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Chapter XXV.- An Act to authorize the President of the United States to accept the services of state troops and of volunteers. January 27, 1815

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized and required to receive into the service of the United States any corps of troops which may have been or may be raised, organized and officered under the authority of any of the states, whose term of service shall not be less than twelve months, which corps, when received into the service of the United States, shall be subjected to the rules and articles of war, and employed in the state raising the same, or in an adjoining state, and not elsewhere, except with the assent of the executive of the state so raising the same : Provided, That the said corps shall not contain in the whole, exclusive of officers, more than forty thousand men; and that the number to be received in any state shall not exceed the number hereby apportioned to such state; that is to say: In New Hampshire, one thousand three hundred and eighteen. In Massachusetts, four thousand three hundred and ninety- five. In Vermont, one thousand three hundred and eighteen. In hode Island, four hundred and forty. In Connecticut, one thousand five hundred and forty. In New York, five thousand nine hundred and thirty-three. In New Jersey, one thousand three hundred and eighteen. In Pennsylvania, five thousand and fifty-five. In Delaware, four hundred and forty. In Maryland, one thousand nine hundred and eighty. In Virginia, five thousand and fifty-five. In North Carolina, two thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight. In South Carolina, one thousand nine hundred and eighty. In Georgia, one thousand three hundred and eighteen. In Kentucky, two thousand one hundred and ninety-six. In Ohio, one thousand three hundred and eighteen. In Tennessee, one thousand three hundred and eighteen. In Louisiana, two hundred and twenty. And be it further provided, That in case the President of the United States shall hereafter call on the executives of the several states, to hold in readiness their respective quotas of militia for service, he shall consider the corps of state troops raised in any state, as part of the quota of such state.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the corps as aforesaid, accepted under this act, shall be armed and equipped at the expense of the United and equipped at States, and shall be entitled to the same pay, clothing, rations, forage, and emoluments of every kind, and (bounty excepted) to the same benefits and allowances, as the regular troops of the United States.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized to receive into the service of the United States, any volunteers who may offer their services, to be organized in conformity to the laws respecting the organization of the military establishment of the United States: Provided, That the whole number of such volunteers, who may be in service at any one time, exclusive of officers, shall not exceed forty thousand men.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the officers of the said volunteers shall be commissioned by the President of the United States, and while in actual service the said volunteers shall be entitled to the same pay, rations, forage, and emoluments of every kind, and (bounty excepted) to the same benefits and allowances as the regular troops of the United States, and shall be subject to the rules and articles of war.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the said volunteers may, at their option, be armed and equipped by the United States, or at their option be armed own expense; and in case they arm and equip themselves to the satisfaction of the President of the United States, they shall each be entitled to receive six and one quarter cents per day, while in actual service, for the use and risk of such arms and equipments: Provided, That the compensation thus allowed shall not in any case exceed twenty-four dollars: And provided also, That no rifle shall be received into the service of the United States, whose calibre shall be formed to carry a ball of a smaller size than at the rate of seventy balls to a pound weight.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the said volunteers, if employed in service for a term of not less than twelve months, may, at their option, be clothed at their own expense or by the United States; and in case they furnish their own clothing, they shall be entitled to receive in money a sum equal to the cost of the clothing allowed to the regular troops of the United States.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That whenever any non-commissioned officer, musician or private, having served in any of the corps of state troops or volunteers, raised by virtue of this act, during two years, or who, having engaged to serve two years, shall have been discharged in consequence of the termination of the present war, shall have obtained from the commanding officer of his company, battalion, or regiment, a certificate that he had faithfully performed his duty whilst in service, he shall be allowed, in addition to the emolument allowed in this act, one hundred and sixty acres of land: and the widow and children, and if there be no widow or child, then the parents of such non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates, as may have engaged for a term of service not less than two years, and who may be killed in action or die in the service, shall likewise be allowed the said quantity of one hundred and sixty acres of land, which shall be surveyed and granted in the manner provided by the act entitled "An act to provide for the designating, surveying and granting the military bounty lands."

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the appointment of the officers of the said volunteers, if received into the service of the United States for the term of twelve months, or for a longer term, shall be submitted to the Senate for their advice and consent, at their next session, after commissions for the same shall have been issued.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That if the whole number of forty thousand men authorized by the first section of this act, shall not be furnished by the states, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to supply the deficiency, by accepting the services of volunteers to the number of such deficiency; Provided, That the whole number of state troops and volunteers together accepted under the provisions of this act, shall not exceed eighty thousand men.

Sec 10. And be it further enacted, That the expenses incurred under this act shall be defrayed out of the appropriations which are or which may be authorized for defraying the expense of calling out the militia for the defence of the United States

APPROVED, January 27, 1815.

By James Madison

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Library of Congress