CHAP. LIV. – An Act for the relief of the officers and soldiers who served in the late campaign on the Wabash.
| Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the officers, according to the rank assigned them by Governor Harrison, and which they held on the seventh day of November, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the volunteers and militia, and the legal representatives of those who were killed or died of their wounds, composing the army that served in the late campaign on the Wabash against the hostile Indians, shall receive the same compensation which is allowed by law to the militia of the United States when called into the actual service of the United States.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the officers, according to the rank which they held as aforesaid, the non-commissioned officers and soldiers, of the volunteers or militia, who served in the said campaign, and who were killed or died of wounds received in said service, leaving a widow, or if no widow, shall have left a child or children, under the age of sixteen years, such widow, or if no widow, such child or children, shall be entitled to, and receive the half of the monthly pay to which the deceased was entitled at the time of his death, or receiving the wound of which he died, for and during the term of five years; and in case of the death or intermarriage of such widow, before the expiration of the term of five years, the half pay, for the remainder of the term, shall go to the child or children of such deceased officer or soldier, whilst under the age of sixteen years; and in like manner the allowance to the child or children of such deceased, where there is no widow, shall be paid no longer than while there is a child or children under the age aforesaid: Provided, that no greater sum shall be allowed in any case to the widow or to the child or children of any officer than the half pay of a lieutenant colonel. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That every officer, according to the rank which he held as aforesaid, non-commissioned officer and private, of the volunteers and militia, who served in the said campaign, and who have been disabled by known wounds received in said service, shall be placed on the list of invalids of the United States, at such rate of pension as shall be directed by the President of the United States, upon satisfactory proof of such wound and disability being produced to the Secretary of War, agreeably to such rules as he may prescribe. Provided, that the rate of compensation for such wounds and disabilities shall never, for the highest disability, exceed half the monthly pay of such officer, at the time of being so wounded or disabled, and that the rate of compensation to a non-commissioned officer and private, shall never exceed five dollars per month; and all inferior disabilities shall entitle the person so disabled, to receive a sum in proportion to the highest disability; but no pension of a commissioned officer shall be calculated at a higher rate than the half pay of a lieutenant colonel. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That any person or persons belonging to the said army, who may have had a horse or horses killed or lost during the late battle on the Wabash, shall be entitled to, and receive the value thereof: Provided, that the proof of the value of such horse or horses shall be by affidavit of the quartermaster of the corps to which the owner may have belonged, or of two other credible witnesses. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That to the heirs or legal representatives of every person who was killed, and to every person who was wounded in the said campaign, who were purchasers of public lands of the United States, and whose lands had not, before the seventh of November, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, been actually sold or reverted to the United States, for the non-payment of part of the purchase money, a further time of three years shall be allowed, in addition to the time allowed by former laws, to complete their payments; which further time of three years shall commence from the respective times when their payments should have been completed according to former laws. APPROVED, April 10, 1812. |