in accordance with the army regulations. IX, 678, October, 1864; XXVI, 18, September, 1867; XXVIII, 239, November, 1868; XXXIV, 207, April, 1873; LII, 304. June, 1887. He is not subject to military orders in general, like an officer or soldier, but only to such orders or directions as properly pertain to the performance of his particular duties. XXVII, 242, September, 1868. He is of course not eligible for detail as a member of a military court. XXII, 542, December, 1866; XXX, 109, February, 1870. As a civilian, however, he is entitled to the per diem allowance, &c., when duly attending a court martial as a witness. XXIV, 186, January, 1867. 385. Acting assistant or contract surgeons are neither privates, non-commissioned officers nor officers. They were during the war of the rebellion and still are necessarily assimilated as to their duties, pay and status to assistant surgeons of the army. When serving with the forces in the field they are subject to military discipline and to the jurisdiction of courts martial under the provisions of the 63d Article of War. They were creatures solely of army regulations and orders, which are executive mandates wholly powerless to constitute them officers of the army. These regulations and orders could and did authorize commanders to "employ" civil or "private" physicians to render professional services in connection with the medical department of the army, but could not and did not commission or make them regular or volunteer officers. 52, 404, March, 1892: 53, 167, April, 1892; 65, 226, June, 1894; Card 1128, March, 1895. 386. As a contract surgeon was not an officer of the army, an enlisted man could legally be employed to act as one. So held that the employment by the military authorities in 1862 of a "first class musician" of the band of a volunteer regiment (an enlisted man) to act as a contract surgeon, was not illegal. 65, 250, June, 1894. 387. A contract surgeon, not being, in the legal or statutory sense, an officer of the army, held not entitled to the benefit of the act of March 3, 1885, c. 335, to provide for the settlement of claims of officers and enlisted men of the army for the loss of private property." XLIX, 246, July, 1885. 388. Held that a civilian physician, employed (between 1866 and 1868) under contract, by the "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands", was not a contract surgeon within the application of Sec. 4693, Rev. Sts., relating to pensions, inasmuch as he did not render service with a "military force in the field", or even in attend 'See U. S. r. Saunders, 120 U. S., 126, to the effect that one person may legally hold two distinct offices, places, or employments, at the same time, under the United States. 71359-09-9 ing members of the military establishment; such bureau being no part of such establishment.' 63, 97, December, 1893. 389. A contract surgeon was appointed under the provisions of the act of Congress approved May 12, 1898, and the contract provided, inter alia, that when on duty at a post or station where there are no public quarters, he shall receive the commutation for quarters allowed by law to assistant surgeons of the rank of first lieutenant." Held that commutation of quarters was "compensation" within the meaning of the said act of May 12, 1898, and could not therefore be paid in addition to the one hundred and fifty dollars per month authorized by the act. Neither the terms of the contract nor the army regulations (par. 994) could authorize what the statute law prohibited. October, 1898. Card 5142, 390. The contracts entered into with acting assistant surgeons appointed under the act of Congress approved May 12, 1898, after specifying the money compensation contain the following provision: "All of which shall be his full compensation and in lieu of all allowances and emoluments." Held, that this provision did not deprive an acting assistant surgeon of the privilege of buying fuel from the quartermaster's department as provided in par. 999 of the Army Regulations, this privilege not being an allowance or emolument. Card 4988, September, 1898. 391. A contract surgeon can not legally be compelled to remain in the service against his consent after the expiration of the term of his contract. Card 8618, July, 1900. ADJOURNMENT. 392. The adjournment from day to day of a military court is not required, by law or regulation, to be authenticated by the signatures of the president and judge-advocate. VIII, 507, June, 1864, 393. While the practice of noting the adjournment of the court at the end of the record of a trial is a usual and proper one, and is often of No specific appropriation for the pay, &c., of "contract surgeons" was made between 1891 and 1898. The act of February 12, 1895, provided however for the employment of "civil physicians" by the surgeon general But the act of May 12, 1898, provides that in emergencies the Surgeon General of the Army, with the approval of the Secretary of War, may appoint as many contract surgeons as may be necessary at a compensation not to exceed one hundred and fifty dollars per month. From 1888 to 1891 appropriations for mileage to contract surgeons was made in the annual appropriation acts, and again since 1898. That contract surgeons are not officers of the army, see 26, Ct. Cls., 302, 306; Digest Second Comp. Dec., vol. 3, secs. 929, 932; 4 Comp. Dec. 629, 631. But General Order 151, A. G. O., 1898, amending A. R., 85 (99 of 1901), relating to the burial expenses of officers of the Regular or Volunteer Army who are killed or who die in the service, was construed by the War Department, December 14, 1898, to include contract surgeons. See also circulars 41 and 55, A G. O., 1899. service in indicating the sequence of the cases tried and the course and order of the business transacted, a statement of such adjournment is not an essential part of the record of proceedings, and its omission will not affect their validity. XXIII, 627, August, 1867; XXXIII, 456, November, 1872. 394. Where the order convening a military court is in the more usual form, requiring it, generally, to try such cases as may be brought before it, an adjournment at some period of its sessions without a day fixed for its reassembling will not preclude its meeting again and continuing its sessions till its business is terminated. XXI, 91, December, 1865. 395. An adjournment "sine die" of a court martial is quite without legal significance, having no more legal effect than a simple adjournment. Such an adjournment does not dissolve the court, since a military court has no power to terminate its own existence or divest its authority. XXI, 679, November, 1866; XXVI, 588, June, 1868; XLII. 158, February, 1879. AID-DE-CAMP. 396. The aids of the General of the Army, though not holding the appointment or office of colonel of the army, are invested by law (sec. 1096, Rev. Sts.) with the rank of colonel upon their selection as aids and while acting as such. They are therefore entitled to sit upon courts-martial and boards according to this rank, as dating from their selection. XXX, 168, March, 1870. 3 397. Held (December, 1864) that the "additional aids-de-camp," authorized by the act of August 5, 1861, were a part of the regular army. They were appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and the Act creating them provided that they should bear the rank and authority of captains, majors, lieutenant colonels, or colonels of the regular army." Moreover, this act was expressly entitled as ** supplementary" to the Act to increase the military establishment of the United States, of July 29 of the same year, which provided for an increase of the regular army by the addition of new regiments. And although the act of Aug. 5, 1861, provided for the appointment of these 1 See Brown . Root, Supreme Court, D. C., 1900 (44087, Law). *A court-martial in session at a military post or station is authorized to adjourn to the quarters, at the same post or station, of a sick witness and there take his testimony, if he is in fact, as certified by the medical officer, too ill to come to the court room. See G. C. M. Ó. 37, Dept. of the East, 1870. *This ruling is adopted in the opinion of the Attorney General of August 11, 1880. Compare the opinion of the Court of Claims in Wood r. United States, 15 Ct. Cls., 151. Similarly held by the Secretary of War in the case of an aid of the Lieut. General, of the rank of lieutenant colonel, detailed upon a court martial for the trial of a cadet in 1870. aids only during the rebellion, and for their discharge when not employed in active service, and their reduction in number at the discretion of the President, yet provisions of a similar character, applicable to regular officers, are contained in sec. 6 of the principal act of July 29. It is not essential to an office in the "regular" army that its term be without statutory limit. XI, 267, December, 1864. 398. It is substantially laid down as a general rule in Circ. No. 1 A. G. O., 1883, that aids-de-camp shall be entitled to be paid as such only from the day upon which they report in person for duty. It may however be too strict to insist upon such a rule in every case, since it is possible that duty may be duly devolved upon an aid-de-camp by his General prior to his arriving and reporting at the headquarters. But exceptions to the general rule should not be admitted except where clearly justified. 61, 237, August, 1893. 399. A civilian during the war of the rebellion, while with a general officer in the Army of the Potomac, often carried messages for him, voluntarily performing the duties usually performed by an aid-decamp. Subsequently, in 1890, he asked that he be placed on the muster rolls and discharged. Held, that never having been mustered his name ought not be on the rolls. That never having been in the status of a soldier there was nothing upon which to base a discharge from such status. Adrised, that his request could not be granted. Further held, that he was not, within the meaning of the proviso of Civil Service rule X, "a person who served in the military service of the United States in the war of the rebellion and was honorably discharged therefrom." 37, 462, January, 1890. ALASKA. 400. By the treaty of cession with Russia, subjects of that nation inhabiting the Territory of Alaska at the date of the treaty and continuing to remain such inhabitants for three years, became thereupon American citizens. But the treaty neither mentions nor refers to British subjects or the subjects of any foreign nation other than Russia: such persons, therefore, residing in the Territory, can become citizens only in the mode and form prescribed by the U. S. naturalization laws. XXXVIII, 555. April, 1877. ALIEN. 401. Aliens, honorably discharged after enlisting in our army, are not, by such discharge alone, made citizens, but they are thereupon entitled (under a provision of the act of July 17, 1862, now Sec. 2166, Rev. Sts.) to be admitted to become citizens without previous declaration of intention, upon merely presenting to the proper court (see Sec. 2165, Rev. Sts.) a petition for the purpose, accompanied by proof of at least one year's residence within the United States previous to the application, of good moral character, and of the fact of honorable discharge. XXVII, 69, July, 1868; XXIX, 295, 369, September and October, 1869; XXXI, 255, March, 1871; 21, 108, December, 1887. 402. Held that Sec. 2166, Rev. Sts., did not apply to the case of an alien honorably discharged from an enlistment as a seaman in the navy; the term "armies of the United States," employed in the statute, being deemed to refer (as in the Constitution) only to the military force proper. XLI, 613, July, 1879. 403. Under the act of July 30, 1892, an enlisted man, to be eligible for promotion as commissioned officer, must be a citizen of the United States. And, in order to be promptly naturalized, under Sec. 2166, Rev. Sts., he must first be honorably discharged. So, advised that such alien, to be qualified for examination and appointment under the act, should be discharged and, after naturalization, be re-enlisted. 62, 186, October, 1893. 404. Held that there was no law precluding an alien residing in the United States, the subject of a foreign government with which we are at peace, from displaying the flag of his country on his dwelling. 15, 176, March, 1887. 405. The law does not prescribe that citizens or any other particular class of persons shall be the only competent bidders for government contracts or that aliens shall not be competent to bid. 49, 134. September, 1891. 406. On the question whether a clause be inserted in future government contracts which would prohibit the employment of aliens on government work, held, that there is no law which authorizes the insertion of such a provision in government contracts and that in the absence of such legislation the Secretary of War is without authority to require it. Card 2087, February, 1896. APPEAL. 407. Appeal, in the sense in which the term is employed in the procedure of the civil courts. is unknown to the military law. While there is such a thing as a new trial--a proceeding, however, of the rarest occurrence (see § 1796, post), -a party legally sentenced by a competent court-martial has no right of appeal to a higher or other But see now the act of August 1, 1894, regulating enlistments in the army. |