the number of brigadier generals shall be reduced to two; and the President of the United States is authorized and directed to select from the whole number which may then be in office, without regard to the date of their commissions, the number to be retained, and cause the remainder to be discharged from the service of the United States.

thorized to call

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the President of the President auUnited States be, and he hereby is, authorized to call into the into service genservice, under the act approved May thirteen, eighteen hundred eral officers of and forty-six, such of the general officers of the militia as the the militia. service, in his opinion, may require, and to organize into brigades and divisions the forces authorized by said act, according to his discretion.

talion of volun

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the field and staff Field and staff of a separate battalion of volunteers, under the said act, shall of separate batbe one lieutenant colonel or major, one adjutant,' with the rank teers establishof lientenant, one sergeant major, one quartermaster sergeant," and a chief bugler or principal musician, according to corps.

ed.

vates in a com

SEC. 4 And be it further enacted, That the President of the Number of priUnited States may limit the privates in any volunteer company, pany. according to his discretion, at from sixty-four to one hundred; and that with every volunteer company an additonal second lieutenant may be allowed and accepted.

1

An additional second lieutenant allowed.

cers of the quarter master, comand medical depart

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That when volunteers Additional offior militia are called into the service of the United States in such numbers that the officers of the quartermaster, commissary, and missary, medical departments, authorized by law, be not sufficient to ments may be provide for supplying, quartering, transporting, and furnishing appointed. them with the requisite medical attendance, it shall be lawful for the President to appoint, with the advice and consent of the Senate, as many additional officers of said department as the service may require, not exceeding one quartermaster and one commissary for each brigade, with the rank of major, and one assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain, one assistant commissary, with the rank of captain, one surgeon, and one assistant surgeon, for each regiment; the said quartermasters and commissaries, assistant quartermasters and assistant commissaries, to give bonds, with good and sufficient sureties, for the faithful performance of their duties; and they and the said surgeons and assistant surgeons to perform such duties as the President shall direct: Provided, That the said officers shall Proviso. be allowed the same pay and emoluments as are now allowed to officers of the same descriptions and grades in those departments, respectively; that they be subject to the rules and arti cles of war, and continue in service only so long as their services shall be required, in connexion with the militia and vol

unteers.

Assistant ad

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized to appoint as jutant generals may be appointmany additional assistant adjutant generals, not exceeding four, ed. as the service may require; who shall be appointed, by and

Proviso.

Promotions and

with the advice and consent of the Senate, in the same manner, have the same brevet rank, pay, and emoluments, and be charged with the same duties, as those now authorized by law: Provided, That these additional appointments shall continue only so long as the exigencies of the service may render neces

sary.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That promotion in the appointments, quartermaster's department, to the rank of major, shall hereafter be made from the captains of the army; and that appointments in the line, and in the general staff, which confer equal rank in the army, shall not be held by the same officer at the same time; and when any officer of the staff who may have been taken from the line shall, in virtue of seniority, have obtained or be entitled to promotion to a grade in his regiment equal to the commission he may hold in the staff, the said officer shall vacate such staff commission, or he may, at his option, vacate his commission in the line.

Aids-de-camp.

Military secre. tary.

Allowance for clothing.

Subsistence and

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the aids de camp of the major general commanding the army in time of war may be taken from the line, without regard to rank; and the aids de camp allowed to other major generals and brigadier generals may be taken from the grade of captain or subaltern; and that the commanding or highest general in rank may, while in the field, appoint a military secretary from the subalterns of the army, who shall have the pay and emouluments of a major of cavalry for the time being.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the allowance for clothing to each non-commissioned officer, musician, and private of volunteers shall be three dollars and fifty cents per month, during the time he shall be in the service of the United States.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the non-commisforage of volun- sioned officers, musicians, and privates of volunteers and militia, teers and militia. when called into the service of the United States, shall be entitled to receive fifty cents, in lieu of subsistence, and twentyfive cents in lieu of forage for such as are mounted, for every twenty miles, by the most direct route, from the period of leaving their homes, to the place of general rendezvous, and from the place of discharge back to their homes.

Enlistments authorized.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That the colonel or senior officer of the ordnance department is authorized to enlist for the service of that department as many master armorers, master carriage makers, master blacksmiths, artificers, armorers, carriage makers, blacksmiths, and laborers, as the public service, in his judgment, under the directions of the Secretary for the Department of War, may require.

Approved, June 18, 1846.

CHAP. 29—AN ACT making alterations in the pay department of the army. [SEC. 1.] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be and he is hereby authorized, by and with advice and consent of the be appointed. Senate, to appoint three additional paymasters, to be attached

to the pay department of the army.

Paymasters to

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the officers appoin- Duties, compented in virtue of this act shall perform the same duties, receive sation, &c. the same pay and allowances as the present paymasters of the army, and shall, in like manner, be subject to the rules and articles of war; and previons to entering upon the duties of their office, shall give such bonds to the United States as the Secretary of War may direct for the faithful performance of their duties.

Approved, June 17, 1846.

CHAP. 30-AN ACT to authorize the justices of the county court of Bates county, in the State of Missouri, to enter a certain quarter section of land for a county seat.

ter laud.

[SEC.] 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the justices of the county court of the county Justices of Bates of Bates, in the State of Missouri, be, and they are hereby, au- county may enthorized to enter with the register and receiver of the land office at Clinton, io said State, for the use of said county, whereon the county seat thereof has been located, the northeast quarter of section seventeen in township numbered thirty-eight north, of range numbered thirty west; and on payment of the minimum price therefor within twelve months after the passage of this act, a patent shall issue therefor as in other cases. Approved, June 19, 1846.

CHAP. 31.—AN ACT making appropriations for the service of the Post Office Department for the year ending thirtieth June eighteen hundred and forty

seven.

Service of the

partment.

[SEC. 1.] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums of money be, and the same are hereby, appropriated for the service of the Post Office De Post Office Department, for the year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and forty seven, out of any moneys in the treasury arising from the revenues of the said Department, in conformity to the act of the second of July, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, namely:

For transportation of the mails, two millions seven hundred Transportation. thousand dollars; and the Postmaster General is hereby au

thorized to apply twenty-five thousand dollars of the money Mail steamers appropriated for mail transportations for a line of mail steamers from U. S. to from the United States to Bremen; but no further sum shall be diverted to any other object than the transportation of the mail within the United States.

Bremen.

Postmasters.
Letters.

Paper, furniture, advertising mail bags,

blanks, locks, &c

Depredations & special agents. Clerks.

Miscellaneous. Magnetic Tele graph.

Proviso.

Balance due

man.

the table of post

lations of the

partment.

Proviso.

For compensation of postmasters, one million dollars; For ship, steamboat, and way letters, twelve thousand dollars;

For wrapping paper, sixteen thousand dollars;

For office furniture, (for post offices,) four thousand dollars;
For advertising, thirty thousand dollars;

For mail bags, twenty thousand dollars;

For blanks, seventeen thousand dollars;

For mail locks, keys, and stamps, four thousand dollars; For mail depredations and special agents, thirteen thousand dollars;

For clerks for offices, (for offices of postmasters,) two hundred thousand dollars;

For miscellaneous, fifty thousand dollars;

For defraying the expenses of the magnetic telegraph from the city of Washington to Baltimore, four thousand dollars; this appropriation to be available, if need be, before the commencement of the next fiscal year: Provided, That the Postmaster General be and he is hereby authorized to let, for a limited time, the aforesaid telegraph to any person who will keep it in operation for its earnings; or he may, under the direction of the President of the United States, sell the same.

For paying an ascertained balance due to Messrs. Hale and Hale and Cole- Coleman, under their contract of May thirty first, eighteen hundred and thirty seven, forty dollars and seventy-five cents; For publishing a For publishing a new edition of eighteen thousand copies new edition of of the table of post offices in the United States, and the same offices, and of number of the "Laws and regulations for the government of laws and regu the Post Office Department," eight thousand five hundred dolPost Office De-lars: Provided, the work be let to contract to the lowest bidder, upon the terms indicated by the seventeenth section of the act approved twenty-sixth August, eighteen hundred and forty-two, "legalizing and making appropriations for such necessary objects as have been usually included in the general appropriation bills without authority of law, &c." Deficiency of SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That in case the rerevenue provid- venues of the Department, referred to in the first section of this act, shall prove insufficient to meet the foregoing appropriations, then any deficiency that may thus arise shall be paid out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Approved, June 19, 1846.

ed for.

CHAP. 32.-AN ACT for the relief of Asenath Canney.

A warrant for

to be issued in

[SEC. 1.] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War cause to be issued to Asenath Canney, formerly Asenath Nayson, a warrant for two 200 acres of land hundred acres of land, in the place of land warrant number lieu of one hereeight hundred and ninety-five, heretofore issued in the name of tofore issued and Ruth Quinby, the devisee of Nathaniel Nayson, late of South Berwick, in the county of York, and State of Maine, deceased, who was a lieutenant in the Massachusetts continental line; which warrant so heretofore issued is now lost, and the right to which land was heretofore given by Ruth Ranson to said Asenath.

Approved, June 19, 1846.

lost.

CHAP. 33.-AN ACT to provide for the organization of the volunteer forces, brought into the service of the United States, into brigades and divisions, and for the appointment of the necessary number of general officers to command the same.

into brigades &

[SEC. 1.] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he The President is hereby, authorized to organize into brigades and divisions to organize them such of the volunteer forces as have been or may be called into divisions. the service of the United States, under the act approved May thirteen, eighteen hundred and forty-six, entitled "An act providing for the prosecution of the existing war between the United States and the Republic of Mexico;" and that he be, May appoint and hereby is, authorized to appoint, by and with the advice such number of and consent of the Senate, such number of major generals & brigadier gentmajor generals and brigadier generals as the organization of such volunteer erals as may be forces into brigades and divisions may render necessary: Pro- Proviso. vided, That the brigadier generals and major generals so appointed shall be discharged from service by the President of the United States, when the war with Mexico shall be terminated by a definitive treaty of peace, duly concluded and ratified; or, in case the brigades or divisions of volunteers at any time in the service shall be reduced in number, the brigadier generals and major generals herein provided for shall be discharged in proportion to the reduction in the number of the brigades and divisions: And provided, further, That each brigade of Strength of each volunteers shall consist of not less than three regiments, and vision. each division shall consist of not less than two brigades.

Approved, June 26, 1846.

necessary.

brigade and di