Report. No person to act as sutler, un not to underlet. receive presents and such changes in said place, or in the quality and character of the articles mentioned in said list or schedule, so kept as shall be required by said officer, shall be conformed to by each sutler and such officer shall report each inspection to the inspector-generals. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That no person shall less, &c., and only be permitted to act as sutler unless appointed according for one regiment, to the provisions of this act; nor shall any person be Officer not to sutler for more than one regiment; nor shall any sutler from sutler. farm out or underlet the business of sutling or the privileges granted to him by his appointment; nor shall any officer of the Army receive from any sutler any money or other presents; nor be interested in any way in the stock, trade, or business of any sutler; and any officer receiving such presents, or being thus interested, directly or indirectly, shall be punished at the discretion of a court-martial. No sutler shall sell to an enlisted man on credit to a sum exceeding one-fourth of his monthly pay within the same month; nor shall the regimental quartermasters allow the use of Army wagons for sutlers' purposes; nor shall the quartermasters' conveyances be used for the transportation of sutlers' supplies. Sutlers violating this act to be dismissed, &c. Office of sutler abolished. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That any sutler who shall violate any of the provisions of this act shall, by the colonel, with consent of the council of administration, be dismissed from the service, and be ineligible to a reappointment as sutler in the service of the United States. Approved, March 19, 1862. [14 Stat. L., p. 336.] [Extract from an act to increase and fix the military peace establishment of the United States.] SEC. 25. And be it further enacted, That the office of sutler in the Army and at military posts is hereby abolished, and the Subsistence Department is hereby authorized and required to furnish such articles as may from time to time be designated by the inspectors-general of the Army, the same to be sold to officers and enlisted men at cost prices, and if not paid for when purchased a true account thereof shall be kept, and the amount due the Government shall be deducted by the Paymaster at the To take effect payment next following such purchase: Provided, That this section shall not go into effect until the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. July 1, 1867. Approved, July 28, 1866. NOTE.-Section 25, act approved July 28, 1866, abolished the office of sutler, the act to go into effect July 1, 1867, the Commissary-General of Subsistence being authorized and required to furnish the requisite articles at cost price. This act was not enforced for the reason that no special appropriation was made by Congress to enable the Subsistence Department to carry into effect the act in question. October 24, 1867, instructions were given from the War Department that the stoppage of pay from enlisted men in favor of the sutler was no longer allowable, and the practice of entering upon the descriptive and pay rolls the amounts due him should be discontinued. [General orders, Headquarters of the Army, in reference to sutlers.] GENERAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, So much of Paragraph II, General Orders, No. 6, dated War Department, January 26, 1867, as is inconsistent with the following is, by direction of the Secretary of War, revoked: The Commissary-General of Subsistence having reported that no special appropriation has been made by Congress to enable the Subsistence Department to carry into effect section 25 of the act of Congress approved July 28, 1866, which abolishes the office of sutler and requires said Department to furnish for sale to cfficers and soldiers such articles (heretofore supplied by sutlers) as may be designated by the inspectors-general of the Army and in view of the large expenditure of funds necessary to furnish such supplies and the delay which must ensue before an appropriation can be made for this purpose, it is ordered: That the sutlers at military posts on the frontier, not in the vicinity of any city or town, and situated between the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich and the eastern boundary of the State of California, shall, after the 1st of July, 1867, be retained until further orders as traders at such military posts, under the resolution of Congress approved March 30, 1867, authorizing the Commanding-General of the Army to permit traders to remain at certain military posts. Should the commanding officer of any post included in this order consider the present sutler of his post an unfit person to hold the office of trader, he will forward a report to that effect, through intermediate commanders, to these headquarters. By command of General Grant: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. [General Orders, War Department, in reference to sutlers.] GENERAL ORDERS, No. 59. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, May 30, 1867. Whereas it appears from a report of the CommissaryGeneral of Subsistence, that to carry out the provisions of section 25 of the act approved July 28, 1866, entitled "An act to increase and fix the military peace establishment of the United States"--which section requires the Subsistence Department to furnish certain articles hitherto sold by sutlers at military posts-will involve the immediate outlay of a large amount of subsistence funds for which no return can be realized for many months; and Whereas no appropriation of funds has been made for that purpose, and the funds appropriated for the subsistence of the Army can not be diverted from their specific purpose without damage to the public service: It is therefore Ordered, That Paragraph II, General Orders, No. 6, dated War Department, January 26, 1867, terminating the warrants of all sutlers on the 1st day of July, 1867, be revoked, and sutlers will be permitted to trade with the troops, under the regulations relating to sutlers now in existence, until further orders. By order of the Secretary of War: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. be permitted to and be deemed as [15 Stat. L., p. 29.] A RESOLUTION To_authorize the Commanding General of the Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Traders may That the Commanding General of the Army shall be remain at certain authorized to permit a trading establishment to be mainmilitary posts, tained after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and camp followers. sixty-seven, at any military post on the frontier, not in the vicinity of any city or town, and situated at any point between the one-hundredth meridian of longitude, west from Greenwich, and the eastern boundary of the State of California, when, in his judgment, such establishment is needed for the accommodation of emigrants, freighters, and other citizens: Provided, That after the Comgoods to enlisted missary Department shall be prepared to supply stores to soldiers, as required by law, no trader permitted to remain at such post shall sell any goods kept by the Commissary Department to any enlisted men: And provided further, That such traders shall be under protection and military control as camp followers. Such traders not to sell certain men, after, &c. Approved, March 30, 1867. [Circular, Headquarters of the Army, in reference to sutlers or traders.] [CIRCULAR.] HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, August 22, 1867. The intent of General Orders No. 68, of July 19, 1867, is to enable department commanders, if they deem it advisable, to permit the formation of settlements on the military reservations therein designated, by giving un limited permission to traders to open establishments thereon. They may, therefore, at their discretion, restrict the number of traders to one, or to any greater number. In all cases, however, when permission to trade is given, a written agreement, containing proper stipulations, must be taken from the trader; and explicit provision must be made therein that no right or title, expressed or implied, to ownership or permanent occupation, is given to any part of the Military Reservation by the permission to trade thereon. By command of General Grant. E. D. TOWNSEND, TRADE REGULATIONS RELATING TO SUTLERS. [Extract from trade regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury and approved by President Lincoln for the government of the limited commercial intercourse licensed by the President between the citizens of loyal States and the inhabitants of States and parts of States heretofore declared to be in insurrection, as revised and published September 11, 1863.] XXIV. Permits will be granted to sutlers to transport to the regiments sutlered by them such articles as they are authorized to sell, free of the five per cent fee; but no permit will be granted to a sutler except on presentation to the proper permit officer of the original certificate of his appointment from the commanding officer of his regiment, countersigned by the division commander thereof, and an application and affidavit in the form prescribed. Transportation shall not be permitted to any sutler for an amount of goods exceeding $2,500 per month, nor for over two months' supply at one time, nor for any goods except such as he is by law and War Department orders allowed to deal in. TEXAS, DEPREDATIONS COMMITTED BY INDIANS JOINT RESOLUTION Appointing commissioners to inquire into Whereas there are complaints of many depredations Preamble. having been committed for several years past upon the frontiers of the State of Texas, by bands of Indians and Mexicans who crossed the Rio Grande river into the State of Texas, murdering the inhabitants or carrying them into captivity, and destroying or carrying away the property of the citizens of said State; as also that bands of Indians have committed and continue to commit like depredations on the property, lives, and liberty of the citizens along the northern and northwestern frontiers of said State: Therefore, depredations Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Commissioners That the President of the United States be, and he is to be appointed to inquire into hereby, authorized and empowered to appoint three percommitted by sons to act as commissioners to inquire into the extent Indians, &c. and character of said depredations, by whom committed, their residence, or country inhabited by them, the persons murdered or carried into captivity, the character and value of the property destroyed or carried away, from what portions of said State, and to whom the same belonged. upon frontiers of Texas; To proceed to the frontiers, and testimony; SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of said commissioners, after notice take or a majority of them, as soon as practicable, to proceed to the frontiers of said State and take the testimony, under oath, of such witnesses as may appear before them, after having given notice for ten days previous, by publication in the nearest newspaper, of the time and place of their meeting, of all such depredations, when, where, by, and upon whom committed, and shall make up and transmit to the President full reports of their said investigations. Their pay and expenses. SEC. 3. That said commissioners shall be entitled to and receive as compensation for their services the sum of ten dollars per day each, and their travelling expenses to each, for and during the time they shall be engaged Appropriation. in said service; and the sum of six thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, to pay the expenses of said investigation and said commissioners. See 1873, Ch. 20. Approved, May 7, 1872. NOTE. This commission was known as the "Robb Commission,' or the Texas Frontier Commission. (Report of Library of the State Department, 1872, 63 pages. See House Document No. 257, Fortythird Congress, first session.) |