GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERALâS OFFICE, June 18, 1864
No. 54. Richmond, June 18, 1864.
I. The act of Congress providing for the establishment and payment of claims for a certain description of property, taken or informally impressed for the use of the Army, approved June 14, 1864, with accompanying instructions, are published for the information and instruction of all concerned.
AN ACT providing for the establishment and payment of claims for a certain description of property taken or informally impressed for the use of the Army.
The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to appoint and assign, in each Congressional district and for each Territory, an agent, not liable to military duty in the field, who shall, at stated times, in each county or parish, under the direction of the post quartermaster nearest to him, receive and take proof, under oath, in relation to all claims in said district for forage, provisions, cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, mules, teams and wagons heretofore furnished to the Army by the owner, or heretofore taken or informally impressed for the use of the Army and not yet paid for, by any officer in the military service, or by his order or direction, express or implied, from the use of the property, whether said officer be a line or staff officer, and whether he be a bonded officer or otherwise, and report the facts and transmit the evidence in each case to the proper accounting officers of the Treasury, together with his opinion as to the justice and validity of the claim; and the said accounting officers are hereby authorized to audit and control and order payment of such claims as appear to them to be equitable and just: Provided, That all such claims originating west of the Mississippi River shall be reported to the accounting officers of the Treasury Department established for the Trans-Mississippi Department, who are hereby authorized to audit, control and direct payment of the same in the same manner as the accounting officers of the Treasury east of the Mississippi River. And the said agent is hereby authorized, in taking testimony in regard to said claims, to administer oaths to witnesses, and, if he think proper, to the claimants themselves. The compensation allowed to said agent shall be ten dollars per day while actually engaged in the performance of the duties imposed on him by this act, and thirty cents per mile for every mile actually traveled by him, to be paid under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of War: Provided, That the Secretary of War may assign to the duty herein mentioned any quartermaster or disabled officer of the Army ; and, in that event, said officer or quartermaster shall, in addition to the compensation now allowed him by law, be entitled to mileage at the rate of forty cents per mile: Provided, further, That the Secretary of War may appoint and assign any non-commissioned officer or private to perform the duties under this act who may be unfit for active service in the field because of wounds received or disease contracted in said service, and the pay and allowances of such non-commissioned officer or private, when so appointed and assigned, shall be the same as are allowed to persons so appointed who may not be liable to military service. ;
Szc. 2. This act shall cease and determine on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, east of the Mississippi River, and on the first day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, west of the Mississippi River; and all claims of the description aforesaid, not presented to the agent aforesaid prior to said dates at the respective places mentioned, shall not be entitled to the benefits of this act.
Approved June 14, 1864.
II. In every Congressional district there will be appointed an agent to perform the duties described in the preceding act of Congress, whose names will be announced in orders, and who, immediately
after notice thereof, will proceed to the fulfillment of the duties imposed in the same. He will hold one or more sessions in each county in his district, and give notice of the time and place of holding the same, and of the order of proceeding at, and the probable duration of the session. The operation of the act is limited to a specific time, and each agent is required to take measures for the full performance of its requirements, and for securing to every claimant an opportunity of presenting and proving his just claim.
III. Every claim under this act shall be presented in writing to the agent for the district in which the claimant resides, supported by his oath as to the justice of the same, and by the affidavit of one or more witnesses; and the claimant shall also state by whom his property was impressed or taken, and at what time, and for what purpose, and at what price, and shall produce any written evidence in his possession relative to the same; provided, if the claimant be dead, or be prevented by any cause from appearing before the agent, proof shall be submitted as to the fact, and the occasion therefor; and other proof of the claim may be taken. The exact value of the property must be proved, and no speculative or contingent damages or values are to be assessed.
IV. The agent shall, whenever it may be deemed expedient, examine the claimant and the witnesses orally upon the subject of the claim, and record their testimony.
V. The agents appointed under this act will take the testimony of the various officers of the Army who may have been concerned in the impressment or appropriation of any of the property in reference to which claims shall be made, and will ascertain by what authority the same was taken, for what purpose, and at what time; and moreover will make special inquiry as to the use which was made of the same, and inquire of all facts pertinent to the subject.
VI. Great care should be taken in the investigations to be made under this act to ascertain the justice and accuracy of any claim that may be preferred, and to prevent fraudulent or exaggerated claims from being allowed; and for that purpose all the cireumstances connected with the impressment or appropriation or employment of property should be examined. The name, rank, and authority of the officer should be reported, and whatever else that may throw light upon the transaction.
VII. All the powers conferred by this act, and all the duties prescribed by the same, are devolved upon the agents appointed under it; and within the time limited in the act they will make their report to the Second Auditor of the Treasury.
S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.