The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-07-28

he accepted as Il voucher for the payment
or any claim against the United States |
for pay. bounty. or other allowance, or
as evidence in any other case"
The act of July l. 1902. provides: That |
whenever satisfactory proof shall be fur
nished to the War Department that any
officer or enlisted man who has been or
shall hereafter he honorably discharged
from the military service of the United
States has lost his certificate Of discharge
or the same has been destroyed without
his privity or procurement, the Secretary
of War shall be authorized to furish to such
officer or enlisted man. or to the widow
of such officer or enlisted man, Il certiti-
cate Of such discharge. to be indelibly
marked, so that it may be known as n GER
tificate in lien of lost or destroyed dis
charge: Provided, That such certificate
shall not be accepted as voucher for the
payment OF any claim against the United
States for pay, bounty. or other allow
ance. or as evidence in any other case"
This is in effect an extension of the pro-
visions of the act of March 3. 1873 (sec-
ton 224, Revised Statutes). to other SOL
diers than those of the war of the rebel
lion, and to widows.
The act Of February {. 1890. provides:
That from and after the passage of this
act. whenever satisfactory proof is fur
nished at the Navy Department that any
commissioned officer. regular or volunteer,
appointed or enlisted man who served in
the navy or the marine corps of the United
States in the War of 1872, the Mexican
war, or the war of the rebellion. has lost
his certificate of discharge, or the same
has been destroyed without his privity or
procurement, the Secretary of the Navy
shall be authorized to furnish to such com
missioncd officer. regular or volunteer, APP
pointed or enlisted man, certificate of
discharge in lieu thereof
provided, That such certificate shall
not be accepted as a voucher for the pay
ment of any claim against the United
States for pay. bounty, or any other allow
ance. or as evidence in any other case"
The certificate as above provided can
not be obtained by the heirs or legal rep
resentatives of deceased sailor or marine
The certificate authorized to be given is
not strictly a duplicate of the original dis
charge, but mere certificate of honorable
service. transcript from the official rec
ords. 1t may be obtained whenever the
original discharge has become so illegbIe
or mutilated as to be virtually destroyed.
as we'll as when it is actually destroyed
or lost
If the certificate issued as above in lieu
of the original discharge be also lost or
destroyed, n new certificate or duplicate
cannot be obtained.
The loss or destruction of the original
discharge is no bar to the collection of
pension, bounty, or other allowances.
RETAINING DISCHARGE CERTIFICATE.
The act of May q, 1872, provides:
ANY claim agent, attorney, or other per-
son engaged in the collection of claims for
pay, bounty, pension, or other allowances
for any soldier, sailor, or marine. or for
any commissioned officer of the military or
naval forces, or who may have been a SOL
coil YIN IF tha
lar volunteer forces Of the United States,
and honorably discharged, who shall re-
tain, without the consent of the owner or
owners thereof. or shall refuse to deliver
or account for the same upon demand duly
made by the owner of owners thereof, or
by their agent or attorney, the discharge
papers or land warrant of any soldier.
sailor, or marine, or commissioned Off
Ger which may have been placed in his
hands for the purpose of collecting said
claims, shall be deemed guilty of a mis-
demeanor. and shall, upon conviction, be
punished by a fine not exceeding $500 or
by Imprisonment not exceeding six months,
or both, at the discretion of the court, and
shall thereafter be debarred from prosecu-
ting any such claim in any Executive De-
partment of the Government"
LOST HORSES AND EQUIPMENTS.
The act of March 3, 1849, and June 90,
1874 las embodied i'm sections 1882 and
34S7, Revised Statutes), and the act Of
June %, 1864, relating to claims for horses
and equipments that were lost i'm the mil
itary service Of the United States prior to
and during the late rebellion. after having
been several times extended, expired by
limitation on January ., 1884, as to claims
arising prior to the war; and on August
13 1891, as to claims arising during the
war
All such claims as were filed prior to
the limitation may be prosecuted to q final
termination.
1t is held (under decision of 1879 that
if the facts proven are such that by any
fair and reasonable interference the prop
erty must have been lost in one of the
ways specified in the law, it shall be held
to have been SO lost.
USE AID RISK OF HORSES.
Such officers and enlisted men of cav
airy volunteers, entering the service in
1861, as furnished their own horses and
horse equipments, were entitled to 40
cents per day for the use and risk of the
same. This allowance was payable for but
one horse ut a time, and only in case the
horse was the personal property of the Off
Ger or soldier. The allowance ceased if
the horse was appraised and turned over
to the Government; and if the animal be-
came disabled or died, the allowance
ceased until the disability was removed or
the animal replaced. By July II, 1862,
enlisted men of volunteer cavalry We're
generally mounted on Government horses,
and the act of that date discontinued the
allowance to company officers of the vol
unteer cavalry.
The allowance may still be collected if
due.
PROPERTY LOST OR DESTROYED.
The act of March 3, 1849, as amended
by the act of March %. 1863, and now
embodied in section 34S3 Revised Stat
utes, provides:
Sec. 34S3. Every person who sustains
damage by the capture Or destruction by
an enemy, or by the abandonment or de-
struction by the order of the commanding
general, the commanding officer, or quar-
termaster, of any horse, mule, OK, wagon,
cart, sleigh, harness, steamboat or other
vessel, railroad engine, or railroad car,
while such property is in the military
service, either by impressment or contract;
or who sustains damage by the death or
abandonment and loss of any horse, mule,
or OK, while in the service, in consequence
of the failure on the part of the United
States to furnish the same with sufficient
forage, or whose horse, mule, OK, wagon,
cart, sleigh, harness, vessel, railroad en-
CINE, or railroad car is lost or destroyed by
unavoida BILE accident while such property