CHAP. X. – An Act making further provision for filling the ranks of the army of the United States.
| Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That from and after the passing of this act, each and every commissioned officer who shall be employed in the recruiting service, shall be, and he hereby is authorized to enlist into the army of the United States, any free effective able, bodied man, between the ages of eighteen and fifty years; which enlistment shall be absolute and binding upon all persons under the age of twenty-one years, as well as upon persons of full age, such recruiting officer having complied with all the requisitions of the laws regulating the recruiting service.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall not be lawful for any recruiting officer to pay or deliver to a recruit under the age of twenty-one years, to be enlisted by virtue of this act, any bounty or clothing, or in any manner restrain him of his liberty, until after the expiration of four days, from the time of his enlistment; and it shall be lawful for the said recruit at any time during the said four days, to reconsider and withdraw his enlistment, and thereupon he shall forthwith be discharged and exonerated from the same. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That so much of the fifth section of the act passed the twentieth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, entitled “An act supplementary to the act, entitled ‘An act for the more perfect organization of the army of the United States'” as requires the consent, in writing, of the parent, guardian, or master, to authorize the enlistment of persons under the age of twenty-one years, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed; Provided however, That in case of the enlistment of any person held to service as an apprentice, under the provisions of this act, whenever such person, at the time of his enlistment, shall be held by his indenture to serve for any term between two and three years, his master shall be entitled to receive one half of the money bounty; if held, in like manner, to serve between one and two years, the master shall be entitled to receive one-third of the money bounty as aforesaid; and if held, in like manner, to serve one year or less, the master shall be entitled to receive one-fourth of the money bounty as aforesaid. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That in lieu of the bounty of one hundred and sixty acres of land, now allowed by law, there shall be allowed to each non-commissioned officer and soldier, hereafter enlisted, when discharged from service, who shall have obtained from the commanding officer of his company, battalion, or regiment, a certificate that he had faithfully performed his duty whilst in service, three hundred and twenty acres of land, to be surveyed, laid off, and granted under the same regulations and in every respect in the manner now prescribed by law; and the widow and children, and if there be no widow nor child, the parents of every non-commissioned officer and soldier, enlisted according to law, who may be killed or die in the service of the United States, shall be entitled to receive the three hundred and twenty acres of land as aforesaid; but the same shall not pass to collateral relations, any law heretofore passed to the contrary notwithstanding. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That any person subject to militia duty, who shall, according to law, furnish a recruit for the army of the United States, at his own expense, to serve during the war, shall thereafter be exempt from militia duty during the war; and every recruit thus furnished, shall be delivered to some recruiting officer of the United States, who shall immediately grant his receipt for such recruit, to the person furnishing him, and shall forthwith report the same to the Department of War, and shall specify in the report the name of such person, and his place of residence, as well as the name and description of the recruit, whereupon it shall be the duty of the Secretary for the Department of War to grant to the person furnishing such recruit a certificate of exemption from militia duty during the war, upon calls made upon authority of the United States, which certificate shall be good and available to all intents and purposes for that object; and every recruit thus furnished shall be entitled to the bounty in land, in the same manner, and upon the same conditions, as the other recruits in the army of the United States. APPROVED, December 10, 1814. |