[General Orders, No. 113.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-General's OFFICE,

WASHINGTON, May 2d, 1863.

Rules in relation to claims for the payment of HORSES AND EQUIPAGE lost or destroyed in the MILITARY SERVICE of the United States, under act of March 3, 1849.

By the first section of the law it is enacted: That any field or staff, or other officer, mounted militiaman, volunteer, ranger, or cavalry, engaged in the military service of the United States since the 18th June, 1812, or who shall hereafter be in said service, and has sustained or shall sustain damage, without any fault or negligence on his part, while in said service

1st. By the loss of a horse in battle.

2d. By the loss of a horse wounded in battle, and which has died or shall die of said wound, or, being so wounded, shall be abandoned by order of his officer, and lost.

3d. By the loss of a horse by death or abandonment, because of the unavoidable dangers of the sea, when on board a United States transport vessel :

Because the United States failed to supply transportation for the horse, and the owner was compelled, by order of his commanding officer, to embark and leave him:

In consequence of the United States failing to supply sufficient forage:

Because the rider was dismounted and separated from his horse, and ordered to do duty on foot at a station detached from his horse:

When the officer in the immediate command ordered, or shall order, the horse turned out to graze in the woods, prairies, or commons, because the United States failed, or shall fail, to supply sufficient forage, and the loss was or shall be consequent thereof.

4th. By the loss of necessary equipage in consequence of the loss of his horse, as aforesaid:

Shall be allowed and paid the value thereof, not to exceed two hundred dollars:

Provided, That if any payment has been or shall be made to any one aforesaid for the use and risk, or for forage, after the death, loss, or abandonment of his horse, said payment shall be deducted from the value thereof, unless he satisfied, or shall satisfy, the paymaster, at the time he made or shall make the payment, or thereafter show by proof that he was remounted; in which case the deductions shall only extend to the time he was on foot. And provided also, If any payment shall have been, or shall hereafter be made, to any person above mentioned, on account of clothing to which he was not entitled by law, such payment shall be deducted from the value of his horse and accoutrements.

RULES OF EVIDENCE.

To establish a claim under either of the foregoing provisions, the claimant must furnish the evidence of the officer under whose command he was serving when the loss occurred, if alive; or, if dead, then the next surviving officer, describing the property, the value thereof at the time of entering the service, the time when, place where, and manner in which the loss occurred, and whether or not it was without any fault or negligence on the part of the claimant. The claimant must himself state the facts above required, and also whether or not he has received from any officer or agent of the Government a horse or equipage in lieu of that lost by him, or any compensation for the same; also whether the horse or equipage lost had not been furnished by the United States or purchased from some quartermaster, and if so, the name of the officer from whom purchased, and the price paid therefor. If the property was appraised at the time the same was taken into the United States service, the original valuation list or certified statement of the value as appraised should be furnished.

In cases where the loss is alleged to have occurred "because the United States failed to supply transportation for the horse, and the owner was compelled, by the order of his commanding officer, to embark and leave him," the affidavit of the claimant must, in addition to the declaration above mentioned, declare "that he did, in obedience to the order of his commanding officer, leave said horse and equipage, and that he never sold or otherwise disposed of said horse or equipage, and never received any compensation for either from any person whatever," and this must be corroborated by the officer who gave the order.

In all cases where the claim extends to equipage, the several articles of which the same consisted, and separate value of each, must be specified.

In no case can the foregoing evidence be dispensed with, unless the impracticability of producing it be clearly proved; and then the nearest and best other evidence of which the case is susceptible, must be furnished in lieu thereof.

All evidence other than the certificates on honor of officers who, at the time of giving them, were in the military service of the United States, must be sworn to before some judge, justice of the peace, or other person duly authorized to administer oaths, and of which authority proof should accompany the evidence.

All claims under the provisions of this act must be presented to the office of the Third Auditor of the Treasury De partment.

By order of the Secretary of War.

E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General.

As has been heretofore stated, soldiers, while in the ser vice, are paid by the paymasters of the army.

When a soldier is discharged, he should be furnished with his final statements and descriptive roll, in order that, on presenting himself to a paymaster for payment, he should be able to produce the same to him, to enable him to ascertain the amount due to him, and his identity. See extracts from army regulations in chapter 13.

When, however, it is impossible for the officer or soldier to obtain a satisfactory settlement from the paymaster, then recourse must be had to the Second Auditor of the Treasury.

As has been heretofore stated, business in this office is very slowly transacted, and a year will probably elapse before a claim is acted upon; it will therefore be best to settle in full with the paymaster where that course is possible.

Where application has to be made to the Second Auditor, the claimant will make a declaration, setting forth the facts of his case and what he claims, and that he has not been paid therefor.

This should be accompanied with the proof necessary to substantiate all the averments of the declaration. The declaration ought to be sworn to, and the claimant identified by two credible and disinterested witnesses.

The following form can be modified to suit all cases:

FORM No. 3.

Form of Application by discharged Soldier, for Allowance in lieu of Transportation, and for Extra Duty Pay.

On the 10th day of November, 1863, personally appeared before me Lucien Rivers, at present residing in the city of New York, who being by me duly sworn, says that he is the identical person who enlisted in the service of the United States as a private in Company A, 25th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. That his said regiment was mustered out of said service on the 26th day of August, 1863, and his discharge made out and dated on that day. That on said day he was acting on detailed service as a hospital steward at Baton Rouge, La. That he left Baton Rouge on said 26th day of August, 1863, and was furnished with transportation to Cairo, Ill., on board the steamboat Gladiator. That he travelled from Cairo to Hartford, Conn., at his own cost and charge.

That, prior to the passage of the act of Congress of March 3d, 1863, which abolished extra pay for extra duty, he served as attendant in the hospital at Baton Rouge from the 21st January, 1863, to the 3d March, 1863, being fortytwo days, for which he is entitled to twenty-five cents a day for such extra duty, and that the United States owes him therefor ten dollars and fifty cents.

That he was paid off in New York on the 2d day of November, 1863, but was not paid the aforesaid sum, and was