REVISED REGULATIONS FOR THE PAY DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY. 1. The troops will be paid in such manner that the arrears shall at no time exceed two months, unless the circumstances of the case render it unavoidable, which the paymaster charged with the payment shall promptly report to the Paymaster General. 2. The Paymaster General shall take care, by timely remittances, that the paymasters have the necessary funds to pay the troops, and shall notify the remittances to the paymasters and commanding officers of the respective pay districts. 3. The payments, except to officers and discharged soldiers, shall be made on muster and pay rolls; those of companies and detachments, signed by the company or detachment commander; of the hospital, signed by the surgeon; and all muster and pay rolls, signed by the mustering and inspecting officer. 4. When a company is paraded for payment, the officer in command of it shall attend at the pay-table. 5. When a receipt on a pay-roll or account is not signed by the hand of the party, the payment must be witnessed. The witness to be a commissioned officer when practicable. 6. Officers are paid on certified accounts, as in Form 3; discharged soldiers, on accounts according to Form 5, and certificates, Form 4. An officer retiring from service must make affidavit to his pay account, and to the certificate annexed to it, and state his place of residence, and the date when his resignation or removal takes effect. Pay accounts of post chaplains are to be certified by the commanding officer of the post. 7. When an officer is dismissed from the service, he shall not be entitled to pay beyond the day on which the order announcing his dismissal is received at the post where he may be stationed, unless a particular day beyond the time is mentioned in the order. 8. No officer shall receive pay for two staff appointments for the same time. 9. Officers are entitled to pay from the date of the acceptance of their appointments, and from the date of promotion. 10. No account of a restored officer for time he was out of service can be paid, without order of the War Department. 11. As far as practicable, officers are to draw their pay from the paymaster of the district where they may be on duty. 12. No officer shall pass away or transfer his pay account not actually due at the time; and when an officer transfers his pay account, he shall report the fact to the Paymaster General, and to the paymaster expected to pay it. 13. No person in the military service, while in arrears to the United States, shall draw pay. When the Secretary of War shall find, by report of the Comptroller of the Treasury, or otherwise, that an officer of the army is in arrears to the United States, the Paymaster General shall be directed to stop his pay to the amount of such arrears, by giving notice thereof to the paymasters of the army, and to the officer, who may pay over the amount to any paymaster. And no paymaster shall make to him any payment on account of pay until he exhibits evidence of having refunded the amount of the arrears, or that his pay accrued and stopped is equal to it, or until the stoppage is removed by the Paymaster General. 14. Officers having brevet commissions are entitled to their brevet pay and emoluments when on duty and having a command according to their brevet rank, and at no other time. (Act April 16, 1818.) 15. Officers are on duty and have a command according to their brevet rank only when assigned to their brevet rank by the President with the appropriate actual command composed of different corps, or when serving on detachments composed of different corps, with such appropriate command. But in the regiment, troop, or company, to which officers belong, they do duty and draw pay according to the commissions by which they are mustered in their own corps. 16. The following are the appropriate commands for each grade: 1. For a captain, at least a company. 2. For a major, at least 2 companies. 3. For a lieutenant colonel, at least four companies. 7. For a lieutenant general, 8 regiments or 80 companies. 17. Officers charging brevet pay will state on their pay accounts the regiments and companies composing their commands. 18. Double rations are allowed to the major general commanding the army, and to every officer commanding in chief a separate army actually in the field; to the generals commanding the eastern and western geographical divisions; to the Quartermaster General and the Adjutant General; to the colonels or other officers commanding military geographical departments. 19. Commanding officers of companies will not forfeit the allowances to which they are entitled by reason of such command when temporarily absent on duty, provided the absence is less than one month. 20. No officer or soldier shall receive pay or allowances for any time during which he was absent without leave, unless a satisfactory excuse for such absence be rendered to his commanding officer, evidence of which, in case of an officer, shall be annexed to his pay account. 21. Every deserter shall forfeit all pay and allowances due at the time of desertion. Stoppages and fines shall be paid from his future earnings, if he is apprehended and continued in service and if they are adjudged by a court-martial; otherwise, from his arrears of pay. 22. No deserter shall receive pay before trial, or till restored to duty without trial by the authority competent to order the trial. 23. In case of a soldier's death, desertion, or discharge without pay, or the forfeiture of his pay by sentence of court-martial, the amount due the laundress and sutler will be noted on the muster-roll. 24. The extra pay allowed to soldiers acting as cooks and nurses in hospitals will be paid by the Pay Department. Such extra services will be noted on the hospital muster-rolls, and for the sums thus expended the Pay Department will be reimbursed by the Medical Department. 25. When an improper payment has been made to any enlisted soldier, and disallowed in the settlement of the paymaster's accounts, the paymaster may report the fact to the commander of the company in which the soldier is mustered, who will note on the muster-rolls the amount to be stopped from the pay of the soldier, that it may be refunded to the paymaster in whose accounts the improper payment has been disallowed. 26. Authorized stoppages to reimburse the United States, as for loss or damage to arms, equipments, or other public property; for extra issues of clothing; for the expense of apprehending deserters, or to reimburse individuals (as the paymaster, laundress, &c.); forfeitures for desertion, and fines by sentence of court-martial, will be entered on the roll and paid in the order stated. 27. The paymaster will deduct from the pay of all enlisted men twelve and a half cents per month for the support of the "Soldiers' Home," and also the amount of the authorized stoppages entered on the muster-roll, descriptive list, or certificate of discharge. 28. The additional pay of two dollars a month to a private soldier in virtue of a certificate of merit, (Act March 3, 1847,) commences at the date of the service for which the certificate is given, and continues while he remains a private soldier, if he has been continuously in service, or has a certificate of merit given for service in the war with Mexico. (Act August 4, 1854.) 29. Non-commissioned officers who were recommended by the commanding officer of their regiment for promotion by brevet for distinguished service in the war with Mexico, and not promoted, receive two dollars a month additional pay, while in service as non-commissioned officers. (Act August 4, 1854.) 30. The muster-rolls are to embrace all the data necessary to insure justice to the soldier, and to guide the paymaster in making his payments. Thus, when a man is entitled to the benefits of the 2d section of the Act of August 4, 1854, the following remark should be placed opposite his name: "$2 pr. mo. for 1st re-enlistment." If he be entitled to $1 additional for re-enlisting subsequent to its date, the remark will then be, "$3 pr. mo. for 2d re-enlistment;" for a third re-enlistment, $4 pr. mo. for 3d re-enlistment," &c. For soldiers 66 |