panies heretofore mustered into the service of the United States as volunteer engineers, pioneers, or sappers and miners, under the orders of the President or secretary of war, or by authority of the commanding general of any military department of the United States, or which, having been mustered into the service as infantry, shall have been reorganized and employed as engineers, pioneers, or sappers and miners, shall be, and the same are hereby, recognized and accepted as volunteer engineers, on the same footing in all respects, in regard to their organization, pay, and emoluments, as the corps of engineers of the regular army of the United States, and they shall be paid for their services, already performed, as is now provided by law for the payment of officers and non-commissioned officers and privates of the engineer corps of the regular army. SEC. 21. That any alien, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who has enlisted or shall enlist in the armies of the United States, either the regular or volunteer forces, and has been or shall be hereafter honorably discharged, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, upon his petition, without any previous declaration of his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and that he shall not be required to prove more than one year's residence within the United States previous to his application to become such citizen; and that the court admitting such alien shall, in addition to such proof of residence and good moral character as is now provided by law, be satisfied by competent proof of such person having been honorably discharged from the service of the United States as aforesaid. SEC. 22. That there shall be added to the adjutant-general's department, by regular promotion of its present officers, one colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, and nine majors; and that the grade of captain in said department shall thereafter be abolished, and all vacancies occurring in the grade of major shall be filled by selections from among the captains of the army.1 [Approved, July 17, 1862.] 1 They were formerly selected from the first lieutenants. CHAPTER 201.-Approved, July 17, 1862.-Vol. 12, p. 597. An Act to amend the Act1 calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion, approved February twenty-eighth, seventeen hundred and ninety-five, and the Act amendatory thereof, and for other purposes. 1. Call for state militia to specify period of service, not to exceed nine months. Defects in militia laws to be supplied by rules and regulations. 2. Militia called into service. How organized. 3. One hundred thousand volunteers may be accepted as infantry for nine months. Pay and bounty provision of former laws extended to them. 4. To fill old regiments, any number of volunteers may be accepted for a year, upon a footing with similar troops in service. Bounty, fifty dollars, half on joining. 5. Judge-advocate general to be appointed. 6. A judge-advocate for each army in the field. 7. Offenders to be brought before and tried by field officer of regiment. Sentence to be submitted to the brigadier, who shall, if he approve, order the punishment. 8. Surplus adjutants and quartermasters to be paid as such and discharged. 9. Army corps to be established and organized. 10. Organization of army corps. 11. Organization of cavalry forces. 12. Negroes to be employed to labor for the army. 13. Negroes rendering military service to be free, as well as the mother, wife, and children, except those belonging to loyal persons. 14. Expenses in executing this act, how to be paid. 15. All enrolled under this act to receive pay and rations of soldiers. Pay of negroes so employed. 16. Medical purveyors and storekeepers to give bonds. That, whenever the President of the United States shall call forth the militia of the states, to be employed in the service of the United States, he may specify in his call the period for which such service may be required, not exceeding nine months; and the militia so called shall be mustered in and continue to serve for and during the term so specified, unless sooner discharged by command of the President. If, by reason of defects in existing laws, or in the execution of them in the several states, or any of them, it shall be found necessary to provide for enrolling the militia and otherwise putting this act into execution, the President is authorized, in such cases, to make all necessary rules and regulations; and the enrolment of the militia shall, in all cases, include all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and shall be apportioned among the states according to representative population. SEC. 2. That the militia, when so called into service, shall be organized in the mode prescribed by law for volunteers." 1 Chap. 36. 2 As regulars. SEC. 3. That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized, in addition to the volunteer forces which he is now authorized by law to raise, to accept the services of any number of volunteers, not exceeding one hundred thousand, as infantry, for a period of nine months unless sooner discharged. And every soldier who shall enlist under the provisions of this section shall receive his first month's pay, and also twenty-five dollars as a bounty upon the mustering of his company or regiment into the service of the United States. And all provisions of law relating to volunteers enlisted in the service of the United States for three years, or during the war, except in relation to bounty, shall be, and the same are extended to, and are hereby declared to embrace, the volunteers to be raised under the provisions of this section. SEC. 4. That, for the purpose of filling up the regiments now in the United States service, the President be, and he hereby is, authorized to accept the service of volunteers in such numbers as may be presented for that purpose, for twelve months if not sooner discharged. And such volunteers when mustered into the service shall be in all respects upon a footing with similar troops in the United States service, except as to service bounty, which shall be fifty dollars, one half of which to be paid upon their joining their regiments, and the other half at the expiration of their enlistment. SEC. 5. That the President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, a judge-advocate general, with the rank, pay, and emoluments of a colonel of cavalry, to whose office shall be returned for revision the records and proceedings of all the courts-martial and military commissions, and where a record shall be kept of all proceedings had thereupon. And no sentence of death, or imprisonment in the penitentiary, shall be carried into execution until the same shall have been approved by the President.* SEC. 6. That there may be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, for each army in the field, a judge-advocate, with the rank, pay, and emoluments, each, of a major of cavalry, who shall perform the duties 1 By act 22 July, 1861, chap. 9. 2 $13 per month. 3 See sec. 4, chap. 83, 2 March, 1849, for judge-advocate of the army. of judge-advocate for the army to which they respectively belong, under the direction of the judge-advocate general. SEC. 7. That hereafter all offenders in the army charged with offences now punishable by a regimental or garrison court-martial shall be brought before a field-officer of his regiment, who shall be detailed for that purpose, and who shall hear and determine the offence, and order the punishment that shall be inflicted, and shall also make a record of his proceedings, and submit the same to the brigade commander, who, upon the approval of the proceedings of such field-officer, shall order the same to be executed: Provided, That the punishment in such cases be limited to that authorized to be inflicted by a regimental or garrison court-martial: And provided, further, That, in the event of there being no brigade commander, the proceedings as aforesaid shall be submitted for approval to the commanding officer of the post. SEC. 8. That all officers who have been mustered into the service of the United States as battalion adjutants and quartermasters of cavalry under the orders of the War Department, exceeding the number authorized by law, shall be paid as such for the time they were actually employed in the service of the United States, and that all such officers now in service, exceeding the number aforesaid, shall be immediately mustered out of the service of the United States. SEC. 9. That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to establish and organize army corps according to his discretion. SEC. 10. That each army corps shall have the following officers, and no more, attached thereto, who shall constitute the staff of the commander thereof: one assistant adjutant-general, one quartermaster, one commissary of subsistence, and one assistant inspector-general, who shall bear, respectively, the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and who shall be assigned from the army or volunteer force by the President. Also three aids-decamp, one to bear the rank of major, and two to bear the rank of captain, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, upon the recommendation of the commander of the army corps. The senior officer of artil 1 See rules and articles of war, 1806. lery in each army corps, in addition to his other duties, shall act as chief of artillery and ordnance at the head-quarters of the corps. SEC. 11. That the cavalry forces in the service of the United States shall hereafter be organized as follows: Each regiment of cavalry shall have one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, three majors, one surgeon, one assistant surgeon,' one regimental Adjutant, one regimental quartermaster, one regimental commissary, one sergeant-major, one quartermaster-sergeant, one commissary-sergeant, two hospital stewards, one saddle-sergeant, one chief trumpeter, and one chief farrier or blacksmith, and each regiment shall consist of twelve companies or troops, and each company or troop shall have one captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, one supernumerary second lieutenant, one first sergeant, one quartermaster-sergeant, one commissary-sergeant, five sergeants, eight corporals, two teamsters, two farriers or blacksmiths, one saddler, one wagoner, and seventy-eight privates; the regimental adjutants, the regimental quartermasters, and regimental commissaries to be taken from their respective regiments: Provided, That vacancies caused by this organization shall not be considered as original, but shall be filled by regular promotion. SEC. 12. That the President be and he is authorized to receive into the service of the United States, for the purpose of constructing intrenchments, or performing camp service, or any other labor, or any military or naval service, for which they may be competent, persons of African descent; and such persons shall be enrolled and organized under such regulations, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws, as the President may prescribe. SEC. 13. That when any man or boy of African descent, who by the laws of any State shall owe service or labor to any person who during the present rebellion has levied war or borne arms against the United States, or adhered to their enemies by giving them aid or comfort, shall render any service as is provided for in the first section of this act, he, his mother, and his wife and children, shall forever thereafter be free, any law, usage, or custom whatsoever to the contrary notwithstand 1 See sec. 3, chap. 127, 2 July, 1862. |