presented to the office of the Third Auditor of the. Treasury Department, and each must be substantiated by such evidence as is hereinafter designated with respect to cases of the class under which it falls. FIRST CLASS OF CASES.

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 of 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, by the loss of a horse in battle, or 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, or shall sustain damage by the loss of any horse by death or abandonment, because of the unavoidable dangers of the sea, when on board a United States transport vessel, or 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, or in consequence of the United States failing to supply sufficient forage, or because the rider was dismounted and separated from his horse, and ordered to do duty on foot at a station detached from his horse, or 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, or for 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: Andprovided, 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 or accoutrements."

To establish a claim under this provision, the claimant must adduce the evidence of the officer under whose command he served 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 and manner in which the loss happened, and whether or not it was sustained without any fault or negligence on the claimant's part. The evidence should also, in case the claimant was remounted after the loss, state when remounted, how long he continued so, and explain whether the horse whereon he was remounted had not been furnished by the United States, or been owned by another mounted militiaman or volunteer, to whom payment for the use and risk thereof, or for its forage, whilst in the possession of the claimant, may have been made; and if it had been thus owned, should name the person and the command to which he belonged. And in every instance in which the claim may extend to equipage, the several articles of which the same consisted, and separate value of each, should be specified.

SECOND CLASS OF CASES.

The second section of the law enacts:

"That any person who has sustained or shall sustain damage, by the capture or destruction by an enemy, or by the abandonment or destruction, by the order of the commanding general, the commanding officer, or quartermaster, of any horse, mule, ox, wagon, cart, boat, sleigh, or harness, while such property was in the military service of the United States, either by impressment or contract, except in cases where the risk to which the property would be exposed was agreed to be incurred by the owner, and any person who has sustain

ed or shall sustain damage, by the death or abandonment and loss of any such horse, mule, or ox, while in the service aforesaid, in consequence of the failure on the part of the United States to furnish the same with sufficient forage; and any person who has lost, or shall lose, or has had, or shall have destroyed by unavoidable accident, any horse, mule, ox, wagon, cart, boat, sleigh, or harness, while such property was in the service aforesaid, shall be allowed and paid the value thereof at the time he entered the service: Provided, It shall appear that such loss, capture, abandonment, destruction, or death, was without any fault or negligence on the part of the owner of the property, and while it was actually employed in the service of the United States."

To establish a claim under this provision, it will, in addition to the testimony required under the head of first class of cases, be necessary, in cases where the property lost was in the service by contract or impressment, to produce the testimony of the officer or agent of the United States who impressed or contracted for the service of the property mentioned in such claim, and also of the officer under whose command the same was employed at the time of the capture, destruction, loss, or abandonment, declaring in what way the property was taken into the service of the United States, the value thereof, whether or not the risk to which it would be exposed was agreed to be incurred by the owner; and whether or not, as regarded horses, mules, oxen, he engaged to supply the same with sufficient forage; in what manner the loss happened, and whether or not it was sustained without any fault or negligence on his part.

The fifth section of the law enacts:

“That in all instances where any minor has been or shall be engaged in the military service of the United States, and was or shall be provided with a horse or equipments, or military accoutrements, by his parent or guardian, and has died, or shall die, without paying

for said property, and the same has been or shall be lost, captured, destroyed, or abandoned, in the manner before mentioned, said parent or guardian shall be allowed pay therefor, on making satisfactory proof as in other cases, and the further proof that he is entitled thereto by having furnished the same."

A parent or guardian of a deceased minor will, therefore, in addition to such testimony applicable to his claim as is previously described, have to furnish proof that he provided the minor with the property therein mentioned; that the minor died without paying for such property, and that he, the parent or guardian, is entitled to payment for it by his having furnished the same.

The sixth section of the law enacts:

has

"That in all instances where any person, other than a minor, been or shall be engaged in the military service aforesaid, and has been or shall be provided with a horse or equipments, or with military accoutrements, by any person, the owner thereof, who has risked or shall take the risk of such horse, equipments, or military accoutrements, on himself, and the same has been or shall be lost, captured, destroyed, or abandoned, in the manner before mentioned, such owner shall be allowed pay therefor, on making proof, as in other cases, and the further proof that he is entitled thereto by having furnished the same and having taken the risk on himself."

Besides the testimony in support of his claim herein before required, every such owner thereof will have to prove that he did provide the horse, equipments, or military accoutrements therein mentioned, and took the risk thereof on himself, and that he is entitled to pay therefor by having furnished the same and taking the risk thereof on himself; and this proof should be contained in a deposition of the person who had been so provided by him with such horse, equipments, or military accoutrements.

THIRD CLASS OF CASES.

The seventh section of the law enacts:

"That in all cases where horses have been condemned by a board of officers on account of their unfitness for service, in consequence of the government failing to supply forage, all such horses and the equipage shall be allowed and paid for whenever the facts shall be proven by legal and satisfactory evidence, whether oral or written, that such condemned horse and the equipage was turned over to a quartermaster of the army, whether any receipt therefor was given and produced or not."

To establish a claim under this provision, the claimant must adduce the evidence of the witnesses mentioned under the head of the first class of cases, satisfactorily proving that the property therein described was, while in the military service of the United States, condemned by a board of officers on account of their being rendered unfit for service in consequence of the government failing to supply forage, and that such property was turned over to a quartermaster of the United States army, explaining when the claimant was remounted, &c., as required in said first class of cases.

In no case can the production of the evidence previously described 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.

Every claim must be accompanied by a deposition of the claimant, "declaring that he has not received from any officer or agent of the United States any horse or horses, equipage, accoutrements, mule,