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CHAPTER 42.-Approved, August 3, 1861.-Vol. 12, p. 287.

An Act providing for the better organization of the military establishment. 1. Assistant Secretary of War. Salary. Duties. 2. Assistant inspector-generals. Surgeons and assistant surgeons. Organization of the adjutant-general's office. Increase of the subsistence department. 3. Increase of engineer and topographical engineer department; of the quartermaster's department. Promotion to major in. Master-wagoners and wagoners to be employed. Increase of ordnance department, how selected and transferred. 4. Engineer soldiers, three companies of, authorized. Pay, organization, &c. 5. Medical cadets added to medical staff. Rank, pay, qualifications, &c. 6. Female nurses authorized; their pay, &c. 7. One chaplain allowed to each regiment, to be regularly ordained ministers, &c. 8. Cadets reported deficient not to be reappointed, except. Cadets to take the oath. Form of oath. Refusing to take the oath, to be dismissed. 11. Any commissioned officer may administer oath of enlistment. 12. Dragoons, mounted rifles, and cavalry, to be denominated cavalry. Brevet officers to retain their rank. 13. Increase of army ration during Southern rebellion. 14. Allowance to hospitals. 15, 16, 17. Mode of retiring disabled officers. 18. Officers partially retired may wear uniform, &c. 19. Officers absent from duty over six months forfeit emoluments and allowances. 25. Retired officers may be assigned to appropriate duties.

That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, an officer in the War Department, to be called the Assistant Secretary of War, whose salary shall be three thousand dollars per annum, payable in the same manner as that of the secretary of war, who shall perform all such duties in the office of the secretary of war, belonging to that department, as shall be prescribed by the secretary of war, or as may be required by law.

SEC. 2. That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, in addition to the number authorized by existing laws and in accordance with existing regulations, five assistant inspectorgenerals, with the rank and pay of majors of cavalry, ten surgeons, and twenty assistant surgeons, to have the pay, rank, and allowances, and perform the duties, of similar officers in the present military establishment. That, hereafter, the adjutantgeneral's department shall consist of the following officers,

1 See chap. 7, 7 Aug. 1789, ante, and for two more assistant secretaries, see chap. 9, 22 January, 1862.

2 Now 4 inspector-generals, and 5 assistants.

3 For further increase and organization of medical department, see chap. 55, 16 April, 1862, and chap. 127, 20 May, 1862, and chap. 200, sec. 18, 2 July, 1862.

namely: one adjutant-general, with the rank, pay, and emoluments of a brigadier-general; one assistant adjutant-general, with the rank, pay, and emoluments of a colonel of cavalry; two assistant adjutant-generals, with the rank, pay, and emoluments each of a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry; four assistant adjutant-generals, with the rank, pay, and emoluments each of a major of cavalry; and twelve assistant adjutant-generals, with the rank, pay, and emoluments each of a captain of cavalry; and that there shall be added to the subsistence department four commissaries of subsistence, each with the rank, pay, and emoluments of a major of cavalry; and eight commissaries of subsistence, with the rank, pay, and emoluments each of a captain of cavalry, and to be taken from the line of the army, either of the volunteers or regular army.

SEC. 3. That there shall be added to each of the corps of engineers and topographical engineers three first and three second lieutenants, to be promoted thereto in accordance with the existing laws and regulations. And there shall be added to the quartermaster's department one colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, four majors, and twenty captains, with the rank, pay, and allowances of officers of cavalry; and whenever any army captain of the quartermaster's department shall have served fourteen years' continuous service, he shall be promoted to the rank of major; and that there shall be added to the quartermaster's department as many master-wagoners, with the rank, pay, and allowances of sergeants of cavalry, and as many wagoners, with the pay and allowances of corporals of cavalry, as the military service, in the judgment of the President, may render necessary. And there shall be added to the ordnance department of the United States army, as now organized, one chief of ordnance, with the rank, pay, and emoluments of the quartermastergeneral of the army; one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, and six second lieutenants; the field officers to be appointed by selection from the officers of the army, and the second lieutenants from the graduates of the United States Military Academy, by trans

1 Making in that department 6 majors and 16 captains; but see new organization, sec. 22, chap. 200, 17 July, 1862.

2 For further additions, see chaps. 57 and 58, 6 Aug. 1861.

3 Making respectively 3, 4, 8, and 48 in that department. $17 per month.

5 $14 per month.

6 The ordnance department will consist of 1 chief of ordnance,

colonels, 2 lieu

tenant-colonels, 4 majors, 16 captains, 12 first and 12 second lieutenants.

fers from the engineers, or the topographical engineers, or the artillery.

SEC. 4. That there shall be added to the corps of engineers three companies of engineer soldiers, to be commanded by appropriate officers of said corps, to have the same pay and rations, clothing, and other allowances, and be entitled to the same benefits, in every respect, as the company created by the act for the organization of a company of sappers and miners and pontoniers, approved May sixteen (15), eighteen hundred and fortysix. The said three companies shall be subject to the rules and articles of war; shall be recruited in the same manner and with the same limitation, shall be instructed in and perform the same duties, and be liable to serve in the same way, and shall have their vehicles, pontons, tools, implements, arms, and other supplies regulated in the same manner, as the existing engineer company; and each of the four companies of engineer soldiers shall hereafter be composed of ten sergeants, ten corporals, two musicians, sixty-four privates of the first class, or artificers, and sixty-four privates of the second class, in all one hundred and fifty men each.

SEC. 5. That there be added to the medical staff of the army a corps of medical cadets, whose duty it shall be to act as dressers in the general hospitals and as ambulance-attendants in the field, under the direction and control of the medical officers alone. They shall have the same rank and pay as the military cadets at West Point. Their number shall be regulated by the exigencies of service, at no time to exceed fifty. It shall be composed of young men of liberal education, students of medicine, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three, who have been reading medicine for two years, and have attended at least one course of lectures in a medical college. They shall enlist for one year, and be subject to the rules and articles of war. On the fifteenth day of the last month of their service the near approach of their discharge shall be reported to the surgeongeneral, in order, if desired, that they may be relieved by another detail of applicants.

SEC. 6. That in general or permanent hospitals female nurses

1 Chap. 21.

2 $30 per month, and by chap. 55, 16 April, 1862, allowed one ration a day.

3 Twenty more added by chap. 55, 16 April, 1862.

may be substituted for soldiers when, in the opinion of the surgeon-general or medical officer in charge, it is expedient to do so; the number of female nurses to be indicated by the surgeongeneral or surgeon in charge of the hospital. The nurses so employed to receive forty cents a day, and one ration in kind, or by commutation, in lieu of all emoluments except transportation in kind.

SEC. 7. That one chaplain shall be allowed to each regiment of the army, to be selected and appointed as the President may direct: Provided, That none but regularly ordained ministers of some Christian denomination shall be eligible to selection or appointment.1

SEC. 8. That no cadet who has been or shall hereafter be reported as deficient, either in conduct or studies, and recommended to be discharged from the academy, shall be returned or reappointed, or appointed to any place in the army before his class shall have left the academy and received their commissions, unless upon the recommendation of the academic board of the academy: Provided, That all cadets now in the service, or hereafter entering the Military Academy at West Point, shall be called on to take and subscribe the following oath: “I, A. B., do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and bear true allegiance to the national government; that I will maintain and defend the sovereignty of the United States paramount to any and all allegiance, sovereignty, or fealty I may owe to any state, county, or country, whatsoever; and that I will at all times obey the legal orders of my superior officers and the rules and articles governing the armies of the United States." And any cadet or candidate for admission who shall refuse to take this oath shall be dismissed from the service.

SEC. 9. That the three months' extra pay allowed by the twenty-ninth section of the act of the 5th of July, 1838,2 for re-enlistments under certain conditions, the bounty granted by the third section of the act of the 17th of June, 1850, for enlistments at remote and distant stations, and the premium now paid for bringing accepted recruits to the rendezvous, be, and they are hereby, abolished.

SEC. 10. That hereafter $2 per month shall be retained out of the monthly pay of each enlisted man in the regular army until the expiration of his

1 See chap. 200, sec. 8, post.

2 Chap. 102.

4 Premium restored by Resolution No. 34, 21 June, 1862.

3 Chap. 20.

term of service, instead of $1 per month, as authorized by existing laws.1

SEC. 11. That in all cases of enlistment and re-enlistment in the military service of the United States the prescribed oath of allegiance may be administered by any commissioned officer of the army.❜

SEC. 12. That the two regiments of dragoons, the regiment of mounted riflemen, and the two regiments of cavalry, shall hereafter be known and recognized as the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth regiments of cavalry, respectively, the officers thereof to retain their present relative rank, and to be promoted as of one arm of service, according to existing law and established usage and regulations.

SEC. 13. That the army ration shall be increased as follows: viz., twenty-two ounces of bread or flour, or one pound of hard bread, instead of the present issue; fresh beef shall be issued as often as the commanding officer of any detachment or regiment shall require it, when practicable, in place of salt meat; beans and rice or hominy shall be issued in the same ration in the proportions now provided by the regulations, and one pound of potatoes per man shall be issued at least three times a week, if practicable; and when these articles cannot be issued in these proportions, an equivalent in value shall be issued in some other proper food; and a ration of tea may be substituted for a ration of coffee upon the requisition of the proper officer: Provided, That after the present insurrection shall cease, the ration shall be as provided by law and regulations on the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-one.

SEC. 14. That there may be allowed in hospitals, to be provided under such rules as the surgeon-general of the army, with the approval of the secretary of war, may prescribe, such quantities of fresh or preserved fruits, milk or butter, and of eggs, as may be necessary for the proper diet of the sick.

SEC. 15. That any commissioned officer of the army, or of the marine corps, who shall have served as such for forty consecutive years, may, upon his own application to the President of the United States, be placed upon the list of retired officers, with the pay and emoluments allowed by this act.

1 Chap. 194, 7 July, 1838. This section repealed by sec. 10, chap. 200, 17 July, 1862. 2 See art. 10, rules and articles of war, chap. 20, 10 April, 1806.

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