separate grade in the corps, but does not prescribe any mode of filling that grade other than by declaring that "privates" of the corps may be detailed as such "acting" stewards. Held, therefore, that when such a private was so detailed, he ceased to be a private of the corps and became at once the acting hospital steward constituted by the act; and, if discharged while so detailed, should be discharged as an “acting hospital steward," receiving travel pay as such. 60,157, June, 1893. 1448. Held that the provision of the Army Appropriation Act of Feb. 27, 1893, prohibiting the re-enlistment of certain "privates," applied to the "privates" of the hospital corps but did not apply to the "acting hospital stewards," who, under the act organizing this corps, of March 1, 1887, c. 311, constituted a distinct class and grade from the "privates. 58, 222, March, 1893.

1449. Held that a person enlisted in the hospital corps, or transferred to it from another part of the army under the authority of the act of March 1, 1887, c. 311, sec. 5, could not be transferred out of it or back again to the organization from which he was transferred originally, without a breach of contract. The authority to transfer to this corps is expressly granted by the statute, but there is no statutory authority for depriving transferred members, by undoing their transfers, of the positions given them according to the express law. 55, 96, August, 1892.

1450. Held that an enlisted man of the volunteer branch of the army may, under the act of March 1, 1887, creating the hospital corps, be transferred thereto as a private; and that the authority to make such transfers could legally be given to corps commanders. Card 4122, May, 1898.

2

1451. General Orders 58, Adjutant General's Office, 1898, authorizes corps commanders to transfer enlisted men of the volunteer branch of the army to the hospital corps, but does not authorize such commanders to retransfer them to the volunteer organizations. Card 6714, July, 1899.

1452. Held that neither the act organizing the hospital corps of March 1, 1887, nor par. 1578 A. R. (1889), relating to the assignment of privates of the corps as nurses, &c., was to be construed as restricting the use of nurses to attendance upon patients within the hospital, but that nurses might legally be furnished from such privates to attend officers at their quarters. 43, 115, September, 1890.

1 This and preceding paragraph are quoted and concurred in by the Comptroller of the Treasury in an opinion dated April 16, 1900, wherein he decided that acting hospital stewards are entitled to travel pay and extra pay (act of March 3, 1899) as such and not as privates, and if retired as acting hospital stewards are entitled to 75 per cent of the pay and allowances of that grade. 6 Comp. Dec., 807.

* See G. O. 58 and 82, A. G. O., 1898.

3 See Circulars 45 and 50, A. G. O., 1898.

1453. Where a hospital is not supplied with enough privates of the hospital corps to do the necessary police duty, which, under sec. 5 of the act organizing the corps of March 1, 1887, they may properly be required to perform, held that convalescents at the hospital may, in the discretion of the surgeon in charge, and by his prescription and direction, be employed to assist in such duty. 44, 125, December, 1890.

HOT SPRINGS HOSPITAL.

1454. Under the present regulations for the government of the Army and Navy General Hospital at Hot Springs, Arkansas, civil employees of the Government are not eligible to admission. 58, 452, March, 1893.

1455. Under the regulations for the government of the General Hospital at Hot Springs, published in G. O. 60 of 1892, "officers of the revenue marine" are made eligible to admission. Held that this description did not include medical officers of the "Marine Hospital Service," who are not officers of the "Revenue Marine" but belong to a distinct establishment. The former are appointed under the provisions of Title LIX, ch. 1, Rev. Sts., and of the act of January 4, 1889, c. 19, while the Revenue Marine is constituted under Title XXXIV, ch. 3, Rev. Sts. Both classes are under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, but their duties and functions are entirely different, and there is no ground for regarding the former as included in or attached to the latter. 59, 162, April, 1893.

1456. The United States not being vested, by reservation or cession, with exclusive jurisdiction over the site of the General Hospital at Hot Springs, though owning the land, held that the courts and judicial officers of Arkansas had substantially the same jurisdiction and authority to issue and execute process to and upon the military and naval persons stationed or commorant at the hospital, as in cases of civilians there resident or commorant. 56, 284, November, 1892.

1457. Held that under the regulations for the government of the General Hospital at Hot Springs, Arkansas (G. O. 60, A. G. O., 1892, as amended by G. O. 40, A. G. O., 1893), discharged enlisted men of the Navy are not entitled during the three months within which they may reenlist under the act of February 8, 1889, to admission to the hospital. Card 2069, February, 1896.

By an amendment of the Regulations of the Hospital, promulgated (since the above opinion) in G. O. 40 of 1893, officers of the Marine Hospital Service are now made eligible to admission.

I.

IMPRISONMENT OR CONFINEMENT.

1458. A sentence, which, in imposing confinement (or imprisonment-the two terms being practically synonymous in sentences of courts martial), fails clearly to indicate how long the same is to continue, is irregular and inoperative. Such a sentence should be disapproved by the reviewing authority unless it can be procured to be corrected by a reassembling of the court for the purpose. XVI, 283, June, 1865.

1459. In imposing a sentence of confinement at a military prison, the court should properly add "at such place as the proper authority may designate," or words to that effect. To direct that the place of confinement be designated by an officer inferior to the convening authority is irregular and improper. IV, 356, and V, 309, November, 1863; IX, 600, September, 1864.

1460. It is now established by a long series of precedents that a general court martial is authorized to adjudge, by sentence, a term of imprisonment to extend beyond the end of the pending term of enlistment of the soldier, or beyond his legal period of service. Thus, for example, where the term of the enlistment of the accused has still a year to run, the court-the gravity of the offence justifying it-may sentence him to an imprisonment for two years or longer: so, it may sentence him to be dishonorably discharged (thus itself discontinuing his period of service), and then confined for a designated term. And such sentences may be executed with the same legality as any other sentence of imprisonment. In the former case the soldier will not be entitled to be released from the confinement at the end of his enlistment, nor, in the latter, will he, upon the execution of the discharge, become so entitled. In each case, upon the determination of the enlistment or service, the party continues to be held under his sentence not as a soldier but as a civilian U. S. convict. XXXI, 89, December, 1870; 353, May, 1871; XXXVIII, 513, March, 1877; XXXIX, 509, April, 1878.

1A sentence of confinement is executed by sending the party under a proper guard to the place of confinement duly designated, and at the same time transmitting to the officer there in command a copy of the order approving the sentence and ordering the execution, together with other proper papers required to exhibit the status of the soldier. See paragraph 911, Army Legulations (1895), as amended by G. O. 112, A. G. O., 1899 (1012 of 1901).

2 As to the order of the execution of the punishments, when dishonorable discharge and a term of imprisonment are imposed by the same sentence,-see § 1146, ante. See par. 152a, A. R. (169 of 1901).

3

Where the approval of a sentence of confinement in a case of a soldier, in which proceedings had been duly commenced pending his term of enlistment, was not promulgated till after such term had actually expired, but no discharge had been given to the soldier before promulgation, held that it would be legal to subject him to the confinement adjudged by the sentence. XIX, 600, April, 1866.

1461. Sentences of imprisonment till a fine, also imposed by the sentence, is paid, are sanctioned by the usage of the service. It is proper, however, in such sentences to affix a limit beyond which the punishment shall not be continued in any event. XIII, 472, March, 1865; XX, 16, October, 1865; XXXII, 47, October, 1871. Where a sentence. adjudges a fine without also adding (with a view to enforcing its payment) a term of confinement,-such a confinement cannot of course legally be imposed by the military commander. XIII, 472, supra. So, held that par. II of G. O. 61, War Department, 1865, to the effect that, where a court martial, in imposing a fine, has failed to require that the prisoner shall be confined till the fine is paid, "he will not be released without orders from the War Department, except on payment of the fine."-transcended the authority of an executive order; such a requirement being a punishment, which can be prescribed only by sentence of court-martial. XXXIII, 309, August, 1872.

1462. The old rule, that the term of a confinement (of so many months, years, &c.), imposed by sentence of court martial, commenced on the day on which the prisoner was delivered to the proper officeras the officer in charge of the prison or commanding the post-to be confined according to the sentence (XI, 380, January, 1865), having been found inconvenient in practice, there was substituted for it by G. O. 21, Hdqrs. of the Army, of 1870, the rule that "the confinement shall be considered as commencing at the date of the promulgation of the sentence in orders." To hold that under this order the commencement of the confinement must be delayed until notice of it has reached the prisoner might lead to the same abuse which the order was intended to correct. XXX, 150, March, 1870.

1463. While the fact that the accused has been confined for an unreasonable period awaiting trial may properly be taken into consideration by the court in estimating the period of confinement proper to be imposed upon his conviction (XXVIII, 104, August, 1868), neither the time during which the accused may have been held in arrest and confinement prior to trial, nor that during which he may have been so held after trial and before the promulgation of his sentence, can be credited

See paragraphs 945 and 947, Army Regulations of 1895 (1046 and 1048 of 1901), also, paragraphs 13 and 15, p. 64, Court-Martial Manual (1901).

on a term of imprisonment adjudged thereby in executing the same. If the party has been detained for an unreasonably long period at either of these stages of the proceedings, he can be indemnified therefor only by a proportionate mitigation or remission of his punishment. XI. 380, January, 1865; XXVIII, 340, 482, January and April, 1869.

1464. Where an officer or soldier is sentenced merely to a term of confinement without the addition of "hard labor," other than in a penitentiary or the Leavenworth military prison, while he may properly be required to perform the ordinary domestic or police work directed by the sanitary regulations of the prison, he cannot properly be put to unusual labor of a severe and continuous character. Thus held that to require a soldier sentenced simply to be confined, and confined accordingly at Alcatraz Prison, to work daily at blasting and quarrying rock, was adding to the punishment (see SENTENCE AND PUNISHMENT), and therefore unauthorized. XXXVII, 640, June, 1876; XXXIX, 500, March, 1878; XLI, 123, February, 1878.

1465. To a proper execution of a sentence of confinement, a secure keeping of the person is of course essential. Where, therefore, it is not possible otherwise to prevent a prisoner's escape or to prevent violence on his part, he may be put in irons without adding to the punishment. But such exceptional restraint cannot legally be imposed except where thus necessary. XXXIV, 375, July, 1873.

1466. A prisoner not expressly required by his sentence to be confined in irons cannot legally be subjected to such form of confinement except where there is sufficient ground to apprehend serious violence on his part or an attempt to escape. A mere threat of violence would not ordinarily justify the use of shackles or fetters. 32, 35, April, 1889. 1467. It is not adding to the punishment in executing a sentence of confinement to require the prisoner to perform work prescribed for prisoners of his class by the statute law. Thus persons sentenced to imprisonment at the Military Prison at Leavenworth, though “hard labor" be not in terms added to the sentence, may legally be employed in the labor or at the trades indicated by Sec. 1351, Rev. Sts. XXXVII, 640, June, 1876; LI, 601, March, 1877; 42, 101, July, 1890.

1468. It is not adding to the punishment, and is authorized at military law, for the commander who ordered the original commitment, or his proper superior, to change the place of confinement of a prisoner, if such a change is required by the exigencies of the service, provided that no more severe species of confinement than that contemplated in the sentence is enforced after the transfer. XXI, 49, November, 1865;

XXXIX, 659, September, 1878; XLI, 123, February, 1878.

1469. Where the sentence directs confinement at hard labor "in such place as the reviewing authority may direct," or words to that effect,