anting a pension to James Butler."
This claimant was enrolled as a private in a New Hampshire regiment
August 23, 1864, but on the organization of his company, on the 12th day
of September, 1864, he was discharged on account of a fracture of his
leg, which happened on the 11th day of September, 1864.
It appears that before the organization of the company to which he was
attached, and on the 10th day of September, he obtained permission to
leave the place of rendezvous for the purpose of visiting his family,
and was to return the next day. At a very early hour in the morning,
either while preparing to return or actually on his way, he fell into a
new cellar and broke his leg. It is said that the leg fractured is now
shorter than the other.
His claim for pension was rejected in December, 1864, by the Pension
Bureau, and its action was affirmed in 1871 upon the ground that the
injury was received while the claimant was on an individual furlough,
and therefore not in the line of duty.
Considering the fact that neither his regiment nor his company had at
the time of his accident been organized, and that he was in no sense in
the military service of the United States, and that his injury was
received while on a visit, and not in the performance of duty, I can see
no pretext for allowing a pension in this case.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 23, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I hereby return without approval House bill No. 6688, entitled "An act
for the relief of William Bishop."
This claimant was enrolled as a substitute on the 25th day of March,
1865. He was admitted to a post hospital at Indianapolis on the 3d day
of April, 1865, with the measles; was removed to the City General
Hospital, in Indianapolis, on the 5th day of May, 1865; was returned to
duty May 8, 1865, and was mustered out with a detachment of unassigned
men on the 11th day of May, 1865.
This is the military record of this soldier, who remained in the Army
one month and seventeen days, having entered it as a substitute at a
time when high bounties were paid.
Fifteen years after this brilliant service and this terrific encounter
with the measles, and on the 28th day of June, 1880, the claimant
discovered that his attack of the measles had some relation to his army
enrollment and that this disease had "settled in his eyes, also
affecting his spinal column."
This claim was rejected by the Pension Bureau, and
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