captured but whose subsistence, is not otherwise appropriated for by Congress), and for additional halt-rations for one hundred and twenty sergeants anti corporals of ordnance, a total of not exceeding ten million two hundred and twenty thousand rations, estimated at twenty cents each; for difference between the cost of the ration and commutation thereof, at rates prescribed by the Secretary of War, for the following enlisted men, namely:
Those detailed for clerical and messenger duty at headquarters of the Army, and at headquarters of divisions, departments, districts, and general recruiting service, and for various duties at military posts and stations, those traveling on detached duty where it is impracticable to carry cooked or travel rations, and those ordered to participate, in department, division, and Army rifle competition; for difference between the, cost of the ration and the cost of cooked rations for enlisted men and recruits at recruiting stations; cost in excess of ordinary rations of hot coffee and canned food, or travel-ration, for troops traveling, when it is impracticable to cook rations; for subsistence of Indians visiting military posts and of Indians employed without pay as guides and scouts; in all, one million Amount of appropriation immediately available.nine 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 June, eighteen hundred and eighty-five: *Proviso*.Sales of subsistence, supplies, etc., at cost.*Provided*, That hereafter all sales of subsistence supplies to officers and enlisted men shall be made at cost price only; and the cost price of each article shall be understood, in all cases of such sales, to be the invoice price oi the last lot of that article received by the officer making the sale prior to the first day of the month in which the sale is made.
Limit of amount to civilian employees.And not more than one hundred and five thousand dollars of the money appropriated by this paragraph shall be applied to the payment of civilian employees in the Subsistence Department of the Army. Quartermaster’s supplies.Quartermaster’s Department.—For the regular supplies of the Quartermaster’s Department, consisting of stoves for heating and cooking? of fuel and lights for enlisted men, guards, hospitals, storehouses, and offices, and for sale to officers; of forage in kind for the horses, mules, and oxen oi the Quartermaster’s Department at the several posts 109 FORTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS.
Sess. I. Ch 217. 1884. and stations and with the armies in the field; for the horses of the several regiments of cavalry, the batteries of artillery, 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 Department, and for printing of division and department orders and reports, two million nine hundred thousand dollars: *Provided*, That hereafter all purchases of regular and*Proviso*.Purchase of supplies, conditions of. miscellaneous supplies for the Army furnished by the Quartermaster’s Department and by the Commissary Department for immediate use shall be made by the officers of such Department, under direction of the Secretary of War, at the places nearest the points where they are needed, the conditions of cost and quality being equal: *Provided also*,*Proviso*.
That all purchases of said supplies, except in cases of emergency, which must be at once reported to the Secretary of War for his approval, shall be made by contract after public notice of not less than ten days for small amounts for immediate use, and of not less than from thirty to sixty days whenever, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, the circumstances of the case and conditions of the service shall warrant such extension of time. The award in every ease shall be made to the lowest responsible bidder for the best and most suitable article, the right being reserved to reject any and all bids.
The Quartermaster-GeneralReport of purchase of supplies made to Secretary of War, etc. and the Commissary General of Subsistence shall report promptly all purchases of supplies made by his Department, with their cost-price and place of delivery, to the Secretary of War, for transmission to Congress annually: *Provided further*, That in time of peace the number of draught*Proviso*.Limit to number of pack animals.Transportation of stores, etc., by contract.Appointment of post quartermaster sergeants. and pack animals in the Quarter master’s Department of the Army shall not exceed six thousand, and that all transportation of stores by private parties for the Anny shall be done by contract, after due legal advertisement, except in cases of emergency, which must be at once reported to the Secretary of War for his approval.
That the Secretary of War is authorized to appoint, on the recommendation of the Quartermaster-General, as many post quartermaster sergeants, not to exceed eighty, as he may deem necessary for the interests of the service, said sergeants to be selected by examination from the most competent enlisted men of the Army who have served at least four years, and whose character andQualifications. education shall fit them to take charge of public property and to act as clerks and assistants to post and other quartermasters.
Said post Quartermaster sergeants shall, so far as practicable, perform the duties ofDuties. storekeepers and clerks, in lieu of citizen employees. The post quartermaster-sergeants shall be subject to the rules and articles of war and shall receive for their services the same pay-and allowances as ordnancePay and allowances. sergeants. For purchase of horses for the cavalry and artillery, and for the IndianPurchase of horses. scouts, and for such infantry as may be mounted, two hundred thousand dollars: *Provided*, That the number of horses purchased*Proviso;* limit of. under this appropriation added to the number actually on hand shall not at any time exceed the number of enlisted men and Indian scouts in the mounted service: *And provided further*, That hereafter all purchases*Proviso;* conditions of purchase. of horses under appropriations for horses for the cavalry and artillery and for the Indian scouts shall be made by contract, after legal advertisement, by the Quartermaster’s Department, under instructions of the Secretary of War, the horses to be inspected under the orders of the General commanding the Army; and no horse shall be received and paid for until duly inspected.
The Quartermaster-General shallReport, etc., of purchases to Congress. report, to the Secretary of War promptly, for transmission to Congress annually, all purchases and contracts for horses, mules, and military supplies for the Army made by his Department. For incidental expenses, to wit: For postage; extra pay to soldiersIncidental expenses. employed under the direction of the Quartermaster’s Department in the erection of barracks, quarters, and storehouses, and as clerks for post 110 quartermasters at military posts; in the construction of roads, and other constant labor, for periods of not less than ten days, including those employed as clerks and messengers at division and department headquarters; 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 escort cannot be furnished; expenses of the interment of officers killed in action, or who die when on duty in the field, or at military posts on the frontiers, or when traveling under 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, 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, six hundred and seventy-five *Proviso*.Amount of appropriation unci rate of pay of enlisted men on extra duty.thousand dollars: *Provided*, That two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of this sum, or so much of it as shall be necessary, shall be set aside for the payment of enlisted men on extra duty at constant labor of not less than ten days, and such extra duty pay hereafter shall be at the rate of fifty cents per day for mechanics, artisans, schoolteachers, and clerks at Army, division, and department headquarters, and thirty-five cents per day for other clerks, teamsters, laborers, and others.
Transportation.For transportation of the Army, including baggage of the troops, 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 Anny 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 for the transportation of supplies, and for garrison purposes; for drayage and cartage at the several posts; hire of teamsters; pay of enlisted men on extra duty driving teams or repairing means of transportation; transportation of funds for the pay and other disbursing Public transports.Water.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, three million dollars: *Proviso*.Number of civilian employees limited.*Provided*, That the whole number of civilian employees, including agents, superintendents, mechanics, packers, teamsters, train-masters, and so forth, paid from this appropriation for transportation, shall not at any one time hereafter exceed one thousand, nor shall any of said employees be graded for salary above fourth-class clerks of the Army Regulations;
Grade of sixth class abolished.*Proviso*.Purchase of horses, &c., to be made by contract, etc.and the grade of sixth-class clerk in the Quartermaster’s Department is hereby abolished: *Provided further*, That hereafter all purchases of horses, mules, or oxen, wagons, carts, drays, ships and other seagoing vessels, also all other means of transportation, shall be made by the Quartermaster’s Department, by contract, after due legal advertisement except in cases of extreme emergency; and hereafter all purchases and 111 contracts of every kind made by the Quartermaster’s Department shall be promptly reported to the Secretary of War, for transmission annually to Congress: *Provided also*, That hereafter the Quartermaster-General*Proviso*. and his officers, under his instructions, wherever stationed, shall receive, transport, and be responsible for all property turned over toProperty for Government surveys, National Museum to be transported, etc., conditions of. them, or any one of them, by the officers or agents of any Government survey, for the National Museum, or for the civil or naval departments of the Government, in Washington or elsewhere, under the regulations governing the transportation of Army supplies, the amount paid for such transportation to be refunded or paid by the Bureau to which such property or stores pertain.
For the payment for Army transportation lawfully due such land-grantPayments to land-grant railroads. railroads as have not received aid in Government bonds, to be adjusted by the proper accounting officers in accordance with the decisions of the Supreme Court in cases decided under such land-grant acts, but in no case shall more than fifty per centum of the full amount of the service be paid, one hundred and twenty live thousand dollars: *Provided*, That such compensation shall be computed upon the basis of*Proviso*. the tariff rates for like transportation performed for the public at large, and shall be accepted as in full for all demands for said services For barracks and quarters for troops, storehouses for the safe keepingBarracks and quarters. of military stores, for offices, and for grounds for camp and summer cantonments, and for temporary buildings at frontier stations; for the construction of temporary buildings and stables, and for repairing pub lie buildings at established posts, seven hundred thousand dollars: *Provided*, that no expenditure exceeding five hundred dollars shall be*Proviso*. made upon any building or military post without the approval of theApproval of Secretary of War in cases of improvements exceeding, etc.
Secretary of War for the same, upon detailed estimates of the quartermaster’s Department, and the erection, construction, and repairs of all buildings and other public structures in the Quartermaster’s department shall, so far as may be practicable, be made by contract, after due legal advertisement: *Provided:* That not more than one million fiveAmount of pay to civilians limited, etc. hundred thousand dollars of the sums appropriated by this act shall be paid out for the services of civilian employees in the Quartermaster’s Department, including those heretofore paid out of the funds appropriated for regular supplies, incidental expenses, barracks and quarters, Army transportation, clothing, and camp and garrison equipage; and that no employee paid therefrom shall receive as salary more than one hundred and fifty dollars per month, unless the same shall be specially fixed by law.
For construction and repair of hospitals, as reported by the Surgeon-GeneralConstruction and repairs of hospitals. of the Army, including the pay of enlisted men employed on extra duty in the same one hundred thousand dollars. For cloth, woolens, materials, and for the manufacture of clothing forClothing and camp equipage. the Army; for issue and for sales at cost price, according to the Army regulations; for altering and fitting clothing when necessary; for equipage and for packing, and similar necessaries, one million four hundred thousand dollars.
For all contingent expenses of the Army not provided for by otherContingent expenses under immediate orders of Secretary of War. estimates, and embracing all branches of the military service, to be expended under the immediate orders of the Secretary of War, thirty thousand dollars. Medical Department.—For purchase of medical and hospital supplies,Medical and hospital supplies. expenses of purveying depots, pay of employees, medical care and treatment of officers and enlisted men of the Army on duty at posts and stations for which no other provision is made, advertising, and OtherAmount of pay to civilian employees limited. miscellaneous expenses of the Medical Department, two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
And not over thirty-six thousand dollars of the money appropriated by this paragraph shall be applied to the payment of civilian employees in the Medical Department. That officersRank and precedence of officers, etc., how determined. of the Medical Department shall take rank and precedence in accordance with date of commission or appointment, and shall be so borne 112 *Proviso;* professional attendance on families of officers, etc., free.Army Medical Museum.on the official Army Register: *Provided*, That the medical officers of the Army and contract surgeons shall whenever practicable attend the families of the officers and soldiers free of charge.
For the Army Medical Museum, including ordinary repairs of the museum hall, preservation of specimens, and the preparation or purchase of new specimens, five thousand dollars; for the library of the Surgen-General’s Office, ten thousand dollars; in all, fifteen thousand dollars. Engineer depot at Willet’s Point.Engineer Department.—For engineer depot at Willet’s Point, New York, namely: For purchase of engineering materials to continue the present course of instruction of the Engineer Battalion in their special duties of sappers, miners, and pontoniers, one thousand dollars.
For incidental expenses of the depot, remodeling ponton-trains, repairing instruments, purchasing fuel, forage, stationery, chemicals, professional books for library, extra-duty pay to enlisted men employed as artisans, and ordinary repairs, three thousand dollars. Quarters for sergeant, etc.For erection of a small building as quarters for a sergeant, whose duties require him to live near the torpedo property under his immediate charge, one thousand two hundred 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, tools, fuel, and lights; of stationery;and office furniture; of tools and instruments for use; incidental expenses of the ordnance service, and those attending practical trials and tests of ordnance, small-arms, and other ordnance supplies, one hundred thousand dollars.
Metallic ammunition.For manufacture of metallic ammunition for small arms, one hundred thousand dollars. Target practice.For ammunition, tools, and material for target practice, twenty-five thousand dollars. Mounting and dismounting guns, etc.; repairs o f ordnance, etc.; extra-duty pay.For mounting and dismounting guns and removing the armament from forts being modified or repaired, including heavy carriages returned to arsenals for alteration and repairs, and other necessary expenses of the same character, and tor repairing ordnance and ordnance stores in the hands of troops and for issue at the arsenals and depots and for extra duty pay for enlisted men detailed for ordnance service, twenty-five thousand dollars.
Purchase and manufacture of ordnance stores.Equipments.For purchase and manufacture of ordnance stores, to fill requisitions of troops, one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. 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. For horse equipments for cavalry, harness for field and machine guns, and for cavalry forge carts, forty thousand dollars.
Preservation of new ordnance stores.Manufacture of arms at national armories.*Proviso*.For overhauling, cleaning, and preserving new ordnance stores on hand at the arsenals, twenty thousand dollars. For manufacture of arms at national armories, four hundred thousand dollars: *Provided*, That not more than sixty-five thousand dollars of the money appropriated for the Ordnance Department, in all its branches, shall be applied to the payment of civilian clerks in said Department.
U. S. testing-machine, cure of and operating the.*Proviso*.Tests of iron and steel.*Proviso*.Tests of iron and steel for private citizens, and tests submitted by American Society of Civil Engineers.United States Testing-Machine.—For caring tor, preserving, using, and operating the United States testing-machine at the Water-town Arsenal, ten thousand dollars: *Provided*, That the tests of iron and steel and other materials for industrial purposes shall be continued during the next fiscal year, and report thereof shall be made to Congress: *And provided further*, That in making tests for private citizens the officer in charge may require payment in advance, and may use the funds so received in making such private tests, making full report thereof to the Chief of Ordnance; and the Chief of Ordnance shall give attention to such programme of tests as may be submittal by the American FORTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS.
Sess. I. Chs. 217-219. 1884. 113 Society of Civil Engineers, and the record of such tests shall be furnished said society, to be by them published at their own expense. That hereafter all officers, agents, or other persons receiving publicAccount of disbursements of appropriations to be made by distinct items, etc. moneys appropriated by this or any subsequent Army appropriation act shall account for the disbursement thereof according to the several and distinct items of appropriation expressed in such act.
Approved, July 5, 1884.