EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 24, 1886_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
A bill which originated in the Senate, entitled "An act granting a
pension to Edward Ayers," and numbered 363, is herewith returned without
approval.
The person named in this bill enlisted October 3, 1861, in an Indiana
regiment and was mustered out of the service December 13, 1865. He
represents that he was injured in the hip at the battle of Days Gap,
April 30, 1863, and for this a pension is provided for him by the bill
under consideration. His application for pension has been rejected by
the Pension Bureau on the ground that it was proved on a special
examination of the case that the claimant was injured by a fall when a
boy, and that the injury complained of existed prior to his enlistment.
There is not a particle of proof or a fact stated either in the
committee's report or the records in the Pension Bureau, so far as they
are brought to my notice, tending to show that the claimant was in
hospital or under medical care a single day during the whole term of his
enlistment.
The report of the committee contains the following statement:
The record evidence proves that he was in this engagement, but there is
no proof from this source that he was wounded. By numerous comrades who
were present it is proven that he was hurt by the explosion of a shell
as claimed. It is also shown that he has been disabled ever since; and
the examining surgeon specifically describes the wound, and twice
verifies that he is permanently disabled. From the fact that a man was
exceedingly liable to injury under the circumstances in which he was
placed, and from the evidence of eyewitnesses, the committee are of
opinion that he was wounded as alleged.
A wound from a shell causing the person injured to be "disabled ever
since" usually results in hospital or medical treatment. Not only is
there no such claim made in this case, but, on the contrary, it appears
that the claimant served in his regiment two years and nearly eight
months after the alleged injury, and until he was mustered out.
It is represented to me by a report from the Pension Bureau that after
his alleged wound, and in May or June, 1863, the claimant deserted, and
in July of that year was arrested in the State of Indiana and returned
to duty without trial. If this report is correct, the party now seeking
a pension at the hands of the Government for disability incurred in the
service seems to have been capable of considerable physical exertion,
though not very creditable, within a few weeks after he claims to have
received the injury upon which his application is based.