the average for preceding years, and, by reason of the new questions arising in connection with the status of officers and enlisted men of the Spanish war volunteers, the administrative work of the office was not diminished.

As usual since the organization of the Record and Pension Office, the public business has been promptly dispatched, nearly 93 per cent of the cases received during the fiscal year having been disposed of within twenty-four hours from the time they reached the office, and at the close of business hours on the 30th of June not one case remained unacted upon.

REMUSTER.

Under this head are classed the cases arising under the act of Congress approved February 24, 1897, "to provide for the relief of certain officers and enlisted men of the volunteer forces." This act, which is the last of a series of similar enactments, provides for the payment of volunteer officers of the civil war for services rendered under their commissions, under certain conditions, or which they were prevented from rendering by reason of casualties of the service. It also provides for the recognition of the rank conferred upon them by their commissions and gives to them and their heirs the pensionable status accruing from service in the grades as of which recognition is extended.

A reduced number of this class of cases was received during the last fiscal year, from which it may reasonably be inferred that the benefits of the act have been applied in a majority of the cases it was intended

to reach.

It may be remarked that the conditions rendering necessary the legislation referred to were peculiar to the civil war and that similar legislation is not necessary for the relief of volunteer officers in service during the Spanish war and the Philippine insurrection.

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REMOVAL OF CHARGES OF DESERTION.

The desertion cases" referred to in the statistical table consist almost exclusively of applications for removal of the charge of desertion under the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 2, 1889, and the acts amendatory thereof. These acts relate only to regular and volunteer soldiers of the civil war and the war with Mexico, and have no application to service under more recent enlistments. Desertion cases, which have numbered many thousands in the past, are gradually diminishing in number, and a large percentage of those now presented are but renewals of former applications, many of which have been repeatedly denied. All of these cases, however, require careful consideration and administrative action and involve the expenditure of much time and labor in their adjudication.

But few applications for removal of the charge of desertion have as yet been presented by members of the Spanish war volunteers or the more recently disbanded regiments. There is, indeed, no law under which such applications can be considered, and it is a well-established rule of the Department that, in the absence of legislation requiring it, the War Department can not accept ex parte testimony to invalidate the records of disbanded organizations in cases where the records do not themselves afford reasons for questioning their accuracy.

MISCELLANEOUS CASES.

The miscellaneous or unclassified cases mentioned in the table include applications for original discharge certificates, for certificates in lieu of lost discharges under the act of March 3, 1873, for certificates of discharge in true name under the act of April 14, 1890, for recognition as veteran volunteers under reenlistments during the civil war, for medals of honor for former officers and soldiers of the civil war, inquiries from the several bureaus of the War Department, the adjutants-general of States, the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the Comptroller of the Treasury, the Court of Claims, the Civil Service Commission, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Loyal Legion, and kindred patriotic societies, and from the Soldiers' Homes, and the general correspondence of the office which can not be classified.

The unclassified cases also include an extensive correspondence with individual members of both Houses of Congress and the large number of reports furnished the various Congressional committees in response to calls for information and advice relative to pending legislation. These reports, dealing as they do with subjects of personal and public importance, involving the possible expenditure of large sums of money, necessarily require much labor and care in their preparation. Two hundred such reports were furnished during the last fiscal year.

INFORMATION INFORMALLY FURNISHED OTHER BUREAUS.

Besides the classified and unclassified cases heretofore mentioned there are many cases of which, though they require much time and labor for their disposition, no formal record is kept.

Among these may be enumerated calls from the QuartermasterGeneral of the Army for information in the adjudication of applications, under the act of February 3, 1879, and subsequent acts, for headstones to mark the graves of deceased volunteer soldiers; and calls from the Adjutant-General of the Army for the record of former volunteer soldiers with a view to their enlistment in the Regular Army, for the record of former officers of volunteers with a view to their reappointment in the volunteer service or to establish their relative rank as officers in the Regular Army, and for the record of former volunteer soldiers for the purpose of establishing their title to longevity pay under their enlistments in the Regular Army. All of these calls, and many others not easily enumerated, are informally received and answered."

On such informal calls reports were furnished to the QuartermasterGeneral during the months of May and June, 1901, in the cases of upward of 9,000 soldiers for use in the adjudication of applications for headstones alone, and it is estimated that during the fiscal year not less than 10,500 other cases were informally reported upon to the several bureaus of the War Department.

MEDALS OF HONOR.

The consideration of applications for the award of the Congressional medal of honor to officers and enlisted men of the volunteer forces forms a part of the business of the Record and Pension Office, and it

is believed that, in this connection, a brief history of the general subject of the issue of medals of honor and similar decorations may not be inappropriate.

It is to be observed that the Congressional medal of honor" is but one of several similar decorations that have been authorized or issued at various times during and since the close of the civil war. A early as June 6, 1861, a resolution was adopted by the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York ordering "the execution of a series of medals of a proper character to be presented to each officer, noncommissioned officer, and soldier engaged in the defense of Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens in the month of May, 1861;" and on November 29, 1862, at a meeting of officers representing the regiments which had served under Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny a resolution was adopted "for the purpose of procuring a medal in his honor," to be presented to all officers and soldiers who should be "promoted to the grade of commissioned officer previous to January 1, 1863," and who had honorably served in battle under General Kearny in his division,” and whose military records were without stain." This medal was designated the "Kearny medal," and was to be presented upon the written order of the presiding member or secretary of the committee" having the matter in charge. On March 13, 1863, an order was issued by Brig. Gen. D. B. Birney, commanding the First Division, Third Army Corps, announcing that a "Cross of valor," also known as the "Kearny cross," would be bestowed upon such noncommissioned officers and privates of that division as had most distinguished themselves in battle. In a subsequent order from division headquarters it was announced that the "Kearny cross" was the division decoration, and was bestowed in honor of the former division commander, General Kearny, and it is probable that the decoration was the one previously adopted by the committee appointed at the meeting of officers before referred to.

On June 15, 1863, it was announced by Major-General Banks, commanding the Department of the Gulf, that volunteers for the storming party formed for the expected assault upon the enemy's works at Port Hudson, should receive a medal fit to commemorate the first grand success of the campaign of 1863 for the freedom of the Mississippi;" on June 29, 1863, an order was issued by the Secretary of War directing the Adjutant-General to provide an appropriate inedal of honor" for presentation to such troops as, after the expiration of their terms of enlistment, had offered their services to the Government during the Gettysburg campaign, and to troops from other States that had volunteered their temporary service in the States of Pennsylvania and Maryland; on October 2, 1863, an order was issued by Major-General MePherson, commanding the Seventeenth Army Corps, authorizing the issue of a "medal of honor with an appropriate device" to officers and enlisted men of the corps who had or should thereafter "most distinguish themselves during the war:" and on October 28, 1863, it was announced by Major-General Gillmore, commanding the Department of the South, that "medals of honor for gallant and meritorious conduct during the operations before Charleston" would be awarded by the commanding general to a number of the enlisted men of the command who had been "in action or on duty in the batteries and trenches." On April 10, 1864, Major-General Burnside, commanding the Ninth Army Corps, in an order descriptive of the badge adopted for the

corps, announced that those who desired could "also wear a medal of the same design, made of gold or gilt, silver or white metal, bronze or copper, to be attached to the left breast of the coat as a pin, or suspended by a red, white, and blue ribbon." In his address to the "soldiers of the Army of the James," dated October 11, 1864, Major-General Butler, commanding that army, announced that "a special medal" would be struck in honor of certain colored soldiers of his command for gallantry in action; and on January 24, 1865, Major-General Howard, commanding the Army of the Tennessee, announced in general orders the award of medals of honor to certain enlisted men for "distinguished service in the field and other soldier-like qualities," but a few days later the order was "suspended," having been "issued under a misapprehension of the wishes of the commanding general," there being no established method of extending the same principle of distribution from his own headquarters to the entire army."

On December 17, 1863, while the civil war was in progress, a special "gold medal" was awarded by Congress to Major-General Grant, with the thanks of that body to the general and to the officers and soldiers who fought under his command for their gallantry and good conduct in battle (13 Stat. L., 399), and on January 28, 1864, a gold medal was also awarded by Congress to Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, in consideration of the gift to the Government of the steamship bearing his name.

It is also interesting to note that the Confederate Congress authorized the bestowal of medals and badges of distinction "for courage and good conduct on the field of battle." This was done in an act approved October 13, 1862, of which the following is a copy:

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to bestow medals with proper devices upon such officers of the armies of the Confederate States as shall be conspicuous for courage and good conduct on the field of battle; and also to confer a badge of distinction upon one private or noncommissioned officer of each company after every signal victory it shall have assisted to achieve. The noncommissioned officers and privates of the company who may be present on the first dress parade thereafter may choose, by a majority of their votes, the soldier best entitled to receive such distinction, whose name shall be communicated to the President by commanding officers of the company; and if the award fall upon a deceased soldier, the badge thus awarded him shall be delivered to his widow, or, if there be no widow, to any relative the President may adjudge entitled to receive it.

[Approved, October 13, 1862.]

This act of the Confederate Congress was published in an order from the adjutant and inspector general's office at Richmond November 22, 1862, and, difficulties having occurred in procuring the medals and badges of distinction, the names of those reported as worthy of the distinction were subsequently inscribed in a "roll of honor," to be preserved in the office of the adjutant and inspector general "for reference at all future time." It does not appear that either the medal or the badge of distinction authorized by the Confederate Congress was ever actually conferred, the preparation of the roll of honor being apparently the only action taken in execution of the provisions of the statute. After the close of the war medals were issued by several States to survivors of the war or to their representatives.

On April 13, 1865, the legislature of the State of Ohio adopted the following:

Resolved by the general assembly of the State of Ohio, That the governor procure, or cause to be procured, for each veteran volunteer who reenlisted from this State under Order No. -, from the War Department in 1863, a bronze medal, 14 inches

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in diameter, containing upon one side in bold relief the following or some simila design, to wit: Ohio personified, crowning one of her soldiers with laurel; emblemwheat sheaf, eagle perched on shield bearing State arms. In the background a steamer and tented field; springing from the wand which supports the liberty cap a buckeye-leaf clasp, a plain bar on which shall be raised the laurel and buckeye. The swivel of clasp in form of a monogram U. S. Upon the reverse side to be engraved the name of the recipient. with his regiment, battalion, or battery, su rounded with a laurel wreath. The medal to be suspended by a piece of tricolore? silk ribbon, and its artistic features to be equal to the "Crimean medal." The cust not to exceed 80 cents apiece.

April 13, 1865.

On February 1, 1866, the following joint resolution was adopted by the legislature of West Virginia:

Resolved by the legislature of West Virginia, That the governor procure, or cause to be procured, suitable medals as tokens of respect to the officers and soldiers of Wes Virginia who have served during the rebellion in the service of the United States containing upon one side the name of the recipient, with his regiment, battalion, or battery, surrounded by a wreath; upon the reverse side some appropriate design and inscription. The medal to be suspended by a piece of tricolored silk ribbon; its artistic features to be equal to the Crimean medal, and its cost not to exceed $1 each. The medals and inscriptions to be of four kinds:

1. For the officers and soldiers of the Volunteer Army who have been or may be honorably discharged from the service.

2. For the officers and soldiers who have been killed in battle.

3. For the officers and soldiers who have died from wounds received in battle. 4. For the officers and soldiers who have died from diseases contracted in the service.

The medals for the officers and soldiers who have been killed in battle or who have died of wounds or disease in the service to be delivered to the families of said officers and soldiers.

Adopted, February 1, 1866.

On the 26th of May, 1891, an appropriation was made by the legis lature of Pennsylvania" for the purpose of procuring a suitable medal, with commemorative devices, for each of the surviving members, or their heirs, of the National Light Infantry, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania; the Washington Artillerists, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania; the Reading Artillery, of Reading, Pennsylvania; the Allen Rifles, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and the Logan Guards, of Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, to commemorate the event of the said five companies being the first to respond to the call for troops by President Lincoln, of date April fifteenth, one thousand eight hundred and sixtyone, mustering at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the eighteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and reached Washington, District of Columbia, and were stationed in the Capitol building for its defense on the eighteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one;" and on the 31st of May, 1893, an appropriation was made by the State legislature "for the purpose of procuring a suitable medal, with commemorative devices, for each of the surviving members, or their heirs, of the Worth Infantry and the York Rifles, of York, Pennsylvania, who went from the State of Pennsylvania into active service, fully armed and equipped, on the nineteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.

In or about the year 1896 (the exact date has not been found of record), a medal was struck, at private expense, for presentation to the survivors of the defenders of Fort Ridgely, Minn., in an engagement with hostile Indians in 1862. The medals were presented to the State, through its governor, by the committee having the matter in charge, and the State returned them to the committee for distribution.