CHAP. XXXVII.- An Act to make provision for persons that have been disabled by known wounds received in the actual service of the United States, during the Revolutionary war.
| March 3, 1803. Act of April 10, 1806, ch. 25. Act of March 3, 1819, ch. 81. Act of May 1, 1820, ch. 53. Act of May 15, 1820, ch. 109. Persons entitled to be placed on the pension list. Proviso. |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any commissioned officer, non-commissioned officer, soldier, or seaman, disabled in the actual service of the United States, by wounds received during the revolutionary war, and who did not desert the said service, shall be entitled to be placed on the pension list of the United States during life: Provided, that, in substantiating the claims thereto, the rules and regulations following, shall be complied with: |
| Evidence, before whom to be taken. | First. All evidence shall be taken on oath or affirmation before the judge of the district in which such invalid resides, or before some person specially authorized by commission from the said judge. |
| Nature of evidence. | Secondly. The evidence relative to any claimant, must prove decisive disability to have been the effect of known wounds received while in the actual line of his duty, in the service of the United States, during the revolutionary war: that this evidence must be the affidavits of the commanding officer or surgeon of the ship, regiment, corps, or company in which such claimant served, or two other credible witnesses to the same effect, setting forth the time and place of such known wound. |
| Nature of disability. | Thirdly. Every claimant shall be examined on oath or affirmation, by some respectable physician or surgeon, to be authorized by commission from the said judge, who shall report in writing his opinion, upon oath or affirmation, of the nature of said disability, and in what degree it prevents the claimant from obtaining his livelihood. |
| Requisite time of service. | Fourthly. Every claimant must produce evidence of his having continued in the service of the United States, to the conclusion of the war in seventeen hundred and eighty-three, or being left out of the service in consequence of his disability, or in consequence of some derangement of the army, and of the mode of life or employment he has since followed, and of the original existence and continuance of his disability. |
| Cause of deferring the application to be stated. | Fifthly. Every claimant must show satisfactory cause to the said judge of the district, why he did not apply for a pension in conformity to laws heretofore passed, before the expiration of the limitation thereof. |
| Copies of the evidence, &c. to be given to claimants.
Who are to be placed on the pension list. |
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said judge of the district or person by him commissioned as aforesaid, shall give to each claimant a transcript of the evidence and proceedings had, respecting his claim, and shall also transmit a list of such claims, accompanied by the evidence herein directed, to the secretary of the department of war, in order that the same may be examined, and if correct, agreeably to the intent and meaning of this act, the said applicants are thenceforth to be placed on the pension list of the United States: Provided, that in no case a pension shall commence before the first day of January, eighteen hundred and three, except so far as to offset the commutation of half pay received by such officer, in which case the proper officer is to calculate the pension from the first day of January, seventeen hundred and eighty-four. |
| Estimation of the pensions. | SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the pensions allowed by this act shall be estimated in the manner following, that is to say: a full pension to a commissioned officer shall be considered the one half of his monthly pay as by law established, and the proportions less than a full pension shall be the like proportions of half pay. And a full pension to a non-commissioned officer, private soldier, or seaman, shall be five dollars per month, and the proportions less than a full pension, shall be the like proportions of five dollars per month, but no pension of a commissioned officer shall be calculated at a higher rate than the half pay of a lieutenant-colonel. |
| Pensioners to be paid in the manner of former ones. | SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the pensioners becoming such in virtue of this act, shall be paid in the same manner as invalid pensioners are paid, who have heretofore been placed on the pension list of the United States, under such restrictions and regulations, in all respects, as are prescribed by the laws of the United States, in such cases provided. |
| APPROVED, March 3, 1803. |