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U. States' land bounty.

1776, Sep. 16

UNITED STATES LAND-BOUNTY.

The resolutions of congress of the 16th of September, 1776, above referred to, provide for the raising of eighty-eight battalions, to serve for the war In addition to a money bounty of twenty dollars to each noncommissioned officer and private soldier, it was resolved, "that congress make provision for granting lands, in the following proportions, to the officers and soldiers who shall engage in the service, and continue therein to the close of the war, or until discharged by congress, and to the representatives of such, offi cers and soldiers, as shall be slain by the enemy.

£.

"Such lands to be provided by the United States, and whatever expense shall be necessary to procure such land, the said expense shall be paid and borne by the states, in the same proportion as the other expenses of the war, viz.

To a colonel,

To a lieutenant colonel,

To a major,

To a captain,

To a lieutenant,

To an ensign,

500 acres.

450

400

300

200

150

1776, Sep. 18

1780, Aug. 12

Each non-commissioned officer and soldier 100." On the 18th of September, 1776, the following resolutions were adopted:

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"That the bounty and grants of land offered by congress, by a resolution of the 16th instant, as an encou ragement to the officers and soldiers to engage to serve in the army of the United States during the war, shall extend to all who are, or shall be, enlisted for that terin; the bounty of ten dollars, which any of the soldiers have received from the continent, on account of a former enlistment, to be reckoned in part payment of the twenty dollars offered by the said resolution.

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"That no officer in the continental army be allowed to hold more than one commission, or to receive pay but in one capacity, at the same time.”

The resolution of the 12th of August, 1780, referred to, is in the words following:

"That the provision for granting lands, by the resolution of September 16th, 1776, be and is hereby extended to the general officers, in the following propor

tion:

Land-Boun

ties

To a major general, one thousand one hundred acres, a brigadier general, eight hundred and fifty do." With respect to the resolution of the 22d of Septem- 1780, Aug. 23 ber, 1780, the following appears on the journals of congress;

"Congress resumed the consideration of the report of the committee on the medical department; and, on the consideration of the following paragraph, viz:

That the several officers, whose pay is established as above, except the clerks and stewards, shall, at the end of the war, be entitled to a certain provision of land, in the proportion following, to wit:

"The director to have the same quantity as a brigadier general; chief physicians and purveyor, the same as a colonel; physicians and surgeons, and apothecary, the same as a lieutenant colonel; regimental surgeons and assistants to the purveyor and apothecary, the same as a major; hospital and regimental surgeons' mates, the same as a captain."

State Isnd

STATE LAND-BOUNTY. Virginia, holding immense tracts of unappropriated boundy. land, very soon adopted the idea suggested by congress, of granting land-bounties to her officers and soldiers, both on the state and continental establishments. And having it more in her power, she was more liberal than congress, in those grants.

In the preamble to an act of October, 1776, for rais- Oct. 1776, ch. ing six additional regiments (then called battalions) on 11.

the continental establishment, the resolutions of con

gress, offering a land-bounty, are recited. (See vol. 9,

2

pa. 179.) By an act of October, 1778, for speedily Oct. 1778, ch. recruiting the Virginia regiments on continental estab- 45 lishment, besides other inducements to enlist for three years, or during the war, the continental bounty of lands is expressly stipulated. (See vol. 9, pa. 588, 589.)

By act of May, 1779, chap. vi, "concerning offi- May 1779, ch. cers, soldiers, sailors, and marines," a bounty of 100 6. acres is promised to each private at the end of the war, and to the officers the like quantity as is allowed to officers of the same rank, in the Virginia regiments on continental establishment. (See vol. 10, pa. 24.) By the same law 200 acres are given to each volunteer soldier who served under Col. George Rogers Clarke, until the reduction of the posts in the Illinois country, (Ibid, pa. 26,) and to each soldier who should re-enlist VOL. XI. V 3

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Executive. By act of 1815, ch. 12, the executive are authorised to allow claims for land bounty, where satisfactory evidence is adduced that the party is entitled, which, indeed, had been the practice long before, from the impossibility of complying with the requisitions of the former law.

34, sec. 3.

soldiers.

By the act of May, 1779, ch. 13, sec. 3, referring - May, 1779, to a resolution of the General Assembly of the 19th of ch 13, sec. 3. December, 1778, a tract of country, bounded by the ch. 19, sec. 8, Green river, the Cumberland mountains, the Carolina 9, 12, 13, 14. line, the Tennesseee river and the Ohio river, was re- Oct. 1782, ch. served for the officers and soldiers. (See vol. 10, p. 55, Réservation 56.) A considerable part of this territory having fal- of lands for len into North Carolina, by the extension of the boun-officers and dary line between that state and Virginia, a further tract of land, included within the rivers Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee, and the Carolina boundary line, was substituted, by the act of November, 1781, ch. 19, sec. 8, in lieu of that so fallen into North Carolina. By the same act, sec. 9, provision is made for surveying their lands: (further provision by deputation of officers, Oct. 1783, ch. 4, ante pa. 309.)-Sec. 12, de- Rights of clares that the bounties in lands given to the officers state troops. in the Virginia line, in continental service, and the regulations for surveying, shall be extended to the state officers-Sec. 13, gives the cavalry the same advanta- Cavalry. ges as the infantry and sec. 14 entitles the officers and seamen of the navy to the same advantages as those in the land service. (See vol. 10, pa. 465, 466, 467.)But the act of Oct. 1782, (ante pa. 162) is more explicit, as to the navy, and declares that the "officers, seamen and marines, and their representatives, shall be entitled to the same bounty in lands and other emoluments as the officers and soldiers of the Virginia line on continental establishment."

The resolution of the 2d of January, 1781, for ceding the North Western Territory to the United States, provides, "That in case the quantity of good lands of the south east side of the Ohio upon the waters of Cumberland river and between the Green river and the Tennessee river, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia troops upon continental establishment, and upon their own state establishment, should (from the North Carolina line bearing in further upon the Cumberland lands than was expected) prove insufficient for their legal bounties, the deficiency shall be made up to the said troops in good lands to be laid off between the rivers Scioto and little Miamis, on the north west side of the river Ohio, in such proportions as have been engaged to them by the laws of Virginia." (See vol. 10, pa. 565.) In the copy of this resolution made for

Navy.

ties.

Land-Boun the governor, to be sent by him to our delegates in congress, the words and upon their own state establishment, it is presumed, were accidentally omitted. (See the note to page 565 of vol. 10, and the note to the deed of cession, in a subsequent part of this volume.) Oct.1779ch.9. By the act of October, 1779, chapter 9, the bounty Chaplain's, in lands, to chaplains, surgeons, and surgeon's mates, surgeons, and serving three years, or during the war, is declared to surgeon's mates. be equal to commissioned officers, receiving the same pay and rations. (See vol. 10. pa. 141.)

Oct. 1779, ch. 21, sec. 2. Quantity of land allowed officers and soldiers, in the land service and na.

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As to the quantity of land, the act of October 1779, ch. 21, sect. 2, seems to have been the first law which fixed, with precision, the proportions of the officers and soldiers; on the coutinental and state establishments, and in the navy, (See yol. 19, pa. 160.) They are as follow:

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