MILITARY BOUNTY LANDS.

[From U. S. Revised Statutes, Chapter Ten.]

SEC. 2414. All warrants for military bounty lands which have been, or may hereafter be, issued under any law of the United States, and all valid locations of the same which have been, or may hereafter be, made, are declared to be assignable by deed or instrument of writing, made and executed according to such form and pursuant to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, so as to vest the assignee with all the rights of the original owner of the warrant or location.

SEC. 2415. The warrants which have been, or may hereafter be, issued in pursuance of law may be located according to the legal subdivisions of the public lands in one body, upon any lands of the United States subject to private entry at the time of such location, at the minimum price. When such warrant is located on lands which are subject to entry at a greater minimum than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the locator shall pay to the United States in cash the difference between the value of such warrants at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and the tract of land located on. But where such tract is rated at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and does not exceed the area specified in the warrant, it must be taken in full satisfaction thereof.

SEC. 2416. In all cases of warrants for bounty lands, issued by virtue of an act approved July twenty-seven, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, and of two acts approved January twenty-seven, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, therein and thereby revised, and of two acts to the same intent, respectively, approved June twenty-six, eighteen hundred and fortyeight, and February eight, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, for military ser vices in the revolutionary war, or in the war of eighteen hundred and twelve, with Great Britain, which remained unsatisfied on the second day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, it is lawful for the person in whose name such warrant issued, his heirs or legal representatives, to enter in quartersections, at the proper local land office in any of the States or Territories, the quantity of the public lands subject to private entry which he is entitled to under such warrant.

SEC. 2417. All warrants for bounty lands referred to in the preceding section may be located at any time, in conformity with the general laws in force at the time of such location.

SEC. 2418. Each of the surviving, or the widow or minor children of deceased commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, or privates, whether of regulars, volunteers, rangers, or militia, who performed military service in any regiment, company, or detachment, in the service of the United States, in the war with Great Britain, declared on the eighteenth day

of June, eighteen hundred and twelve, or in any of the Indian wars, since seventeen hundred and ninety, and prior to the third of March, eighteen hundred and fifty, and each of the commissioned officers who was engaged in the military service of the United States in the war with Mexico, shall be entitled to lands as follows: Those who engaged to serve twelve months or during the war, and actually served nine months, shall receive one hundred and sixty acres, and those who engaged to serve six months, and actually served four months, shall receive eighty acres, and those who engaged to serve for any, or an indefinite period, and actually served one month, shall receive forty acres; but wherever any officer or soldier was honorably discharged in consequence of disability contracted in the service, before the expiration of his period of service, he shall receive the amount to which he would have been entitled if he had served the full period for which he had engaged to serve. All the persons enumerated in this section who enlisted in the regular army, or were mustered in any volunteer company for a period of not less than twelve months, and who served in the war with Mexico and received an honorable discharge, or who were killed or died of wounds received, or sickness incurred, in the course of such service, or were discharged before the expiration of the term of service in consequence of wounds received, or sickness incurred, in the course of such service, shall be entitled to receive a certificate or warrant for one hundred and sixty acres of land: or, at option, Treasury scrip for one hundred dollars, bearing interest at six per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually, at the pleasure of the government. In the event of the death of any one of the persons mentioned in this section during service, or after his discharge, and before the issuing of a certificate or warrant, the warrant or scrip shall be issued in favor of his family or relatives; first, to the widow and his children; second, his father; third, his mother; fourth, his brothers and sisters.

SEC. 2419. The persons enumerated in the preceding section received into service after the commencement of the war with Mexico, for less than twelve months, and who served such term, or were honorably discharged, are entitled to receive a certificate or warrant for forty acres, or scrip for twenty-five dollars if preferred, and in the event of the death of such person during service, or after honorable discharge before the eleventh of February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, the warrant or scrip shall issue to the wife, child, or children, if there be any, and if none, to the father, and if no father, to the mother of such soldier.

SEC. 2420. Where the militia, or volunteers, or State troops of any State or Territory, subsequent to the eighteenth day of June, eighteen hundred and twelve, and prior to March twenty-second, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, were called into service, the officers and soldiers thereof shall be entitled to all the benefits of section two thousand four hundred and eighteen, upon proof of length of service as therein required.

SEC. 2421. No person shall take any benefit under the provisions of the three preceding sections, if he has received, or is entitled to receive, any military land bounty under any act of Congress passed prior to the twentysecond March, eighteen hundred and fifty-two.

SEC. 2422. The period during which any officer or soldier remained in captivity with the enemy shall be estimated and added to the period of his actual service, and the person so retained in captivity shall receive land under the provisions of sections twenty-four hundred and eighteen, and twenty-four hundred and twenty, in the same manner that he would be entitled in case he had entered the service for the whole term made up by the addition of the time of his captivity, and had served during such term.

SEC. 2423. Every person for whom provision is made by sections twentyfour hundred and eighteen and twenty-four hundred and twenty shall receive a warrant from the Department of the Interior for the quantity of land to which he is entitled; and, upon the return of such warrant, with evidence of the location thereof having been legally made, to the General Land Office, a patent shall be issued therefor.

SEC. 2424. In the event of the death of any person, for whom provision is made by sections twenty-four hundred and eighteen and twenty-four hundred and twenty, and who did not receive bounty land for his services, a like warrant shall issue in favor of his widow, who shall be entitled to one hundred and sixty acres of land, in case her husband was killed in battle; nor shall a subsequent marriage impair the right of any widow to such warrant, if she be a widow at the time of making her application.

SEC. 2425. Each of the surviving persons specified in the classes enumerated in the following section, who has served for a period of not less than fourteen days, in any of the wars in which the United States have been engaged since the year seventeen hundred and ninety, and prior to the third day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, shall be entitled to receive a warrant from the Department of the Interior, for one hundred and sixty acres of land; and, where any person so entitled has, prior to the third day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, received a warrant for any number of acres less than one hundred and sixty, he shall be allowed a warrant for such quantity of land only as will make, in the whole, with what he may have received prior to that date, one hundred and sixty acres.

SEC. 2426. The classes of persons embraced as beneficiaries under the preceding section, are as follows, namely:

First, Commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, whether of the regulars, volunteers, rangers, or militia, who were regularly mustered into the service of the United States;

Second, Commissioned and non-commissioned officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, flotilla-men, marines, clerks, and landsmen in the navy;

Third, Militia, volunteers, and State troops of any State or Territory, called into military service, and regularly mustered therein, and whose services have been paid by the United States;

Fourth, Wagon-masters and teamsters who have been employed under the direction of competent authority, in time of war, in the transportation of military stores and supplies;

Fifth, Officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war, and marines, seamen, and other persons in the naval service of the United States during that

war;

Sirth, Chaplains who served with the army;

Seventh, Volunteers who served with the armed forces of the United States in any of the wars mentioned, subject to military orders, whether regularly mustered into the service of the United States or not.

SEC. 2427. The following class of persons are included as beneficiaries under section twenty-four hundred and twenty-five, without regard to the length of service rendered:

First, Any of the classes of persons mentioned in section twenty-four hundred and twenty-six who have been actually engaged in any battle in any of the wars in which this country has been engaged since seventeen hundred and ninety, and prior to March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-five;

Second, Those volunteers who served at the invasion of Plattsburgh, in September, eighteen hundred and fourteen;

Third, The volunteers who served at the battle of King's Mountain, in the revolutionary war:

Fourth, The volunteers who served at the battle of Nickojack against the confederate savages of the South;

Fifth, The volunteers who served at the attack on Lewistown, in Delaware, by the British fleet, in the war of eighteen hundred and twelve.

SEC. 2428. In the event of the death of any person who would be entitled to a warrant, as provided in section twenty-four hundred and twenty-five, leaving a widow, or, if no widow, a minor child, such widow or such minor child shall receive a warrant for the same quantity of land that the decedent would be entitled to receive, if living on the third day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five.

SEC. 2429. A subsequent marriage shall not impair the right of any widow, under the preceding section, if she be a widow at the time of her application. SEC. 2430. Persons within the age of twenty-one years, on the third day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, shall be considered minors within the intent of section twenty-four hundred and twenty-eight.

SEC. 2431. Where no record evidence of the service for which a warrant is claimed exists, parol evidence may be admitted to prove the service performed, under such regulations as the Commissioner of Pensions may prescribe.

SEC. 2432. Where certificate or a warrant for bounty land for any less quantity than one hundred and sixty acres has been issued to any officer or soldier, or to the widow or minor child of any officer or soldier, 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, for a warrant for so much land as may be required to make up the full sum of one hundred and sixty acres, to which he may be entitled under the preceding section, 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. But if, upon a review of such evidence, the Commissioner of Pensions is not satisfied that the former warrant was properly granted, he may require additional evidence, as well of the term, as of the fact, of service.

SEC. 2433. 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 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 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.

SEC. 2434. The provisions of all the bounty land laws shall be extended to Indians, in the same manner and to the same extent as to white per

sons.

SEC. 2435. 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;

and upon proof of his identity as such pensioner, a warrant may be issued to him for the quantity of land to which he is entitled; and in case of the death of such pensioned officer or soldier, his widow shall be entitled to a 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 and no widow, or where the widow may have deceased before the issuing of any warrant, such minor child shall be entitled to a 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. But if, upon a review of such evidence, the Commissioner of Pensions is not satisfied that the pension was properly granted, he may require additional evidence, as well of the term, as of the fact, of service.

SEC. 2436. All sales, mortgages, letters of attorney, or other instruments of writing, going to affect the title or claim to any warrant issued, or to be issued, or any land granted, or to be granted, under the preceding provisions of this chapter, made or executed prior to the issue of such warrant, shall be null and void, to all intents and purposes whatsoever; nor shall such warrant, or the land obtained thereby, be in anywise affected by, or charged with, or subject to, the payment of any debt or claim incurred by any officer or soldier, prior to the issuing of the patent.

SEC. 2437. It shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, to cause to be located, free of expense, any warrant which the holder may transmit to the General Land Office for that purpose, in such State or land district as the holder or warrantee may designate, and upon good farming land, so far as the same can be ascertained from the maps, plats and field notes of the surveyor, or from any other information in the possession of the local office, and, upon the location being made, the Secretary shall cause a patent to be transmitted to such warrantee or holder.

SEC. 2438. No person who has been in the military service of the United States shall, in any case, receive a bounty land warrant, if it appears by the muster rolls of his regiment or corps that he deserted or was dishonorably discharged from service.

SEC. 2439. When a soldier of the regular army, who has obtained a military land warrant, loses the same, or such warrant is destroyed by accident, he shall, upon proof thereof, to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior, be entitled to a patent in like manner as if the warrant was produced.

SEC. 2440. In all cases of discharge from the military service of the United States of any soldier of the regular army, when it appears to the satisfaction of the Secretary of War that a certificate of faithful services has been omitted by the neglect of the discharging officer, by misconstruction of the law, or by any other neglect or casualty, such omission shall not prevent the issuing of the warrant and patent as in other cases. And when it is proved that any soldier of the regular army has lost his discharge and certificate of faithful service, the Secretary of War shall cause such papers to be furnished such soldier as will entitle him to his land warrant and patent, provided such measure is justified by the time of his enlistment, the period of service, and the report of some officer of the corps to which he was attached.

SEC. 2441. Whenever it appears that any certificate or warrant, issued in pursuance of any law granting bounty land, has been lost or destroyed, whether the same has been sold and assigned by the warrantee or not, the