# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/24th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 80

Chap. LXXX.—An Act authorizing the President of the United States to accept the service of volunteers, and to raise an additional regiment of dragoons or mounted riflemen.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,President may accept the services of ten thousand volunteers, &c. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is authorized to accept volunteers who may offer their services either as infantry or cavalry not exceeding ten thousand men, to serve six or twelve months after they shall have arrived at the place of rendezvous, unless sooner discharged; and the said volunteers shall furnish their own clothes, and, if cavalry, their own horses, and when mustered into service, shall be armed and equipped at the expense of the United States.
To do military duty, &c.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said volunteers shall be liable to be called upon to do military duty only in cases of Indian hostilities, or to repel invasions, whenever the President shall judge proper, and when called into actual service and while remaining therein, shall be subject to the rules and articles of war, and shall be in all respects, except as to clothing, placed on the same footing with similar corps of the United States army, and in lieu of clothing every non-commissioned officer and private, in any company, who may thus offer themselves, shall be entitled when called into actual service, to receive in money a sum equal to the cost of the clothing of a non-commissioned officer or private (as the case may be) in the regular troops of the United States.
To be received in companies, &c.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said volunteers, so offering their services, shall be accepted by the President in companies, battalions, squadrons, regiments, brigades, or divisions, whose officers shall be appointed in the manner prescribed by law in the several States and Territories, to which such companies, battalions, squadrons, regiments, brigades, or divisions, shall respectively belong.Proviso. Provided, That, where any company, battalion, squadron, regiment, brigade, or division, of militia, already organized, shall tender their voluntary service to the United States, such company, battalion, squadron, regiment, brigade, or division, shall continue to be commanded by the officers holding commissions in the same, at the time of such tender; and any vacancy thereafter occurring shall be filled in the mode pointed out by law in the State or Territory wherein the said company, battalion, squadron, regiment, brigade or division, shall have been originally raised.
To be organized by the President.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized to organize companies, so tendering their services, into battalions or squadrons, battalions or squadrons into regiments, regiments into brigades, and brigades into divisions, as soon as the number of volunteers shall render such organization in his judgment expedient; and the President shall, if necessary, apportion the staff, field and general officers among the respective States or Territories from which the volunteers shall tender their services as ​he may deem proper; but, until called into actual service, such companies, battalions, squadrons, regiments, brigades or divisions shall not be considered as exempt from the performance of militia duty as is required by law, in like manner as before the passage of this act.
To be entitled to benefits, &c.Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the volunteers who may be received into the service of the United States, by virtue of the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to all the benefits which may be conferred on persons wounded in the service of the United States.
A regiment of dragoons to be organized.Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That there shall be raised and organized, under the direction of the President of the United States, one additional regiment of dragoons or mounted riflemen, to be composed of the same number and rank of the officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates, composing the regiment of dragoons now in the service of the United States, who shall receive the same pay and allowances, be subject to the same rules and regulations, and be engaged for the like term, and upon the same conditions, in all respects whatever as are stipulated for the said regiment of dragoons now in service.
President may disband. 300,000 dollars appropriated.Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States may disband the said regiment whenever, in his opinion, the public interest no longer required their services; and that the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, required to carry into effect the provisions of this act is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Act to remain in force two years.Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That so much of this act as relates to volunteers shall be in force for two years from and after the passage of this act, and no longer.
Approved, May 23, 1836.