EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 19, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I hereby return without approval House bill No. 1990, entitled "An act
granting a pension to John Hunter."
The claimant was enrolled July 20, 1864, and was discharged by
expiration of his term of service July 13, 1865.
During four months of the twelve while he remained in the service he is
reported as "absent sick." His hospital record shows that he was treated
for intermittent fever and rheumatism. In 1879, fourteen years after his
discharge, he filed his claim for a pension, alleging that in May, 1864,
he received a gunshot wound in the right leg while in a skirmish. The
month of May, 1864, is included in the time during which, by the record,
he appears to have been absent sick and undergoing treatment for fever
and rheumatism. His claim was rejected in December, 1884, on the ground
that there was no record of the alleged wound and the claimant was
unable, though aided by the Bureau, to prove that the injury claimed was
due to the service.
The evidence recited in the report of the Congressional committee to
whom this bill was referred, though it tends to show, if reliable, that
when the soldier returned from his service his leg was affected, fails
to show a continuous disability from that cause. It is stated that about
five years ago, while the claimant was gathering dandelions, in stepping
across a ditch his leg broke. The doctor who attended him states that
the leg was about four weeks longer in uniting than is usual, but he is
not represented as giving an opinion that the fracture had anything to
do with his patient's military service.
I find no reference to his condition since his recovery from the
fracture of his leg, and there seems to be no allegation of present
disability either from army service or the injury sustained while
gathering dandelions.