CHAP. XXVI.- An Act to amend the Act in addition to certain Acts granting Bounty Land to certain Officers and Soldiers who have been engaged in the Military Service of the United States, approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-five.
| May 14, 1856. 1855, ch. 207. Vol x. p. 701. Former evidence of right to bounty land to be received in certain cases. Proviso. |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases where a certificate or warrant for bounty land for any less quantity than one hundred and sixty acres, shall have been issued to any officer or soldier, or to the widow or minor child or children of any officer or soldier, under existing laws, the evidence upon which such certificate or warrant was issued shall be received to establish the service of such officer or soldier in the application of himself, or of his widow or minor child or children, for a certificate or warrant for so much land as may be required to make up the full sum of one hundred and sixty acres, on proof of the identity of such officer or soldier, or in case of his death, of the marriage and identity of his widow, or in case of her death, of the identity of his minor child or children: Provided, nevertheless, That if, upon a review of such evidence, the Commissioner of Pensions shall not be satisfied that the former certificate or warrant was properly granted, he may require additional evidence, as well of the term as of the fact of service. |
| Former evidence of right to a pension to be received in certain cases on application for bounty land.
Rights of widows and children. Proviso. |
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That in all cases where a pension has been granted to any officer or soldier, the evidence upon which such pension was granted shall be received to establish the service of such officer or soldier in his application for bounty land under existing laws; and upon proof of his identity as such pensioner, a certificate or warrant may be issued to him for the quantity of land to which he shall be entitled; and in case of the death of such pensioned officer or soldier, his widow shall be entitled to a certificate or warrant for the same quantity of land to which her husband would have been entitled, if living, upon proof that she is such widow, and in case of the death of such officer or soldier, leaving a minor child or children and no widow, or where the widow may have deceased before the issuing of any certificate or warrant, such minor child or children shall be entitled to a certificate or warrant for the same quantity of land as the father would have been entitled to receive if living, upon proof of the decease of father and mother: Provided, nevertheless, That if, upon a review of such evidence, the Commissioner of Pensions shall not be satisfied that the pension was properly granted, he may require additional evidence, as well of the term as of the fact of service. |
| So much of act of 1855, ch. 207, as requires record evidence of service, repealed.
Parol evidence of service may be received where no record evidence exists. |
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That so much of the third section of the “Act in addition to certain acts granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States,” approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, as requires the party claiming a certificate or warrant, under the provisions of said act, to establish his or her right thereto, by record evidence of the service for which such certificate or warrant has been or may be claimed, be, and the same is hereby, repealed, and parol evidence, where no record evidence exists, may be admitted to prove the service performed, under such rules and regulations as the Commissioner of Pensions may prescribe. |
| Act of 1855, ch. 207, §8, extended to naval officers, &c., in revolutionary war, and their widows, &c. | SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the eighth section of the act above mentioned, approved the third day of March, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-five, shall be construed as embracing officers, marines, seamen, and other persons engaged in the naval service of the United States during the revolutionary war, and the widows and minor children of all such officers, marines, seamen, and other persons engaged as aforesaid. |
| Act of 1855, ch. 207, extended to volunteers who were not mustered into service. | SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of the said act shall extend to all persons who have served as volunteers with the armed forces of the United States, subject to military orders, for the space of fourteen days, in any of the wars specified in the first section of the said act, whether such persons were or were not mustered into the service of the United States. |
| Same subject. | SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the widows and minor children of all such persons as are specified in the last preceding section of this act, and are now dead, shall be entitled to the same privileges as the widows and minor children of the beneficiaries named in the act to which this is an amendment. |
| Allowance of time of service for distance from home to place of muster or discharge.
Proviso. |
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That when any company, battalion, or regiment, in an organized form, marched more than twenty miles to the place where they were mustered into the service of the United States, or were discharged more than twenty miles from the place where such company, battalion, or regiment was organized, in all such cases, in computing the length of service of the officers and soldiers of any such company, battalion, or regiment, there shall be allowed one day for every twenty miles from the place where the company, battalion, or regiment was organized to the place where the same was mustered into the service of the United States, and also one day for every twenty miles from the place where such company, battalion, or regiment was discharged, to the place where it was organized, and from whence it marched to enter the service: Provided, That such march was in obedience to the command or direction of the President of the United States, or some general officer of the United States, commanding an army or department, or the chief executive officer of the State or Territory by which such company, battalion, or regiment was called into service. |
| APPROVED, May 14, 1856. |