Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-18
THE LINE OF DUTY.
Decisions That Define 1t Under Pee uiiax
CircQmstanceA.

Assistant Secretary Bussey has allowed N
appeal in the pension case of Ebert Dossett of
the forty-eighth Kentucky regiment, whose
claim for increase OF pension owing to injuries
received from wound in the head was res
jected by the Pension Office. The claimant
alleges that after being on guard duty
from midnight until morning. he repairc d
TO his cabin to get some sleep, when comrade
created great noise and dissurb ancs and threw
an empty barrel in his cabin. The claimant
demonstrated and insisted upon being allowed
to sleep. but the comrade said he should not
sleep. Threatening TO report him he left the
cabin, when the comrade followed him and,
without being seen by him. struck him Sc
we're blow on the head with q club.
The claimant knew no reason for this attack
except that the comrade had grudge against
him for having previously arrested him by or
der OF superior officers. The assistant score
tary decides that when the injury was inflicted
the claimant was in the line OF duty. He was
in his camp. where he should have been. and
from guard duty"
The absence Of any act which was forbidden
as in violation of military duty induces Gen.
8ussey to conclude that the claimant was in the
line of duty.
PECULIAR CASE.
Gen. Bussey has also granted a motion for
reconsideration Of a decision made by the PEN
sion Office and sustained by the department on
appeal, which rejected the original invalid
pension case Of John +. Heacock Of the i04th
Ohio volunteers. The former decision
OF the department in this case. it
is now alleged on behalf Of the
claimant, was not in accord with the present
views andsruings OF the department relative
to what constitutes cline OF duty" It is al
legged that this claimant was In the line of duty
II appears that the claimant enlisted in a COM
pany that was being recruited at Salem, Ohio,
for the 104th Ohio volunteers, and as no or.
engagements had been made for quartering or
subssting the recruits in the village
while the company was being raised and the
members were directed by their captain to re-
main at their usual place of residence in the
immediate neighborhood and were ordered to
report every morning at headquarters until the
quota OF the company had been filed
The claimant resided about two miles from the
village and five days after his enlistment, on
August Q, 1852, was on the road between his
home and headquarters, when the young horse
he was riding became frightened, threw him
of on his head, injuring him 80 severely that
he was rendered unconscious and bled from
the nose and ears. He continued with the
company and afterward left for the 'front.'
While in an engagement at Fort Mitchell, Ky.
1t Is stated that the noise and conclusion of the
heavy guns of the fort. which were fred di-
rectly over the regiment, together with the
shock OF the claimants gun, 80 anected his
head that he wGs rendered unconscious and
bled from the nose and ears.
In view OF these facts Gen. Bussey decides to
reverse the department decision of July l3
1887, which held that the claimant was not in
the line Of duty, and holds that the claimant
was clearly in the line of duty as a
soldier and properly in the service of
the government for peusionable purposes when
he incurred the injury which resulted in his
present inability. The commissioner OF PEN
sions is directed to grant him the pension
which the law provides