WIDOWS AND ORPHANS-NAVAL-REGULATIONS AND FORMS. benefits of the provision made by the act of Congress, approved July 14, 1862, granting pensions to minor children, under sixteen years of age, of deceased officers and seamen; that he is the guardian of -, [naming the minor child or children, his ward or wards], whose father was a [here state decedent's service]; and that the said died at, on the day of in the year [here state the cause of death]; that the mother of the child, ——, aforesaid, died (or again married, being now the wife of), on the day of, in the year ; and that the date of birth of his said ward- as follows: He further declares, that the parents of his said ward- were married at on the day of in the year by (Guardian's Signature.) Sworn to and subscribed on the day and year first above written, before -; and I hereby certify that I have no interest, direct or indirect, in the prosecution of this claim. (Signature of Judge or other Officer.) This must be accompanied by a certified copy of the letters of guardianship, and the same proof as in the case of widows. MOTHERS-MILITARY AND NAVAL. CHAPTER XIII. GRATUITOUS PENSIONS. SECTION I. PENSIONS TO MOTHERS-MILITARY AND NAVAL. AN act "to grant pensions," approved July 14, 1862, makes an innovation upon existing pension laws, by granting pensions to the mothers of persons who die, or are killed in the service of the United States, in certain This law is in part as follows: cases. AN ACT to Grant Pensions. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if any officer, noncommissioned officer, musician or private of the army, including regulars, volunteers and militia, or any officer, warrant or petty officer, musician, seaman, ordinary seaman, flotillaman, marine, clerk, landsman, pilot or other person in the navy or marine corps, has been, since the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, or shall hereafter be disabled by reason of any wound received or disease contracted while in the service of the United States and in the line of duty, he shall, upon making due proof of the fact according to such forms and regulations as are or may be provided by or in pursuance of law, be placed upon the list of invalid pensions [pensioners] of the United States, and be entitled to receive, for the highest rate of disability, such pension as is hereinafter provided in such cases, and for an inferior disability an amount proportionate to the highest disability, to commence as hereinafter provided, and continue during the existence of such disability. The pension for a total disability for officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates employed in the military service of the United States, whether regulars, volunteers or militia, and in the marine corps, shall be as follows, viz: Lieutenant-colonel and all officers of a higher rank, thirty dollars per month; major, twenty MOTHERS-MILITARY AND NAVAL. five dollars per month; captain, twenty dollars per month; first lieutenant, seventeen dollars per month; second lieutenant, fifteen dollars per month; and non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates, eight dollars per month. The pension for total disability for officers, warrant or petty officers, and others employed in the naval service of the United States, shall be as follows, viz: Captain, commander, surgeon, paymaster and chief engineer, respectively, ranking with commander by law, lieutenant commanding and master commanding, thirty dollars per month; lieutenant, surgeon, paymaster and chief engineer, respectively, ranking with lieutenant by law, and passed assistant surgeon, twenty-five dollars per month; professor of mathematics, master, assistant surgeon, assistant paymaster and chaplain, twenty dollars per month; first assistant engineers and pilots, fifteen dollars per month; passed midshipman, midshipman, captains' and paymasters' clerk, second and third assistant engineer, masters' mate and all warrant officers, ten dollars per month; all petty officers and all other persons before named employed in the naval service, eight dollars per month; and ali commissioned officers, of either service, shall receive such and only such pension as is herein provided for the rank in which they hold commissions. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That where any officer or other person named in the first section of this act, shall have died subsequently to the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, or shall hereafter die, by reason of any wound received or disease contracted while in the service of the United States, and in the line of duty, and has not left or shall not leave a widow nor legitimate child, but has left or shall leave a mother who was dependent upon him for support, in whole or part, the mother shall be entitled to receive the same pension as such officer or other person would have been entitled to had he been totally disabled; which pension shall commence from the death of the officer or other person dying as aforesaid: Provided, however, That if such mother shall herself be in receipt of a pension as a widow, in virtue of the provisions of the second section of this act, in that case no pension or allowance shall be granted her on account of her son, unless she gives up the other pension or allowance. And provided, further, That the pension given to a mother on account of her son, shall terminate on her re-marriage: And provided, further, That nothing herein shall be MOTHERS-MILITARY AND NAVAL. so construed as to entitle the mother of an officer or other person dying, as aforesaid, to more than one pension at a time under the provisions of this act. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That... And provided, further, That no moneys shall be paid to the widow or children, or any heirs of any deceased soldier, on account of bounty, back pay or pension, who have in any way been engaged in, or who have aided or abetted, the existing rebellion in the United States; but the right of such disloyal widow or children, heir or heirs of such soldier, shall be vested in the loyal heir or heirs of the deceased, if any there be. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the fees of agents and attorneys, for making out and causing to be executed the papers necessary to establish a claim for a pension, bounty and other allowance before the Pension Office under this act, shall not exceed the following rates: For making out and causing to be duly executed a declaration by the applicant, with the necessary affidavits, and forwarding the same to the Pension Office, with the requisite correspondence, five dollars. In cases wherein additional testimony is required by the Commissioner of Pensions, for each affidavit so required and executed and forwarded (except the affidavits of surgeons, for which such agents and attorneys shall not be entitled to any fees), one dollar and fifty cents. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That any agent or attorney who shall, directly or indirectly, demand or receive any greater compensation for his services under this act than is prescribed in the preceding section of this act, or who shall contract or agree to prosecute any claim for a pension, bounty or other allowance under this act, on the condition that he shall receive a per centum upon or any portion of the amount of such claim, or who shall wrongfully withhold from a pensioner or other claimant the whole or any part of the pension or claim allowed and due to such pensioner or claimant, shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall, for every such offense, be fined not exceeding three hundred dollars, or imprisoned at hard labor not exceeding two years, or both, according to the circumstances and aggravations of the offense. SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the pilots, engineers, sailors and crews upon the gunboats and war vessels of the United States, who have not been regularly mustered into the service of the MOTHERS-MILITARY AND NAVAL. United States, shall be entitled to the same bounty allowed to persons of corresponding rank in the naval service, provided they continue in service to the close of the present war; and all persons serving as aforesaid, who have been or may be wounded or incapacitated for service, shall be entitled to receive for such disability the pension allowed by the provisions of this act, to those of like rank, and each and every such person shall receive pay according to corresponding rank in the naval service: Provided, That no person receiving pension or bounty under the provisions of this act shall receive either pension or bounty for any other service in the present war. SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That the widows and heirs1of all persons described in the last preceding section who have been or may be employed as aforesaid, or who have been or may be killed in battle, or of those who have died or shall die of wounds received while so employed, shall be paid the bounty and pension allowed by the provisions of this act, according to rank, as provided in the last preceding section. This act will be found at large on pages 28 to 33. The provisions of the foregoing act were extended to masters of gunboats, and to their widows, mothers and heirs, by a joint resolution of July 16, 1862, as follows: JOINT RESOLUTION to grant Pensions to Masters and Officers upon the Gunboats in the service of the United States. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the masters serving on board of gunboats employed in the service of the United States shall be entitled to all the benefits, including bounty and pension, provided for in an act entitled "an act to grant pensions," passed 1 No official construction of this section has yet been made known, but it is believed that by the word "heirs " in this place, it was the intention of Congress to embrace all those persons designated in the former part of the act as entitled to pensions, according to the order of priority there established. The opinion that this was intended to include mothers, is strengthened by the joint resolution of July 16, 1862, which is in the nature of an amendment or addition to this and the preceding section, and specially designates mothers. Unless this construction is given to the joint resolution, mothers are preferred to children of the deceased person. |