[84] That the President is authorized to enlist or organize out of troops already in the service, six regiments of volunteer engineers. That the President is authorized to enlist two additional companies, to be added to the regiment of volunteer engineers, raised under the provisions of an act approved May twentieth, 1864; and the regiment shall be considered one of the regiments authorized in the preceding section of this act. That, whenever a regiment in the regular army is reduced below the minimum number, no officer shall be appointed in such regiment beyond those necessary for the command of such reduced number. That “acting assistant surgeons” and “contract surgeons,” while in the military service of the United States, shall be exempt from all liability to be drafted. And the amendment was agreed to. On motion of Mr. Trumbull, the resolution was amended by adding as a new section: That officers by brevet in the regular army shall receive the same pay and allowances as brevet officers of the same grade or rank in the volunteer service, and no more. Mr. Sprague moved to amend it by adding an amendment in seven sections, to reorganize the pay department of the army; but it was rejected — yeas, ten; nays, nineteen. On motion of Mr. Lane, of Kansas, the resolution was amended so that, whenever the head of any bureau in the War Department accepted any position of a higher rank than that provided for by law, then he should be deemed as having vacated his position, and should be subject to detail for field and other duty. It was further amended, on the motion of Mr. Buckalew, by adding: “That where any revised enrolment in any congressional or draft district has been obtained or made prior to any actual drawing of names from the enrolment districts, the quota of such district may be adjusted and apportioned to such revised enrolment, instead of being applied to, or based upon the enrolment, as it may have stood before revision.” On motion of Mr. Grimes, the resolution was amended by adding, as a new section: That no person owing military service should be exempted from liability to perform the same on account of furnishing a substitute for the navy, unless the substitute was presented in person to the board of enrolment by which the principal was enrolled. The joint resolution, as amended, was then passed. In the House, on the third of March, Mr. Schenck, from the Military Committee, reported back the joint resolution, with an amendment to the Senate amendment; and the House proceeded to consider the resolution and the amendments. Mr. Schenck explained the proposed amendments. The Senate amendments provided that brevetted officers of the regular army should be placed on the same footing as brevetted officers of the volunteeers that were not allowed increased pay on account of brevet rank. The Military Committee of the House proposed so to amend it as to allow increased pay for brevet rank for regular and volunteer officers. The Military Committee reported in favor of authorizing the War Department to transfer officers from one branch of the service to another, and the Committee also reported in favor of repealing the seventeenth section of the act of the seventeenth of July, 1862, authorizing the President to dismiss officers without the sentence of court-martials. The Committee reported in favor of amending the Senate amendments by adding several sections of the bill passed by the House amendatory of the enrolment acts. On motion of Mr. Farnsworth, the twelfth section of the Senate amendment, introduced by Mr. Lane, of Kansas, which would have required the removal of General Meigs from the quartermaster's department, was stricken out. Mr. Holman moved an amendment to muster out soldiers with their regiments or batteries who were enlisted in 1862 and 1863, with assurances that they were only to fill the unexpired term of their regiments or batteries; and the amendment was agreed to — yeas, ninety one; nays, thirty-one. Several amendments to the Senate amendment were agreed to, and the Senate amendment as amended was adopted. The Senate non-concurred in the House amendments, asked a committee of conference, and appointed Mr. Wilson, Mr. Howard, and Mr. Buckalew managers. The House agreed to the conference, and appointed as managers on the part of the House Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, Mr. Odell, of New-York, and Mr. Scofield, of Pennsylvania. In the House, Mr. Garfield made a report from the conference committee. He stated that
the House passed, a few days ago, a joint resolution defining the pay of officers' servants. That joint resolution went to the Senate, and in its place a bill of thirteen sections was substituted. The House took that bill of thirteen sections, adopted the first eight, cut off the remaining five, and added twenty-three sections of its own. There were thirty points of difference between the two Houses. The House receded from six; the Senate receded from twenty-two; and in place of the two others, substitutes were agreed on by the committee. I will only mention the points on which the House receded, and the two modified sections, as being of interest to us. First, in reference to bounties. The House section was modified so that bounties should be paid to the heirs of soldiers who were killed in battle, though they had not served two years; and such bounties should only go to their widow, or, if there be no widow, to their children, but shall not go to the legal heirs generally. The Senate refused to agree with the House amendment repealing section seventeen of the act of July seventeenth, 1862, authorizing the President summarily to dismiss officers from the army, navy, or marine corps. But the managers of the conference on the part of the House proposed a substitute for the repealing section, by which the power of dismissal is limited and regulated. The President may still dismiss an officer; but he is required, on application, setting forth under oath that the dismissal was unjust, to order a trial of the officer by court-martial on the charges on
