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They present, in the next place, the following communication from the adjutant general of the United States army:

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Adjutant General's Office, Washington, June 18, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your com munication of the 5th instant, enclosing the memorial of Captain H. C. Wood, United States army, asking compensation for property lost by him when the military department of Texas was surrendered to the rebels, and requesting to know what has been the course pursued by the United States government in such cases heretofore, and my opinion in the matter.

In reply, I have respectfully to state that this is the first in stance on record of the traitorous surrender to rebels by a United States officer. But there is, in my opinion, a previous action of the government which would commend this case to the liberality of Congress. I will cite, as a sufficient instance, the act of July 14, 1832, (page 512, U. S. Statutes at Large, private laws, from 1789 to 1845.) This act authorizes the Second Auditor of the Treasury, and requires him, to ascertain and pay the amount of property lost by each officer and soldier in the conflagration at Fort Delaware, which occurred February 8, 1831.

The papers enclosed in your letter are herewith respectfully returned, as requested by you.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

The CHAIRMAN,

L. THOMAS.
Adjutant General.

Of the Committee on Military Affairs, House of Representatives.

The committee report the accompanying bill, and recommend its

passage.

37TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. REPORT 2d Session.

RICE M. BROWN.

[To accompany bill H. R. No. 565.]

JULY 10, 1862.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. BUFFINTON, from the Committee on Military Affairs, made the

following

REPORT.

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the petition of Rice M. Brown, praying for a bounty land warrant and three months' extra pay for services rendered during the war with Mexico as a private in company F of the second regiment of Indiana volunteers, report:

That in the year 1846 he joined company F of the second regiment of Indiana volunteers, commanded by Captain Henry Davis, with a view of serving in the war with Mexico. That when said company came to be mustered into the service, he was not received by reason of a defect occasioned by prior illness which caused lameness, one of his legs being shortened. Being anxious to go with said company, he went nominally as servant to Captain Davis, but really as a soldier. He served in said company five or six months, when he was honorably discharged in consequence of sickness. It appears that he performed the services of a soldier until his discharge, and therefore is entitled to the bounty land and extra pay voted by Congress.

Your committee herewith report a bill for his relief.

PETITION.

To the Congress of the United States:

Your petitioner, Rice M. Brown, of the State of Indiana, respectfully showeth That in the year 1846 he joined company "F," commanded by Captain Henry Davis, in the second regiment of Indiana volunteers, commanded by Colonel William A. Bowles, with a view of serving in the war with Mexico. That when said company came to be mustered into the service, he was not mustered in by reason and in consequence of a defect occasioned by prior illness which caused lameness, one of his legs being shortened; but, anxious to go with. said company, he went nominally as a servant to said Captain Henry

Davis, but really as a soldier. That he served in said company for some five or six months, and was honorably discharged in consequence of sickness at Camp Belknap, Texas, and came home. That for his service he received the wages of a servant-eight dollars per monthand no other pay or allowance from the government. Those who rendered similar service in all but the name received their pay, extra pay, and a land warrant.

Your petitioner humbly prays your honorable body to grant him extra pay and a land warrant, as would have been allowed him if he had been mustered in as a soldier.

STATE OF INDIANA, County of Lawrence, ss:

RICE M. BROWN.

Before me, the undersigned, a justice of the peace within and for the county aforesaid, personally came Rice M. Brown, who is personally known to me, and who is a person of credit and veracity, and made oath that the foregoing petition is true.

Witness my hand this 12th day of March, 1858.

E. D. PEARSON, J. P. [SEAL.]

STATE OF INDIANA, County of Lawrence, ss:

I, Henry Davis, being duly sworn, state that I have read the foregoing petition of Rice M. Brown, and know from my personal knowledge that the same is true in substance and fact.

HENRY DAVIS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 12th day of March, 1858. And I certify that Henry Davis, who signed the foregoing affidavit, is the identical Henry Davis who was commander of company “F ̈ ́ in second regiment of Indiana volunteers in war with Mexico. Witness my hand this date above written.

E. D. PEARSON, J. P. [SEAL.]

THE STATE OF INDIANA, Lawrence county, ss:

I, George A. Thornton, clerk of the Lawrence circuit court, certify that Eliphalet D. Pearson, esquire, before whom the foregoing instru ments were executed, was, at the time of the execution, an acting justice of the peace in and for said county and State duly commissioned and qualified, and that all his official acts as such are entitled to full faith and credit; and further that his signatures above are genuine. Witness my hand and the seal of said court, at Bedford, this [SEAL.] 12th day of March, 1858.

GEORGE THORNTON, Clerk.

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